Websites .ORG
The Non-Profit Look of the Internet
Allow us to tell you a little about .org websites.
.org is a generic top-level domain. You could abbreviate that as gTLD. When speaking, you could pronounce this as "dot-org". This is generally how it is referred to.
What is a .org?
Well, a .org refers to one of the original top-level domains. Originally, it was intended to categorize organizations or clients that could not be grouped into other gTLDs. Today, it is understood that a .org represents a non-profit and a non-governmental site. It can also represent personal sites or open-source projects. However, there are cases in which the .org domain is used by commercial entities.
However, broadly speaking, .org domain mainly deals with active miscellaneous organizations that do not fit into other domain categories.
.org was established in the January of 1985. It is possible for anyone to register for a .org domain, especially if it is intended for individuals. Some alternatives of such domain names for individuals are .name and .info.
The association of .org TLD by the Public Interest Registry (PIR) is particularly important. The PIR is a non-profit organization that was created by the Internet Society in 2002. One of its main purposes was to manage the .org top-level domain.
The .org domain was initially operated by VeriSign. Later, in January 2003, the PIR took over its operation and has been operated by it since.
Registering .org Domains
Anyone can register a .org domain. However, many countries have a particular country code top-level domain (TLD). It is used and reserved for corresponding countries or dependent territories. They are usually two letters long. For example, it could be .uk for the United Kingdom, or .ca or .au. They always correspond to the ISO 3166-1 standard for country codes. This country code is used to create a second-level domain. For example, if the country code TLD, or (ccTLD), of a particular nation is xx, the second-level domain would therefore be registered as .org.xx or .or.xx.
.org Registry
Another .org lane that we should look at, is that of the .org "registry". This registry is known as the master database of all domain names registered in .org. This means that this registry has an operator and can produce a "zone file" that will allow computers to route Internet traffic to and from .org domains. Hence, it is possible to access domains that are created anywhere around the world.
To register with the registry operator, all users need to do is register their names in .org, using an ICANN-Accredited Registrar.
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The Open Source Advantage
One of the greatest advantages of the .org domain is that it is considered to be part of the free software or the "open source" movement. This means that they would implement practices in production and development that could be used to create end-products that can be freely accessed by anyone.
A domain that does not go by the open source policy is the .com. .com domains are usually used by companies. This means that the organization that owns the domain does not do so for non-profit purposes. .com organizations have a clear intent of commercial profit.
What's all the ".org transition" talk?
As we discussed earlier, when the responsibility of taking over operations of .org from VeriSign Global Registry Services happened in January 2003, all the parties involved in the so-called transition had to agree upon a phase-in period of 25 days to make the transition smooth. This however, did not affect Internet users at all, and all web and e-mail interaction took place absolutely normally, as it did earlier.
.org web sites are a really good way of creating an impression over the Internet for individuals who want to do so for non-profit and personal purposes.
