This section describes in detail how Global Name Registry will differentiate .org from other gTLDs via a series of product, service and marketing initiatives, which capitalize on the strengths of the core partner organizations that have come together to support this proposal.

There are eight key initiatives that Global Name Registry proposes to address the needs of the community segments, help to build community capital and increasing differentiation of the .org space:

1. Commit up to 15% revenues derived from .org registrations to worthy projects

2. Commit to domain price reduction

3. Repurpose .org domains amongst corporates (in association with IFRC)

4. Implement an ongoing research program to establish .org community needs and assess value of new initiatives and introduce the .orgcentre - providing open resources for the .org community

5. Develop a new fund created for the .org community – The Causeway Community Foundation

6. Adopt the .org charter

7. Develop a strong .org vision

8. Develop a strong brand positioning

These initiatives will deliver the following benefits:

· Develop a clear differentiation for .org versus other gTLDs

· Reduce churn and increased participation within the .org community

· Increase average length of registrations

· Promote growth in the use of .org

· Repurpose the use of .org, especially amongst corporates

· Immediately introduce cost advantage for registrars

· Improve competition amongst gTLDs, registries and registrars

· Commit substantial support for worthy projects, both inside and outside .org

C38.1 Vision

Before explaining the Global Name Registry vision for .org it is important to understand the background and history of the TLD.

C38.1.1 Background

Development of purpose:

The vision and purpose of the .org domain space has evolved considerably since the development of the domain name system in 1983. The original set of five general purpose top level domains were as follows:

Table 1:gTLD activity descriptions

*gTLD*	*Description of activity*
GOV	Government, any government related domains meeting the second level requirements
EDU	Education, any education related domains meeting the second level requirements
COM	Commercial, any commercial related domains meeting the second level requirements.
MIL	Military, any military related domains meeting the second level requirements.
ORG	Organization, any other domains meeting the second level requirements.

In October 1994 Jon Postel published his description of the purpose of .org in “Domain Name System Structure”, in which he believed that it is best described as the “none of the above” domain, those domains which did not fall within .com, .gov, .edu, .net, .edu, .mil or .int.

Since then we have the use of many more gTLDs, each of which has been created with an inherent purpose described in its title, many of which are designed specifically for commercial use:

Table 2 : More recently introduced gTLDs

*gTLD*	*Activity*
AERO	Air transport industry
BIZ	Businesses
COOP	Cooperatives
INFO	Unrestricted use (information)
MUSEUM	Museums
NAME	Individuals
PRO	Accountants, lawyers, physicians and other professionals

For many years the .org domain space has suffered from a lack of strong vision and purpose and has consequently created a patchwork of self-selecting inhabitants, happily living together to fulfill the purpose they choose.

This community is rich in its diversity and is home to all types of institutions, not just (what most would describe as) non-commercial entities. Each has its right to belong in the .org space; many inhabitants share common views, and many have opposing views within common topics.

The top ten segments within .org by number of sites are:

	*Community description*
1.	Local communities
2.	Religious communities
3.	Special interests and “soap-box” sites
4.	Health and science
5.	Arts and culture
6.	Computing
7.	Charities
8.	Sports and hobbies
9.	Compassionate corporations
10.	Professional communities

The single strongest strand that unites the majority is the belief that .org space is predominantly non-commercial (recognizing that some members have commercial interests, often reflected in other TLDs that they own), an area where the constituents can illustrate their social responsibility, an area in which constituents create their Community Capital.

A recently published Names Council view for the new registry stated: “The .org registry should be operated for the benefit of the worldwide community of organizations, groups, and individuals engaged in non-commercial communication via the Internet.”[1]

This was met in some quarters with considerable controversy. Many were concerned that restrictions would be imposed on prospective registrants and that existing domain owners may be evicted and have to find a new home.

Importantly however, this application supports ICANN’s current view and therefore:

· It is not intended that any restriction will be imposed on any existing or future members; there will be no eligibility requirements.

· Rather, the .org community itself will self-determine its inhabitants; not by restrictive practice but by promoting a new, stronger vision, giving a clear expression of the .org community and its values. Values that unite members from all groups.

· Global Name Registry and its partners will heavily promote that new vision.

C38.1.2 The Partnership with Purpose

This application has incorporated the views contemplated by ICANN, canvassed and acknowledged the views of the existing .org owners and considered the views of the Internet community.

Following this, we have created a unique and powerful partnership of expert organizations to develop and deliver the new vision and purpose for the .org gTLD.

Figure 1 :The .org partnership

Global Name Registry and The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, supported by a network of world leading partners - working together to submit a clear vision for the future .org space.

C38.1.3 The new .org vision

Firstly, prior to setting out the “new vision,” it is important to restate a few of the fundamental principles under which this vision is made.

The Vision:

· Imposes no eligibility requirements or restrictions

· Is open to all who choose to accept .org

· Encourages diverse views

· Encourages debate

· Promotes a shared philosophy

In setting out this vision, Global Name Registry understands and adopts the premise that all existing registrants will be welcomed and equally served and that all new registrants will be accepted without eligibility restrictions.

The .org community vision

The vision Global Name Registry has developed for the .org space has been articulated in an attached flash presentation[2], and in the slides below.

The .org community vision (cont’d.)

C38.2 The current composition of the .org domain space

Q. Who lives in .org?

A. A wide and diverse collection of communities:

The seven advertising examples that follow illustrate how the .org domain space can reach out to 2,500,000 to 3,000,000 .org owners and tens of millions of Internet users worldwide. These examples are used for illustrative purposes only and in no way convey any partnership or affiliation with the organizations mentioned.

HOW THE INUIT

PRESERVE THEIR CULTURE

WITHOUT WORKING THEIR

FINGERS TO THE BONE

HOW A MUSEUM KEEPS

VISITORS, MANAGER AND

PATRONS HAPPY WITHOUT

IT TURNING INTO A

THREE RING CIRCUS

HOW THE SCOUTS

SHARPENED THEIR FINANCES

WITHOUT NEEDING

A HANDOUT

HOW A CHURCH

HELPED ITS

OVERSEAS MEMBERS TO

SEE THE LIGHT

HOW IBM RESEARCH’S

DEVELOPERS

TUNED BIG BLUE INTO

RED, WHITE AND BLUE

HOW A DOCTOR IN NEWARK

HELPS FOOTBALLERS

IN SCOTLAND

WITHOUT BURNING THE

MIDNIGHT OIL

HOW A LOBBYIST

GAINED 10,000 SIGNATURES

WITHOUT A SOAPBOX

Figure 2 :The creative executions above illustrate how .org communities can invest in and benefit from each other

(The following is an extract from a more detailed segmentation analysis, which can be found in Section VII C35)

Segmentation

Global Name Registry has used The Open Directory Project’s database of 118,000 unique, active .org sites as a basis for segmenting the constituency. The Open Directory database provides a representative, 5% sample of the 2.3 million active registrations on .org. The segmentation has been done in two ways: firstly, in terms of site type (e.g. charity or local community sites) and, secondly, in terms of country of origin.

Global Name Registry has identified ten major site segments within .org.

These are:

1. Local communities

2. Religious communities

3. Special interest and “soap box” sites

4. Health and science

5. Arts and culture

6. Computing

7. Charities

8. Sports and hobbies

9. Compassionate corporations

10.Professional communities and unions

Other types of sites which are represented within .org, but which have not been included in Global Name Registry’s main segmentation include adult sites, history and reference sites, and more-commercial sites.

An analysis of the relative importance of these segments on .org, in terms are registrars sites, is shown below. Note the importance of local communities and religious communities.

Figure 3 : Pie chart of the breakdown of the .org space by segment

Comparing the relative sizes of key site segments on .org, .com and .net, we see that .org holds over 40% of the total number of charity, religious and special interest sites. However, less than 5% of business, adult and shopping sites can be found on .org.

Figure 4 : Comparison of the relative sizes of key segments on .org, .com and .net

This segmentation illustrates some important features of the sites that make up the constituency of .org:

· They often are the online point of presence for communities, clubs, groups and societies that are predominantly offline entities

· An important feature of .org sites is that they are often nodes within an interlinked network of communities. It is the rich fabric of this interlinked network that creates the “community capital” that makes .org such an important TLD

· As opposed to .com sites which often are concerned with “one-to-many” transaction, .org sites are about community identity, information dissemination and fostering collaboration (both online and offline). These sites are “few-to-few” in nature. Even in the case of the “soap box” site belonging to a single person, .org is about self-expression for the greater good.

C38.3 Meeting the needs and wants

What will Global Name Registry do to meet the needs of these segments?

The existing .org space comprises an enormous number of very diverse types of .org registrant and site type. (For a detailed discussion of the .org segmentation please reference C35: Who comprises the .org population?)

This large number of diverse organizations comprises an equally enormous number of diverse needs, which vary depending on the organizational type, structure, mood and mode of operation, the community type, it strategies and goals and their stage of site and community evolution.

.org will differentiate itself from the other, commercial TLDs, as the home of these diverse communities representing their non-commercial mood and mode.

.org will differentiate itself through eight key initiatives that are proposed to address the needs of the community segments, help to build community capital and increase differentiation of the .org space:

1. Commit 15% revenues derived from .org registrations to worthy projects

2. Commit to domain price reduction

3. Repurpose .org domains amongst corporates (in association with IFRC)

4. Implement an ongoing research program to establish .org community needs and assess value of new initiatives and introduce the .orgcentre - providing open resources for the .org community

5. Develop a new fund created for the .org community – The Causeway Community Foundation

6. Adopt the .org charter

7. Develop a strong .org vision

8. Develop a strong brand positioning

More details on each of these key initiatives follow.

C38.3.1 Global Name Registry ongoing contribution to worthy projects

“A continued financial contribution for the benefit of all .org communities”

As part of our strategy to grow, repurpose and differentiate the .org TLD, Global Name Registry will commit to give money from the new .org registry operations to worthy projects from “day 1”.

For the entire period of .org registry operation, Global Name Registry will direct 10% of all revenues it receives from .org registrations and re-registrations to be put back into the community by way of a donation to non profit causes: 5% to the newly created .orgcentre and 5% to the newly created Causeway Community Foundation.

The .orgcentre will be established within six months of the start of registry operations.

It is anticipated that The Causeway Community Foundation will be launched one year following the registry handover. During this time, Global Name Registry will accrue funds for donation to the Causeway Community Foundation at the point of launch.

In addition to the 10% for the .orgcentre and Causeway Community Foundation, Global Name Registry will donate 5% of revenues directly to International Federation for Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (the “IFRC”) for the first two years of operation while the .orgcentre Causeway Community Foundation are being established and become fully operational.

Global Name Registry has chosen the IFRC as the beneficiary of these funds because of its fit with the principles and vision of the new .org: having truly global reach (over 181 countries), being a non-governmental organization, having unique status has a humanitarian organization (established by The Geneva Convention), engaging unparalleled support (over 97 million volunteers worldwide), and helping a broad range of people and communities in crisis.

In addition, the IFRC is globally respected and recognized, (the third most recognized symbol in the world).

With respect to .org specifically, IFRC will play an integral role in repurposing .org, which is key to the Global Name Registry .org vision.

Figure 5 : A graphic which illustrates how Global Name Registry might communicate its financial commitment on all its communications

C38.3.2 Price Reductions (up to 42%)

Global Name Registry believes that price decreases are an important part of encouraging competition, ensuring best value for registrars and registrants and creating differentiation.

We propose to introduce price reductions in two areas:

1. price reduction for longer term registrations

2. price reduction based on increased registry volumes

1. Longer term registrations

Global Name Registry will introduce a discounting system based on the length of registration. One-year registrations will be priced the same as VeriSign’s current service at six dollars a year, but ten-year registrations will be subject to a 33% discount and will only cost four dollars ($4.00) a year. This incentivization of long-term registrations will help to extend the average life of .org users, increase margins for registrars, and it should lead to price savings for .org registrants. It is expected that due to this discounting system the average price of a yearly registration will drop to around $4.75.

Figure 6 : The proposed reduction in .org prices determined by the length of registration

2. Registry volumes

Secondly, Global Name Registry will introduce a price reduction scheme based on volumetric targets. Prices will be reduced when registrations reach the 2.5 million, 4 million and 6 million mark with a total possible price drop of 13%, from today’s $6.00 to a price as low as $5.20.

As can be seen, if at the point of registry handover in January 2003 the active registration pool exceeds 2.5 million, Global Name Registry will be in a position to effect an immediate price decrease of 90 cents on the current registrar price.

The combination of these two initiatives provides substantial reductions in the average price for a registered name. If the average length of registration goes up to 3 or 4 years from today’s 1.9 years (according to the Morgan Stanley Equity Research report on VeriSign on Sept 21, 2001), due to the discounts on longer term registrations, the price will go down from today’s $6.00 to $4.12 (33%).

These pricing initiatives will lead to improvements in reseller margins, leading to a more motivated, competitive reseller environment. In the long-term Global Name Registry hopes that some of these price advantages will be passed onto the end-user, thereby making .org more competitive against other TLDs for “floating” registrants who do not feel any particular affinity to a particular TLD.

See Section C26 for a detailed description of pricing policy.

C38.3.3 Repurposing .org domains amongst corporates

Statement of repurpose

Many commercial companies and organizations own their .org domain which is identical to their .com domain (and others).

Recent evidence from a survey conducted by Legg Mason within the S&P top 600 found that multiple TLD registrations were commonplace for brand protection:

Source : Legg Mason New Domain name survey. Total number of responses in the question :55

Figure 7 :Question : In which domains has your company registered names?

100% had dot-com domain names, 67% had dot-net domain names, 64% had dot-org domain names, 51% had country-code domains, and 17% specified other domains, such as dot-cc, dot-tv, dot-ws, and even New.net extensions such as dot-tech, and dot-inc. While it was not surprising that dot-com had the highest percentage, we were a bit surprised to see dot-org was about even with dot-net. Overall, we believe the results validate our reasoning that companies look to protect their identities and brands in multiple domains.[3]

Furthermore, it is not uncommon for large commercial organizations to hold a large number of multiple TLDs:

Global Name Registry holds the view that, particularly for larger organizations, registering their .org for brand protection alone is a missed opportunity for these companies.

It is clear that these commercial organizations are welcome in the .org community – in fact .org represents their opportunity to illustrate to their audiences how their activities and policies benefit their communities.

The new .org vision gives new purpose to commercial organizations.

The following are simple examples of creative executions, which could be used to help persuade commercial organizations to showcase their activities in their .org space, illustrating how and why commercial companies should consider repurposing their .org domain.

Figure 8 : Illustrative campaign promoting repurposing of .org

How International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies will support this repurposing initiative.

This proposal is supported by the IFRC, which maintains relationships with thousands of influential corporates in 178 countries around the world.

The IFRC represented by the British Red Cross for the purpose of coordinating support.

See attached letters of support from the Federation and the British Red Cross.

As part of its support for this application, the Red Cross has agreed to use its corporate relationships and vast sales and marketing skills to propose this repurposing to corporates globally.

*Corporate*	*Nature of relationship*
*Royal & SunAlliance*	A major international, strategic five year partnership with the Red Cross in 23 countries
*GlaxoSmithKline*	A major supporter of international work, particularly HIV/AIDS
*Unilever/Lever Fabergé*	A major long-term relationship, manifesting itself in UK, Ireland, Italy and Germany, with more countries to follow
BP	A long-term supporter of British Red Cross Society work and strategic partner to IFRC.
*Virgin*	A new relationship developing with both Virgin Group and Virgin Mobile, driven forward by Richard Branson.
*Nestlé*	A close partner of the Federation and supporter of BRCS events and programs
*Coinstar*	A major US (Nasdaq-listed) coin collection company now developing a relationship with UK supermarkets and UK charities including the British Red Cross
*Deutsche Bank*	A relationship developing around sponsorship of prestige BRCS events
*AstraZeneca*	Have supported BRCS for 10+ years, sponsors of the Humanity Awards and major international projects (e.g. Tuberculosis)
*Tesco*	UK's largest supermarket has been a long-term major supporter of British Red Cross emergency appeals.
*Red Cross’s other significant relationships include:* · Barclays Bank · Lastminute.com · Littlewoods (lottery scratchcards) · The Corporation of London · Waitrose · John Lewis · Marks & Spencer · B&Q

Table 3 :Examples of IFRC global corporate relationships

In addition to this worldwide corporate program, the British Red Cross, on behalf of the International Federation will promote this vision where appropriate within its other spheres of influence, for example amongst the wider charity communities and national and international institutions.

The IFRC has already solicited support from a number of international corporations who have endorsed this principle and the new vision of the .org space. Examples of companies that have already submitted written support (included here) are:

· NFP Synergy

· Ogilvy & Mather

· Nestle UK Ltd

· Virgin Group

Repurposing among a wider audience

Marketing initiatives will be built upon the repurposing that this support from the corporate community has kick-started.

It is anticipated that the combination of the Global Name Registry, the Red Cross and the corporate base will generate significant PR in on-line and off-line media from this activity alone. We propose that this PR is supplemented with other marketing activity, specifically: direct marketing (offline), e-marketing and a coordinated PR program, to promote and accelerate this repurposing amongst the wider corporate community.

In this way we believe that we will not only repurpose a large number of existing commercial .org owners’ space, but also encourage growth in the number of corporates registering their .org domain. In addition, these initiatives will further our goal for differentiation for .org.

C38.3.4 The .orgcentre

One of Global Name Registry’s principle initiatives is the development of the .orgcentre, - an on-line success center, which turns the needs identified in the ongoing research program into products and services from which the whole .org community can benefit. The concept is summarized here, but further details can be found in Section C35.