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In
the 18 years
since he opened one of the earliest
domain registrars, DomainIt.com,
back in 1996 Paul Goldstone
has had many occasions to celebrate
(including this year's launch of the
.CO.COM
Registry that he formed
with partners Ken Hansen and
Gregg McNair). However, one of
moments he is most proud of came
just a few days ago when Paul was
elected to the Executive Committee
of ICANN's Regsitrar
Stakeholder Group (RSG)
as its Secretary.
Since
ICANN was formed, the RSG has been
the voice
and advocacy organization
for Registrars and their
customers and has played an
active role in policy development
and other ICANN processes. Late last
month, on May 27, 2014, the
group marked the 15th anniversary
since being officially recognized
by ICANN.
In
recalling the journey over the
past two decades, Goldstone noted
that when he started, before
ICANN existed, all
domain registrations
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Paul
Goldstone, DomainIt.com Founder
&
ICANN RSG Executive Committee Member
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The
way it was - a shot of
the InterNIC web page
in the days before
ICANN was foudned in 1998. |
Goldstone
said, "By
1998 I had joined an
eGroup called “nic-partners”
which consisted of 20 or so
“InterNIC” partners (i.e.
the industry!), moderated by Ivan
Pope who was the Founder
and original CEO of Netnames.
Looking back at the
early email threads, some of
the conversations are quite
comical as we all got our feet
wet in the domain industry."
Fast
forward to today and it is a much
different picture. The
RSG currently
has 112 active
registrar members who
collectively hold 90%
of total domain registrations worldwide
(Goldstone noted that all
other ICANN accredited
registrars are encouraged to join
the Registrar Stakeholder
Group that will be meeting in
London on June 24th during
ICANN’s
50th conference).
As
the RSG's new Secretary,
Goldstone takes a spot on the
Executive Committee
alongside Chair
Michele Neylon (Founder
and managing director of Blacknight
Solutions), |
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Vice-Chair
Jennifer Standiford
(Director of Policy at Web.com)
and Treasurer Oli Hope
(Finance & Operations
Director at Mesh Digital
Ltd (Host
Europe Group). You
can learn more about the
Executive Committee members,
other supporting individuals
and the roles they play in the
RSG here.
This
brochure
(PDF format) will also give
you a more detailed but
concise two-page overview of
what the Registrar Stakeholder
Group does, their mission
statement, the membership
benefits and a news summary
from Chair Michele Neylon. |
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