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enterprises that had an altruistic
orientation (in fields like
education, health care or advocating
for a cause, to name just a
few of the many examples).
There
was also ample evidence of interest
in high quality .org domains in the
aftermarket with prices that often
ran into five figures and could go
even higher. That has held true
through the years. In 2018, Q.org
sold for $500,000, Star.org
for $225,000, AAH.org
for $63,700 and Center.org
for $45,000. The 2019 sales
season has just started but we've
already seen Email.org change
hands for $25,000. Those
kinds of sales show how valuable
well chosen .org domains can be
beyond the every day price of a
registration.
That
being the case, I've always paid
attention to developments at Public
Interest Registry (the
non-profit behind .org)
and a particularly big one
just happened in December when PIR
named a new CEO - well-known
and widely respected domain industry
veteran Jon
Nevett. Jon is a co-founder of Donuts,
the world's biggest operator of
new gTLD registries with more
than 200 extensions in its portfolio and he also served as the
company's Executive Vice President
for 8 years. Prior to launching
Donuts in 2010, Jon spent more than five
years as Senior Vice President at Network
Solutions, the very first domain
name registrar.
Now
that Nevett is bringing his
storehouse of knowledge to PIR and
.org I took the opportunity
to connect with him at the 2019
NamesCon Global conference
in Las Vegas to see what
attracted him to PIR and .org and
what he has planned as the
organization's new leader.
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Jon
Nevett
CEO, Public Interest Registry
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"Just
like you, I've admired .org and
Public Interest Registry since I
started in the industry,"
Nevett said. When this job came
open, to me, it was my dream job."
Running a registry is a
multi-faceted assignment requiring
oversight of sales, marketing and
technology among the many responsibilities.
Jon had only been on the job for a
month when I sat down with him but
he already had a couple of major
initiatives underway. One he is
particularly excited about is a
re-branding plan for .org. It is
too early for him to let that cat
fully out of the bag, but expect to
see it rolled out in the first half
of this year. Jon hinted, "I
think .org is our crown jewel and
our efforts are going to go toward
polishing it and making it even
better. We are also looking at a
Quality Index (for TLDs) -
looking at improving the quality of
domain names across the eco system
and rewarding registrars that discourage
abuse. We're already among the
highest in that respect and we want
to be even higher."
Jon
Nevett (at far right) with his
fellow Donuts
Co-Founders (left to right):
Paul Stahura, Dan Schindler,
Richard Tindal and Nevett.
I
mentioned the long running debate about
which TLD was the best alternative
to .com, but Nevett believes that,
then and now, that isn't even the
right question - that it should be
"what is the best TLD, period?"
Nevett said, ".com, .net
and .org are the big three
among the original TLDs, but .org
has the most semantic meaning.
To me it is the best TLD out
there because if you want to do
good on the Internet you buy and
use a .org." Jon also
pointed out something that many,
even within industry, may not be
aware of. "If you register a
.org more than 50% of the
purchase price goes to the Internet
Society - and they do
great work with it - providing
access to the Internet in Africa
and other areas,
educational opportunities and a whole
host of other initiatives."
That
is what sets PIR apart from other registry
operators who must view the bottom
line as their top priority.
Nevett said, "If Coca-Cola, for
example, provided half of their
revenue to the Internet Society,
they still wouldn't become a
non-profit. We are a non-profit and
have our own non-profit mission.
We are going to fine tune and
increase our education and outreach
efforts and I am really excited
about that opportunity as
well."
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Jon
Nevett,
during his time as Senior
VP
at Network Solutions, speaking
at the
2009 Domain Roundtable
Conference in Washington,
D.C. |
In
Nevett, PIR has gotten a
leader with a wealth of
experience and an invaluable
array of strong existing
relationships. While be brings
a lot to the table he was even
more excited about what he
found already in place at PIR.
"I have inherited an amazing
team at PIR and together
we will look at how we
work together with our
registrar partners and how we
delight our customers and
end users."
One
point that may still need
added emphasis after all these
years is that .org is not
just for non-profits. As I
noted earlier, organizations
of all kinds have taken
advantage of the trust and
recognition engendered by
using .org as their home base.
"Absolutely
correct," Nevett said.
"We are much broader
than just non-profits. They
are a very important part of
our end user customer base, but
for any kind of
community or organization,
.org is the
right choice. While
PIR is best known for .org, it is
not the only TLD in their portfolio.
There is .ngo
and .ong (for
non-governmental organizations), as
well three IDN's
(Internationalized Domain Names)
that are the .org equivalents for Chinese, Cyrillic and Hindi speaking
markets. Nevett noted, ".ngo
and .ong provide more |
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of a
"walled garden" in that
you need to have validation
to use those. You also get a tool
kit that comes with it. so a lot of
our .ngo/.ong customers are thrilled with
that." |
(Left
to right):
Kurt Pritz (ICANN), Ken
Hansen (Neustar) and Jon
Nevett speaking on a panel
of experts at the 2010 DOMAINfest
Global Conference in Los
Angeles.
In
a career that has been filled with
highlights, we wondered what some of
Nevett's favorite ones have been.
"You know what, it was great to
join the community when I first
started in the early 2000s,"
Nevett said. "I got to know the
people and to me the ICANN/Domain
community is another family.
I am fortunate that I joined this
family and when I see my friends and
"family" members, it is
like a reunion every few months at a
trade show or ICANN meeting. It is
the relationships I've built over
the years, it is the people
that are here that have been a
highlight for me. And then the new
TLD program was an opportunity -
creating hundreds of new TLDS, was
fun - and now I am in the position
of almost "giving back"
and working for the betterment of
a larger community with PIR and
.org. I was fortunate that this opportunity
came up and I seized it! I
couldn't think of a better job. I
stay
in the community, do the work that
I've done for many years and do
it for good!"
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