The .org TLD is on the one hand highly successful, having a base of
existing registrations totaling close to 2.6 million and firmly
established in fourth position worldwide. However, .org has not yet
succeeded in establishing for itself the unique profile that would enable
it to gain long-term client loyalty specifically for civil society.
As we embark upon initiatives aimed at repositioning .org and
attracting new registrants, our underlying strategy will be to achieve the
following:
- Convey clear messages that resonate within the non-profit community
concerning the impact that enhanced services provided in .org can have on
their organizations.
- Leverage UIA's 100-year legacy of research, advocacy and outreach to
non-profits, to reaffirm that the .org TLD is a "natural home"
as it most closely represents the global interests of the non-profit
community, and should therefore be a key part of any online presence that
they establish.
- Utilize the information contained in the UIA registry on the profiles
of not-for-profit entities (and later supplemented with primary research),
in order to define segments of the community that will respond to the
value created in the enhanced services and image present within the new
.org.
- Remain sensitive to the needs of international members of the
not-for-profit community by showing how .org can be a compliment to their
organizations online presence without undermining any localization efforts
being executed using ccTLDs.
This strategy builds upon the following observations:
- The non-profit sector is itself highly diverse (See Figure C38-1).
There is thus no reason to divest the TLD of clients with a different
profile, who can continue to be served efficiently even though they are
not prime candidates for new services.
- There currently exists a bias in favour of U.S.-based organizations,
which is reasonable in a historical context since U.S. non-profits were
pioneers of Internet use. However, a persistence of this view will fail to
address the large number of potential users of .org that exists outside
the U.S. and as yet remains untapped.
Initiatives to Foster Differentiation
The most critical element for a campaign intended to differentiate the
.org TLD is in repositioning the TLD in the mind of prospective
registrants. To achieve this differentiation, Diversitas intends to
quickly execute several functional initiatives in order to frame a new
image of .org within the non-profit community. Functional initiatives are
an important component that must be embedded within any effective,
proactive strategy to re-establish a public image of .org as a
"natural" community - albeit with highly diverse membership.
Indeed, it may be the diversity itself, which is the outstanding hallmark
of the .org community.
The following represents highlights of tactics that would be deployed
to differentiate .org if UIA / Diversitas were awarded the contract to
provide registry services.
- Conduct primary research on the not-for-profit community to augment
inferences that will be drawn from the profile data contained in the UIA
registry.
- Define segments within the non-profit space that may be responsive to
with specific value propositions.
- Work with a creative or branding agency to create a distinctively new
identity for .org that places substantial distance from its U.S. centric
past.
- Utilize enhanced services such as authentication technology to stratify
non-profits from commercial entities within the .org TLD.
Research: Learn What the Not-for-Profit Community Wants from the TLD
We know that non-profits do not think of themselves as a market and
many do not appreciate being "marketed to". We will use the term
"marketing" infrequently and always intend it to mean one or
more of: (1) general offering of distinctive "cost-free" tools
and information services of demonstrated value to at least a portion of
the constituency; (2) special offering of customized services requested by
.org registrants, and perhaps collaboratively developed with them (these
may be registry-level tools or provided through registrars and other third
parties); (3) peer "advertising" and "marketing" of
.org benefits and new tools and "add-on" services, using
internet forums, partner organizations that specialize in non-profit
services, and the like; and (4) crafting the image and feel of the .org
domain as "the natural home for civil society".
Diversitas confronts the "marketing" challenge to reposition
the .org TLD to the civil society sector, it recognizes the need to gain
greater insight into determining the key benefits that this community
requires/expects from the .org TLD. It is recognized that determining
these benefits requires a thorough understanding of the registrant, their
decision-making processes and cues to which they will respond. In order to
acquire this understanding, Diversitas plans to conduct primary research
across the not-for-profit sector to obtain their answers to the questions
such as:
- What are the primary attributes you would like to see within .org
that would motivate your organization to register a domain name within
that TLD?
- What new services would have the greatest impact on their decision to
register a .org domain name?
- What are some features/attributes in other TLDs that have prompted some
members of the not-for-profit community to register domain names ending
with extensions other than .org, if not for the purposes of greater
localisation?
The UIA / Diversitas has an excellent basis for conducting such
research in that it maintains profiles of around 50,000 international
non-profit bodies, and some nationally focused bodies that may be
considered part of that community. Additionally, UIA has been conducting
research within the non-profit organizations market for nearly 100 years.
Diversitas intends to field surveys across the civil sector, and build
upon some of the following facts concerning those organizations that
currently have a domain name:
Segmentation of .org "Community"
At the heart of the Diversitas strategy is the goal of making .org as a
natural choice for all categories of non-commercial groups by creating a
sense of shared identity or community. This strategy implies a radical
shift from a "registry" mindset to a "community"
mindset.
"Community" is an easy word to use. In practice, however, it
has multiple meanings and associations. For some it is perfectly adequate
as a loose term to apply to a pattern of undefined associations that
individuals and groups activate and enhance through
"networking". The telephone system and e-mail are ideal
technologies to support community. Services to the .org community can
indeed limit themselves to focusing on web equivalents.
The notion of "community" by its very nature tends to focus
on, and assume, a degree of consensus. It ignores the basic fact that for
many bodies in .org their main concern is to counteract and oppose the
initiatives of other bodies in that same domain. Such opposition may be
basic to their sense of distinct identity and the prime reason for their
distinct existence and expression on the web. There may indeed be a
recognition of shared membership in community in the most abstract sense,
and shared interest with regard to freedom of expression, but the lack of
consensus across sectors and ideologies is a fundamental issue in
responding to the realities of the dynamics within that
"community". In confronting the realities of these dynamics, the
challenge will be to respond creatively to the variety of
"divides" that fragment the community of non-profit bodies:
- The cultural divide between the dominant western style, and its
association with elites in many developing countries, and the variety of
alternative styles, the sectoral divide, and the styles of thinking and
activity associated with each the linguistic
The challenge is also to give meaningful expression to this more
ecological sense of community. The .org community is not only about
agreement, but also about the disagreements that are fundamental to the
vitality of democratic society. It is unacceptable to develop a
"marketing strategy" based on the assumption that the .org
community is composed of those who agree with a set of principles selected
by a particular coalition - and that all who do not agree with them should
be encouraged to move elsewhere. The .org community is not homogenous. It
might be better understood as made up of "communities" with
different identities and operating mindsets - often valiantly struggling
to sustain their uniqueness and resist its dilution by other cultural
forces.
In this sense, the image of the .org community that could be
realistically promoted would indicate both:
- Links of commonality binding elements of the community together
- Links of opposition holding elements of the community apart
Figure C38-2 includes imagery consistent with the idea of contrasting
and complementary communities which constitute a larger community The goal
would be to provide services that honour such practical lived realities of
organizational life and to show how these two complementary forces enable
the emergence of a larger, more coherent, superordinate structure beyond
the preoccupations of individual organizations and sectors. A key factor
in responding creatively to the destructive dynamics that renders
coalitions unsustainable would be to enable self-organizing dynamics that
use such complementarity to avoid the need for any central organization to
hold the community together.
Figure C38-2
Positioning .org Based on Segmentation
In view of the diversity among not-for-profit organizations, Diversitas
intends to utilize its knowledge of segmentation across this space in
order to redefine the positioning and imagery now associated with .org. In
doing so, Diversitas will leverage feedback from its forums with the
non-profit community to create a strong image in support of .org being a
natural home for the non-profit "community", and also address
some latent issues that have been previously associated with .org.
Diversitas must convey a message that resolves the relationship between
the "registry" mindset and the "community". The
technologies required for a registry to work must necessarily be very
narrowly focused on the identification of an entity - and
"untainted" by its perceived status in the community. However,
this very lack of ambiguity renders the management and effective use of
millions of URLs satisfactory to all. Excluded from registry technology is
any information that reflects the structure of community. The list
structure and dynamics of a registry (like a telephone directory) does not
in itself make for community.
Thus positioning of the .org community needs to be considered in the
light of the following:
- What is meant by civil society in limiting understanding of the many
dimensions of the .org community
- Data indicative of the community of which only .org can be a focus
- How the notion of "community" can be enhanced in relation to
.org
- How promotion of .org can be associated with community building and
vision
- Issues in image-building: conveying the image, flavour or philosophy of
the whole approach
Additionally, Diversitas is careful to address some of the latent
issues that have been previously associated with .org.
- "Property" issues:
- Movements in favour of "cleaning up" .org
- Legacy "possession" of .org URLs by some perceived as
"undesirable"
- Exclusive marketing strategies, exacerbating unfair competition and
undermining initiatives of non-profit bodies in the .org and associated
communities
- Privileging particular suppliers of web services, creating a monopoly
situation that inhibits supply of web services by others
- Destabilizing and undermining existing suppliers of web services
- Marketing to the non-profit "diaspora" beyond the .org
domain, notably to ccTLD equivalents
- Requiring effective relationships with bodies supporting such domains
- Promoting .org responsibly to avoid tendencies to undermine national
initiatives that may be vital to sustaining cultural identities in
emerging countries
- Embodying democratic principles of responsiveness and transparency
- Recognizing the absence of tested models adequate for a global
multi-cultural, multi-lingual, multi-sectoral community significantly
characterized by divisive dynamics
- Recognizing the natural resistance of independent
("sovereign") sectoral organizations to conscription into
apparent membership of a managed inter-sectoral community
- Ensuring that efforts to embody democratic principles do not undermine
the basic registry function
The key question with regard to any .org strategy -- or with regard to
any democratic structure to manage the .org registry and associated
enabling services -- is not what is explicitly included, but what is
implicitly or inadvertently excluded.
| Common Term |
Effectively Excludes
(in common usage - indicative only) |
| civil society organizations (CSOs) |
scientific, technical, trade associations,
sport bodies, for-profit membership bodies |
|
voluntary associations |
paid staff bodies, professional membership, corporate
membership, obligatory membership |
|
Citizens movements |
institutionalized bodies, collective membership |
|
non-profit organizations |
self-financing bodies, for-profit membership |
|
non-governmental bodies (NGOs) |
technical groups of government officials,
government-established/funded bodies, hybrid bodies |
|
third sector bodies |
trade associations, hybrid bodies between
government/business/nonprofit, and notably international nonprofits |
| independent sector bodies |
government or business "front" organizations |
|
development organizations |
bodies other than humanitarian or field-level
development bodies |
|
humanitarian / relief bodies |
bodies with longer-term functions: scientific,
professional, interest-group, etc |
|
political organizations, liberation movements, exile associations |
non-political
bodies |
|
kinship, family, tribal and ethnic associations |
|
|
non-commercial bodies |
trade associations, chambers of commerce, for-profit
membership bodies |
|
advocacy and pressure groups, and lobbying groups |
interest groups without any
advocacy role |
|
peer group networks, secret societies |
open membership bodies |
|
scholarly societies |
non-academic bodies |
|
professional associations |
open membership bodies |
|
virtual communities, usenet groups, user groups |
face-to-face organizations,
bodies beyond the digital divide |
|
societal networks |
Centers |
|
intentional communities, sects |
non-residential communities |
|
appreciation groups, fan (celebrity) clubs |
|
|
trade associations, business associations, chambers of commerce |
not-for-profit
membership bodies |
|
activity groups, performance groups, sports bodies, outdoor associations |
non-physical groups |
See also: NGOs and Civil Society - Some Realities and Distortions: the
challenge of "Necessary-to-Governance Organizations" (NGOs) (1994);
Interacting Fruitfully with Un-Civil Society: the dilemma for non-civil society
organizations (1996)
Enhanced Services
UIA will continually explore various enhanced services that have the
potential to benefit end users in the not-for-profit community. UIA has
been an active proponent of increasing the level of technology innovation
and, through Diversitas, has planned a set of enhanced services that will
benefit registrants as well as help to refocus the image of .org TLD.
One of the more exciting initiatives is an opt-in seal (authentication)
program geared exclusively to the non-profit community. While .org will
not be a closed TLD, a program intends to provide a level of
stratification of registrants without imposing new practices on any
organization using an existing .org domain name. Under the program, a
time-stamped seal will be visible only on those URLs wherein its
registrant has undergone an authentication process that verifies their
organization to be a not-for-profit entity. The benefits to the registrant
of this program become readily evident with online fundraising, but
clearly this service will help to distinguish who's who and raise the
expectations within the Internet community of what .org is all about.
We propose to further complement this offering with other enhanced
services. These offerings have already been discussed in detail, and a
complete list may be found in Section C25 and Section
C26.
Promote and Attract Registrations from Non-profits
Through the effective promotion of the .org TLD, Diversitas intends to
spur renewed growth in registrations and also build awareness for its
repositioning as 'The' gTLD home of the non-profit community. To be
successful, Diversitas must significantly raise awareness levels and will
most likely be executed in phases so as to apply resources and focus in
the most effective manner. The programs are intended to target members of
the global civil society, and will specifically focus on raising awareness
of .org across both governmental and non-governmental organizations that
have non-commercial missions.
Given the challenges associated with reaching a global audience, the
promotional campaign will be executed in three phases that are in
alignment with channels used to reach the non-profits. The promotion of
.org will be conducted through the following venues: ICANN registrars,
Diversitas registry outreach and global media.
Phase 1: ICANN Registrar Programs
The goal of the registrar programs will be to reach the existing .org
registrants prior to the release of enhanced services.
Diversitas will give incentives to registrars to contact current
registrants of .org domain names and advise them of the forthcoming
changes to the gTLD. The marketing materials will be clear to point out
that these changes will provide specific benefits to them, if they are a
non-profit, and that they will in no way be negatively impacted.
- Registrars will be able to provide them with information concerning
Diversitas and on its long standing history of working with non-profits
- Descriptions of the seal program and other enhanced services will also
be provided along with a feature-benefits matrix.
UIA will also encourage registrars to raise .org in their drop-down
list of TLDs, so that prospective registrants may find it more easily when
attempting to register a domain name. Additionally, it is intended that
UIA will convince registrars to rotate messages that announce the new
positioning and changes to .org, within their retail web sites.
UIA is developing co-marketing materials for registrars to use when
talking with corporate registrants that have a number of defensive .org
registrations. The message to corporations would be to use their .org
names as sites for their favourite charities or to tell their own story
about their non-commercial activities in community activism and become
authenticated as a member of the civil society. Otherwise, the need for
defensive registrations in .org no longer offer any real benefit.
These tactics are critical because they will be effective at
encouraging existing registrants to embrace changes in the TLD, and
position them to become early spokespersons for enhanced services as they
create buzz by sharing their experiences with other non-profit
organizations.
Phase 2: Diversitas Outreach
The goal of this program is to raise awareness among the 48% of
organizations in the UIA registry (that are reflective of the non-profit
sector as a whole) that have domains in TLDs other than .org, in order to
attract additional registrations. Given UIA's ongoing dialogue with this
audience, it is desired that this group be reached prior to the .org
relaunch under its new administration. It is believed that this group may
be reached most quickly and that Diversitas can credibly convey messages
to this audience advising that an .org URL is crucial to their online
presence.
- In view of the existence of UIA's registry, Diversitas will be able
to tailor specific offers that utilize both .org and their registry of
non-profits, such as: General offering of distinctive
"cost-free" tools and information services of demonstrated value
to at least a portion of the constituency
- Special offering of customized services requested by .org registrants,
and perhaps collaboratively developed with them (may be registry-level
tools or provided through registrars and other third parties)
- Peer advertising and marketing of .org benefits, new tools and
"add-on" services using Internet forums, partner organizations
that specialize in non-profit services, etc.
Phase 3: Trade Show Sponsorships and Global Media Campaigns
While Diversitas currently tracks a large number of trade shows and
conferences that are attended by non-profit organizations where it can
promote .org, it is crucial to its long-term success to build awareness
through print and online media, if it is to cover the globe. It is desired
that this phase of the program begin after the re-launch of .org.
The key goals of this phase of the promotional push are to:
- Address the need to establish a broader reach in conveying the
positioning message that .org is the natural home for non-profits and
should be a complement to any online presence they now have
- Allow for localisation of message to be controlled in areas where
strong national initiatives drive adoption of ccTLDs or .gov
- Focus on other non-profits that may not be currently part of the
community that exists under UIA
Outreach to the UIA Base
Marketing to non-profits, or by them, tends to require a
"soft-sell" approach rather than the kind of
"hard-sell" more acceptable in commercial transactions - if the
relationship with, and between bodies within that community, is to be
enhanced and new services are to be welcomed. Diversitas also sees its
distinctive contribution as enabling registrars to add value rather than
undermining existing service initiatives and in some way locking them out
of their possibility to offer web services.
Diversitas' ongoing dialogue and outreach to the community is of
enormous value in responding to their critical needs and concerns related
to the management of the .org TLD as well as providing a means to
communicate the positioning of the TLD once it is established. In short,
UIA / Diversitas understands how to attract the non-profit community and
has an existing system in place for outreach. In view of this, the
approach to be undertaken is distinguished in terms of the following
components:
- Provision of enhanced registry services:
- Designed to enable self-organization, coalition and partnership
formation, and contacts between bodies with matching interests
- Designed to minimize destabilization of equivalent services operated
with scarce resources, and much dedication, by non-profit bodies
- Marketing of the registry as a strategic opportunity for non-profit
organizations:
- Branding of the registry as a multi-dimensional community space, for
example through appropriate imagery inviting comment from the .org
community
- Opening up subdomains in response to demand to enhance the coherence of
subcommunities within that domain (e.g., .int.org, .ngo.org, .igo.org)
- Marketing to registrars and in support of them
- Marketing of verification and authentication facilities
- Assisting existing suppliers of web services, in relation to the .org
domain and the ccTLD domain equivalents to .org
