The history and development of the .org domain

Introduction

.org is a generic top-level domain. In the initial DNS design it served as a category for organizations that did not fit the education, commercial or government categories; it is now sponsored by Public Interest Registry (PIR).RFC 920 IANA delegation record Its strong association with nonprofits developed later.

Name and original use

RFC 920, published in October 1984, listed ORG in the initial category set and defined it for organizations that met the second-level requirements.RFC 920 RFC 1591’s 1994 description called .org the miscellaneous TLD for organizations that did not fit elsewhere and noted that some non-government organizations might use it.RFC 1591 The early rules did not reserve .org exclusively for nonprofits.

PIR’s historical account says the first .org registration was mitre.org, registered on July 10, 1985 by The Mitre Corporation for work developing technology for the U.S. Department of Defense.PIR history That example illustrates the original namespace’s breadth: it was not created solely for charitable organizations.

Development timeline

Date	Event
October 1984	RFC 920 documented ORG as the general organization category in the initial DNS design.RFC 920
January 1, 1985	IANA’s delegation record uses this date for .org.IANA delegation record
July 10, 1985	PIR records mitre.org as the first .org registration.PIR history
2002	The Internet Society successfully bid to administer .org and created PIR.PIR history
January 1, 2003	PIR officially assumed responsibility as the .org registry operator after ICANN’s selection process.ICANN transition advisory
2009	.org implemented DNSSEC.PIR history
June 24, 2012	PIR reported that .org reached 10 million registrations.PIR history

Registry and policy changes

IANA currently lists PIR as .org’s sponsoring organisation and links its 2002 redelegation report.IANA delegation record ICANN’s January 2003 advisory states that PIR, a not-for-profit corporation created by the Internet Society, was selected from eleven proposals through an open request-for-proposals process.ICANN transition advisory The stated aim was to increase diversity among registry-service providers while preserving DNS security and stability.ICANN transition advisory

Use and market development

During the 1990s, .org became widely associated with noncommercial organizations. The Red Cross, United Way, PETA and NAACP were among the organizations using the suffix during this period.PIR history On June 24, 2012, .org reached 10 million registrations.PIR history

Related suffixes and concepts

.com, .net and .org were all part of the original generic top-level domain set described by the early RFCs.RFC 920