From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article or discuss the issue on the talk page.

.org

Introduced	1985
TLD type	Generic top-level domain
Status	Active
Registry	Public Interest Registry (operated by Afilias)
Sponsor	Not technically sponsored, but PIR is connected with the Internet Society
Intended use	Miscellaneous organizations not fitting in other categories (generally noncommercial)
Actual use	Nonprofits; personal sites; open-source projects; sometimes used by commercial entities
Registration restrictions	None
Structure	Registrations at second level permitted
Documents	RFC 920; RFC 1591; ICANN registry agreement
Dispute policies	UDRP
Website	Public Interest Registry

.org (organization) is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) used in the Internet's Domain Name System. In the typical style of most gTLDs, .org is sometimes pronounced in word form as 'dot-org' when spoken, although not all users of the TLD agree on this usage.

.org was one of the original top-level domains, established in January 1985, originally intended for use by organizations that did not meet the requirements for other gTLDs. The MITRE Corporation was the first group to register a .org domain with mitre.org in July 1985.

Now anyone can register a .org domain. .org was the domain commonly recommended for use by individuals, although .name and .info are now alternatives.

The .org TLD has been operated since January 1, 2003 by Public Interest Registry.

Although organizations anywhere in the world can register .org domains, many countries have a second-level domain with a similar purpose under their own country code TLD. Such second-level domains are usually of the form .org.xx or .or.xx, where xx is the ccTLD.

The .org TLD is mostly associated with non-profit organizations. In addition to its wide use in the charitable field, it is often used by the open-source movement, as opposed to the .com domains used mostly by companies.

Political parties in the US, such as the following, have domain names ending in .org:

• United States Democratic Party: http://www.democrats.org
• United States Libertarian Party: http://www.lp.org
• United States Green Party: http://www.gp.org

The Republican Party uses http://www.gop.com, although they also own http://www.rnc.org, which redirects to their main site.

Some European political parties also use .org, such as the Union for French Democracy at http://www.udf.org and the Party of European Socialists at http://www.pes.org/ .

Some diplomatic missions, such as the Togolese Embassy in Paris ([1]) and most French consulates in Canada and the United States, have websites ending in .org.

Registrations are processed via accredited registrars and some categories of internationalized domain names may also be registered (see details).

• IANA .org whois information
• InterNIC FAQs on the .org Transition
• List of .org accredited registrars