CORE is a non-profit membership association of domain names registrars founded as result of a plan initiated by the Internet Society (ISOC) and the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) in Fall 1996 to add new structure, free enterprise and competition to the Internet Domain Name System (DNS) when the monopoly on .com, .org and .net was to end in 1998. The plan was worked out by an ad hoc working group called the IAHC and formalised as the socalled "Generic Top-Level Domains Memorandum of Understanding" (gTLD-MoU) for which the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) acted as the depository.

CORE was thus created in October 1997 by the first organisations who had been accredited for membership by independent review. More members joined the association in the course of original application period and later on (the membership in CORE is open to any organisation fulfilling the stated criteria).

The decision by the US Government to devise its own plan (formalised in the socalled "Green Paper" and "White Paper") caused the launch of new gTLDs to be delayed. CORE and its members have been important participants the process to build upon the White Paper. This process has led to the creation of ICANN and its Domain Names Supporting Organisation (DNSO which provides recommendations to ICANN on the DNS-related policies, including the launch of new gTLDs.

CORE has also been a key player in the effort to introduce competition in the existing gTLD registration business. CORE and many CORE members are ICANN-accredited registrars. CORE was also selected by ICANN as one of the socalled "testbed Registrars" for the newly created shared registry for names ending in .com, .net and .org.

ORGANIZATION

CORE has member in four continents (see the CORE member listings by various criteria). In order to register domains, CORE members compete in an open environment. There are no territorial assignments: customers can freely choose the CORE member they want to do business with. Moreover, after registering a name, registrant can change the CORE member.

The CORE Secretariat is based in Geneva, Switzerland. The secretariat is in charge of activities that have to be handled centrally. The secretariat must treat all members equally and does redirect a customer to any specific CORE member. Inquiries and requests for registrations should not be directed to the secretariat but rather to a CORE member.

THE NEW DOMAINS

CORE has been launched in order to create the following seven new generic top-level domains:

• .firm For businesses or firms
• .shop For businesses offering goods/services to purchase
• .web For entities or groups providing activities or services related to the World Wide Web
• .arts For entities/groups in culture and entertainment
• .rec For groups/organizations in recreation
• .info Information services
• .nom For people wanting to register their own name

THE MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING

CORE was created in October 1997 as a result of a rigorous process of global consensus launched by the Internet Society and the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority in fall 1996. The process started with the creation of the International Ad Hoc Committee (IAHC) to develop concepts for the registration of Internet domain names in a new era of deregulation and self-governance.

The Policy Oversight Committee succeeded IAHC. It developed specific plans for a global infrastructure for adding and administering new names, with CORE as the non-profit administrator of the gTLDs - the suffixes that serve as addresses to route mail and data on the Internet and help create an identity for each user wherever they may be. The concepts were formalized into the gTLD Memorandum or Understanding (gTLD-MoU), a working dynamic document and global constitution that clearly defines issues of authority, protocol, competition and growth in the domain name system.

SIGNATORIES

There are already more than 200 signatories to the gTLD Memorandum of Understanding, including companies and organizations from around the world, such as: MCI Communications, Bell Canada, Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC), Internet Society (ISOC), Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), Internet Policy Oversight Committee (POC), Internet Software Consortium, European Telecommunications Standard Institute, France Telecom, Internet Society of Australia, International Trademark Association, Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property, Tokyo Internet Corp. and the Internet Societies of Geneva, Vienna, Israel, Japan, Ghana, Norway, Mexico and Thailand.