February 2003 (Newstream) -- The Public Interest Registry (PIR) today announced the appointment of Edward G. Viltz as President and Chief Executive Officer.

PIR was created to manage the .ORG registry by the Internet Society, and is committed to setting a new standard for registry services in its management of the .ORG top-level domain. PIR is committed to meeting the unique needs and interests of the noncommercial Internet community around the world.

Viltz, a former IT industry executive and consultant, has been involved in the establishment of school-based Internet and technology partnerships between the United States and African Countries.

Previously, Viltz co-founded and served as President of Enterprise Integration Corporation, an IT services company, was Chief Operations Officer with Pulsar Data Systems, and held a variety of key management posts at IBM. In addition, Viltz serves on several non-profit boards including the One America Foundation and Progressive Life Center.

He also served on the White House council on closing the "Digital Divide."

"We are fortunate to have someone with Ed's skill, insight and commitment to public service spearheading our efforts at PIR," said David Maher, chairman of the PIR board. "His experience with both technology and nonprofit organizations make him the perfect person to fulfill our vision of making the .ORG domain to better serve noncommercial organizations worldwide."

"It's exciting to be in a position of contributing to the continuing evolution of the Internet in world-wide noncommercial communities. We look forward to supporting the public interest through Internet education initiatives, new services and the management of the .ORG domain registry," said Viltz.

The .ORG domain, which has come to be associated with noncommercial activities, is the Internet's third largest "generic" or non-country specific top-level domain (behind .COM and .NET), housing over 2.7 million domain names worldwide.

Late last year, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Board of Directors selected ISOC's proposal from among 11 organizations bidding to operate the .ORG top-level domain. VeriSign Global Registry Services' contract as registry operator for .ORG expired on December 31, 2002. PIR assumed control of the registry on January 1, 2003.

ABOUT PIR

Public Interest Registry (www.pir.org) is a not-for-profit corporation created by the Internet Society to manage the .ORG domain. PIR's mission is to manage the .ORG domain in a way that supports the continuing evolution of the Internet as a research, education and communications infrastructure, and educates and empowers the noncommercial community to most effectively utilize the Internet.

PIR is based in Reston, Virginia.

PIR was created by the Internet Society (www.ISOC.org). ISOC a not-for-profit, open membership organization founded in 1991 and is dedicated to ensuring the open evolution, development and use of the Internet for the benefit of all people.

It provides leadership in addressing issues that confront the future of the Internet, and is the organizational home for the groups responsible for Internet infrastructure standards.

For additional information on PIR and the .ORG registry please visit www.pir.org.

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Produced for Public Interest Registry

Contact:


Public Interest Registry, Reston
Julie Williams,
703/464-7005, x111
Cell: 703/402-6715
JWilliams@pir.org