Hello there ..

Here's what our Canadian cousins are up to regarding their .ca domain management ..

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CIRA was incorporated in 1998 with the mandate to set policy for and operate the .ca domain. 
http://grive.cira.ca

About CIRA
CIRA is a not-for-profit organization mandated to operate the .ca top-level domain. It is responsible for setting policy, managing and operating the .ca domain database and registering Domain Names. 

About the transfer of the .ca Registry
On or about November 1st, 2000, CIRA will take over the responsibility of the .ca Registry from the University of British Columbia. On September 18th, 2000, CIRA announced the beginning of the pre-transfer registration period. During this period, CIRA informed all existing .ca domain name holders that they had to pre-register their domain names in its Registry. To date, approximately 45% of the 98,000 .ca Registrants have pre-registered through the services of a CIRA certified Registrars. There are now over 35 certified Registrars. The list is available at www.cira.ca. 

CIRA announces new, broader rules for .ca domain registration
Ottawa, October 18, 2000  The long-awaited new rules for .ca domain name registration are now finalized and available on the Canadian Internet Registration Authority’s (CIRA) Web site at www.cira.ca. The new rules will come into effect when CIRA takes over operational control of the .ca Registry on or about November 1st, 2000. 

“The original rules made sense for the size, usage and vision of the Internet in the early days,” says Maureen Cubberley, Chair, CIRA Board. “However, with the increased usage and rapid commercialization of the Internet, the Canadian Internet community agreed that the rules for registering domain names were too restrictive and had to evolve.” 

Under existing rules, organizations are only allowed one Domain Name; the Domain Name must refer to the organization’s legal name, operating name, or registered Canadian Trademark; top- level domains (xyz.ca) are only available to federally incorporated organizations; and registrations are only available to Canadians. 

Under the new rules: 
- Anyone meeting basic Canadian Presence Requirements can register a .ca domain name 
- Organizations and persons can register more than one .ca name 
- Top level domains (xyz.ca) are available to anyone on a first come first served basis 
- Generic domain names are accepted 

In addition, CIRA is setting up a registration system that allows for real-time registrations, eliminating the waiting period that currently exists. This is an important development for Canadian electronic commerce and will ultimately increase the number of registrations in the .ca domain space at a much faster pace than in the past. 
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And, here's what, "Networking"  have to report today ...

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NETWORKING
ISSN 1206-9450    Volume 4, Number 17    1 November 2000
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NEW .CA DOMAIN NAME REGISTRATION SYSTEM BEGINS TODAY

Anyone with a .ca domain name -- or wishing to acquire one -- must
register it with the Canadian Internet Registration Authority
<http://www.cira.ca>, the not-for-profit organization that has
taken over management of the .ca top-level domain registry from
the University of British Columbia <http://www.ubc.ca>.

Registration for current .ca domain names begins today, 1 November,
and runs through 7 November. After that, registration will be open
to anyone who meets the Canadian Presence Requirements. However,
CIRA will reserve domain names already registered in the UBC system
until 31 January 2001. Failure to re-register a current domain name
with CIRA will result in inaccessible website and e-mail addresses.

Applicants wishing to register existing and new .ca domain names
must do so through a CIRA certified registrar. A list of registrars
is available at <http://grive.cira.ca/en/registrar.html>.

For full information on the new system, see <http://grive.cira.ca>
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Cheers all ..
Stephen Loosley
Vermont Secondary
http://www.stephen.ws