CIRA Annual Report 2007-2008

Although originally scheduled for April 2008,WHOIS implementation was postponed by60 days to better address technical concernsvoiced by Registrars and to adjust policy andprocedures to better accommodate the needsof law enforcement and trademark holders.The resulting WHOIS sets dot-ca as a leader inInternet privacy, and is a prime example of howpolicy and public interest can drive technology.WORKING WITH CERTIFIED REGISTRARSWhile CIRA maintains the dot-ca Registry, itdoes not directly offer registration, renewal,or transfer of individual dot-ca domain namesto Registrants. Instead a nationwide networkof CIRA Certified Registrars provides theseservices to customers. Registrars also offer avariety of accompanying services such as webhosting and website development, to enabledomain holders to maintain their domain names.As of March 31, 2008, CIRA counted 146 CertifiedRegistrars, a net increase of 20 over the prior12 months. During the year 23 new registrars“were certified, while 3 certifications expired. Alist of CIRA certified Registrars is available onCIRA’s website at http://ro.cira.ca/re_choose_en.CIRA’s wholesale pricing to Registrars in fiscal’07 – ’08 remained steady at $8.50 Cdn per domainname per year — exactly the same price as since2005. Retail pricing is determined by individualRegistrars based on their business needs andincludes the cost of providing support, registrationsystems, payment processing, and additionalservices (such as domain parking or DNS) offeredby the Registrar.CIRA STAFF PROFILEI work on continuouslyimproving our softwareapplications, which isgreat because I’m aperfectionist. My majorproject last year wasthe new dot-ca WHOISwhich added privacyprotection.— Anne Marie Walton,Application Developer”2007–2008 CIRA Annual Report17