Dot-org has a new operator.

The domain registry most nonprofits call their Internet stomping grounds switched operators in January. Reston, Va.-based Public Interest Registry (PIR) assumed control as dot-org domain registry operator and was scheduled to complete technical switchover by month's end.

"The beauty of this is that all the work is being done in the background," said PIR Chairman David Maher. "The user (or registrant of a domain name) should find it totally transparent."

The dot-org domain, usually associated with noncommercial organizations, is the Internet's fifth-largest top-level domain and houses some 2.4 million domain names worldwide. The operator switchover is the "largest transfer of data from one registry to another in the history of the Internet," according to PIR.

Afilias Limited will handle the registry's back-end services, and will receive approximately two-thirds of an estimated $14 million PIR will earn from wholesale registration fees.

A registry operator, in this case the nonprofit PIR, runs the domain registry. Approximately 150 companies, known as registrars, sell domain names. The dot-org registry will remain open to for-profit companies.

Officials at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a Marina del Rey, Calif., nonprofit overseeing the Internet's name and address functions, chose the newly created PIR over 11 other organizations last year.

No hitches were reported a few weeks into January, an ICANN spokeswoman said.

PIR outlined several services in its original bid, including creating a dotorg advisory council, developing services that monitor a dot-org domain name, giving organizations the opportunity to submit their sites to various search engines, protecting organizations from spamming, and making a free dot-org directory that lists registered dot-org domains.

PIR is scheduled to establish an advisory council of 21 members by March 1.

Nearly all the other services probably would be available by the end of 2003, Maher said. A fee structure for services hadn't been determined as of press time.

VeriSign, an Internet addressing company, relinquished its rights to operate the dot-org registry as of this past December for competitive reasons. VeriSign still operates the dot-corn and dot-net registries.