CENTR
CENTR ( C ouncil of E uropean N ational T op-Level Domain R egistries) is an international "non-profit" (non-profit) association of ccTLD registries .
The lobby organization , now based in Brussels , was founded in 1998 initially with a purely European focus, but membership is now open to any registry that manages a ccTLD in accordance with ISO 3166-1 .
The main purpose is lobbying , in particular the representation of ccTLD interests vis-à-vis ICANN . Here the organization takes a decentralized position compared to the often centralized ideas of ICANN and argues that every national Internet community should manage its own top level domain according to guidelines that appear locally suitable. This is necessary due to the variety of national laws and other circumstances. ICANN, on the other hand, sees advantages for the stability, performance and usability of the Internet if global standards are adhered to.
This fundamental conflict was also a main theme of the World Summit on the Information Society . He often expresses himself in the accusation that the global standards envisaged by ICANN are American, which is due not least to the dependence of ICANN on the US Department of Commerce . In addition, fears are sometimes expressed that the USA would like to control its invention of the Internet via the ICANN vehicle in the future. The opposite position points to the realities of the financing of the Internet and ICANN itself, in both cases mainly the American government and American companies were involved.
In addition to representing the interests of the association, there are other tasks. It organizes external and internal specialist conferences on technical, organizational and legal issues relating to the operation of ccTLD registries. In addition, the best practices (informal, but proven methods) of the almost 40 members (as of the end of 2005) are collected and documented.