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More domain industry response to coronavirus

Kevin Murphy, March 18, 2020, 17:24:38 (UTC), Domain Registrars

It’s beginning to look like home-working has become the norm, rather than the exception, in the domain name industry.
Following on my post Monday, here are the latest companies and organizations to provide updates on their responses to the coronavirus pandemic.

  • ICANN has told its staff in Brussels, Geneva and Singapore to work from home, while recommending that its guys in Istanbul, LA and Washington DC do the same. Staff in Montevideo and Nairobi, where confirmed cases of the virus are pretty light, will carry on as normal for now. The edict will be in effect until March 31. One imagines there’s a good chance it could be renewed.
  • In the UK, Nominet said yesterday that it has “initiated home-working across all our teams from today” and expects “business as usual”. All in-person events through the end of May have been postponed.
  • In Ireland, registry IEDR said that it closed its offices in Dublin on Friday and may reopen March 30, pending further government guidance. Like other registries, IEDR said it’s already well-equipped for staff to work remotely.
  • Also in Ireland, registrar Blacknight Solutions tells me its team are also now working from home.
  • Canada-based registrar Tucows said: “On Sunday March 8, Tucows’ executive leadership announced that all employees who could conceivably work from home were encouraged to do so in the week that followed. On Monday, it looked like an overabundance of caution but by Thursday morning it seemed prescient.” While there is expected to be no impact to the registrar side of the house, the Ting Internet ISP arm has cancelled and rescheduled all home egineering visits, which obviously could cause customer disruption.
  • French registrar Gandi, operating under some of the world’s most stringent government guidelines, said yesterday its staff are naturally enough now all working from home.
  • Not strictly domain industry, but the World Intellectual Property Organization said yesterday it has limited access to its Geneva headquarters to only “essential” staff.
  • US-based registrar MarkMonitor said Monday it has implemented a remote-working regime for its staff.

Given how dog-bites-man such announcements have rapidly become, I doubt I’ll be following up this series of posts again, unless something truly extraordinary happens. It’s pretty safe to assume that before long almost everyone in the industry will be working from home.

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