Annalisa Roger

Person
◀ ▶
ICANN group	DotGreen
Region	NA
Country	United States of America
Websites	annalisaroger.co
Achievements

Annalisa Roger founded DotGreen in 2007, and continues to be its CEO. She is also the co-Founder and co-Chair of San Francisco's regional chapter of ISOC. Annalisa is also a NARALO liaison and has previously worked in a variety of ALAC Working Groups.

Her involvement with DotGreen and the general ICANN process allows her to give insightful presentations to individuals who do not have the same inside knowledge.

In January 2012, Annalisa wrote a letter to Steve Crocker and the ICANN Board of Directors in support of ICANN's global, multistakeholder work with the New gTLD Program, urging them not to delay the launch of the program.

Ms. Roger was a speaker at The Domaining Europe 2012 conference, held in April 2012. She spoke about the positive prospects for .green and also participated on a moderated panel on "New Business Opportunities in New gTLDs".

Annalisa is also involved with Women's Issues. She was appointed by the Marin County Board of Supervisors as a Women’s Commissioner in 2010. She is set to hold this post until 2013. She also is involved in Women in DNS, a network that meets alongside the tri-annual ICANN meetings.

DotGreen

DotGreen marks the first environmental TLD initiative. "Green" in this context is not only an internationally recognized symbol for environmentalism and progress, it is even more specifically an acronym for Global Response to Environmental and Economic Necessities. Its registry services have been contracted to Neustar. The .green extension is aimed to serve the environmentally concerned community around the globe and to give back to green organizations all over the world.

She has been spreading her .green message since 2007 and has recently attended Green-related events in Denver, New York, San Francisco, Rio de Janeiro, and elsewhere. Her DotGreen company has also planned a green-centric event prior to the beginning of ICANN meetings since ICANN 43 in Costa Rica.

Background

Annalisa comes from a family that has been deeply involved in ICANN and the development of the Internet and its DNS. Her father, Peter de Blanc, was an Internet pioneer and the initial administrator of the Virgin Island's .vi ccTLD. He was responsible for the implementation of free, public access to text-based Internet service in the mid-90s on the islands; he also started the first ISP and website in the region and provided computers and IT-based education to local schools. He was also instrumental in developing ICANN's ccNSO. Her step-mother, Dotty Sparks de Blanc, is the current administrator of the .vi ccTLD.

Ms. Roger had the idea for .green after attending a family reunion timed around ICANN's 2006 meeting in New Zealand. She had returned from the trip and was working with a friend on a photography-related website when she saw a photo that changed her life forever. As she explains, "[the photo] depicted an elegantly dressed woman sitting in the center of a lush green New Zealand fern tree. In this image, I saw a sophisticated civilization elevated on the throne of nature and I literally screamed as .green entered my mind! It was a sudden vision – and extraordinary experience for me and those in the room. It totally sounds crazy, but that’s how it happened!"

She began working within the ICANN and green communities towards the realization of a .green TLD shortly thereafter. Her bid for .green is the longest public project for the string and through DotGreen's sustained marketing efforts likely one of the most well-known and supported. Her DotGreen is the only applicant for .green that is a single-string applicant, and not a portfolio applicant applying for multiple TLDs.

Comments & Reactions

Her work with DotGreen was noted in an August 2011 opinion piece by former ICANN Chair, Esther Dyson, who opposes the new gTLD process as is. Ms. Roger notably defended the value of her own project, which Dyson seems to recognize as more inherently valuable than other namespaces, but still sees as possibly unnecessary.

In December 2011, Ms. Roger sent a letter to the U.S. senate and applicable parties in order to spread a positive message about ICANN, its new gTLD program, and the potential it brings with it. The letter was sent ahead of a series of hearings scheduled for the U.S. Senate and Congress, that seems to mainly be brought about through the anti-TLD lobbying of the Association of National Advertisers. Annalisa Roger offered her opinions as an invested member of the ICANN community that participated throughout the whole gTLD expansion process, and as an individual looking forward to furthering innovation on the Internet through gTLDs. Her letter can be read here.

In August 2012, Annalisa Roger sent a letter to ICANN's GAC asking them to consider the benefits of DotGreen's bid for the .green TLD over its competitors. While the DotGreen application is not a community application, the appeal stresses the many benefits for the green movement that DotGreen has worked into its business model. The letter seems to imply that the GAC should object to the other bids for .green that have not built in the same benefits to the green movement. The letter can be downloaded here.

Fun Fact

Annalisa has been a swimsuit model for Speedo in the past. Her passion for nature began at a very young age, growing up in a mountain cabin in Northern California and riding horses in the area's states and national parks.

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Annalisa is interviewed by Raymond King about DotGreen and the implications of the New gTLD Program's auction process.

North America, according to the ICANN Geographic Regions (ICANN Geographic Regions).

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Governmental Advisory Committee. Considers and provides advice on the activities of ICANN as they relate to concerns of governments, particularly matters where there may be an interaction between ICANN's policies and various laws and international agreements or where they may affect public policy issues (ICANN Bylaws).