The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in November 2000, selected seven new top-level domains (TLDs) for negotiation of agreements. The seven domains and their intended purposes are as follows: .aero (Air transport industry); .biz (Businesses); .coop (Cooperatives); .info (Unrestricted use); .museum (Museums); .name (Registration by individuals); and, .pro (Accountants, lawyers and physicians). See www.icann.com for complete details.

While no companies have been accredited yet to register names in the new TLDs a company called RegistryPro (www.registrypro.com) anticipates taking registrations in mid 2001 for .pro. Domain applicants for .pro will be required to provide verification that they are qualified professionals in good standing. Sub-domain strings will be available such as .law.pro, .med.pro and .cpa.pro, with others to be added, that will enable users to easily identify the professional field they seek.

On a related note, the number of .com, .net and .org domain registrations has grown from 1.543 million in 1997 to 28.2 million in 2000.

Meanwhile….an article, Fleeing the dot.com era, first published in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO Courier, states that "for the first time, evidence has emerged of a widespread tendency to abandon the Internet." Citing a study by Cyber Dialog, an Internet research group, evidence suggests that the rate of Internet "growth is decelerating overall, and that an absolute decline in the number of users aged 18 to 29 is underway." While the reasons are not clear why persons are abandoning use, the research suggests that approximately one third of U.S. adults simply do not believe they need the Internet while others have become disgruntled with "the transformation of a computer-linked community into a marketplace." The article may be read online at http://www.unesco.org/courier/2001_02/uk/index.htm

LINKS
Board Café bills itself as the first electronic newsletter exclusively for members of nonprofit boards 
www.boardcafe.org

The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) is the umbrella body for the voluntary sector in England with sister councils in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Included in its website is a number of Board Development Factsheets that cover such topics as Board Self-Assessment, Building an Effective Board, Strengthening Board Leadership and Board-Staff Relationships. 
http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/main/about/info/tbdp_facts.html

For information on the European Community's Telemedicine Project visit: http://www.cee.hw.ac.uk/Databases/telemed.html

Washington State University provides a Computer Resource Unit of multiple hotlinks to many sites that offer online training courses.
http://cru.cahe.wsu.edu/training/trainTOC.html

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