Webnames.ca StaffWebnames.ca, Co-Founder, John Demco was awarded a Queen Elizabeth
II Diamond Jubilee Medal this week. John was awarded this medal for his
contributions to the .CA domain and to Canada’s online presence. Mr. Rick Adams, the ICT Manager for the City
of Coquitlam, also received the award.
Given to outstanding Canadians who have made significant contributions
to a particular province, territory, region or community, the award
recognizes over 60,000 deserving Canadians. John Demco started managing
the .CA
domain in 1987 from his office at the University of British Columbia
and for 13 years, administered the .CA registry on a volunteer basis. In
December 2000, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) took
over operations of the .CA. Since then, Mr. Demco has continued to be
an active supporter of technology in British Columbia and Canada. He is a
founding member of CIRA’s Board of Directors and has also served on the
board of BCNET.
The .CA domain has celebrated many milestones over the past few years
including the celebration of two million .CA domains registered and its
25th Anniversary, both occurring in 2012.
“In the very early days of .CA, it wasn’t apparent that the registry
would grow so quickly,” said John Demco, “However, by the late 1980’s
the academic and research networks had begun to grow rapidly, even
though the absolute numbers weren’t yet large. With the introduction of
the web and commercialization, things really took off.” John Demco is
honoured to be named as a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond
Jubilee Medal. The award ceremony will be hosted by i-Canada and BCNET
at the SFU Harbour Centre in Vancouver. The awards will be presented by
Barry Gander, co-founder of i-Canada and Dianne Watts, Mayor of the City
of Surrey.
All of us at Webnames.ca are very proud and offer a huge congratulations to John!