Neil LimWebnames.ca congratulates Co-Founder John Demco for receiving the University of British Columbia’s Honorary Alumnus Award on November 19th, 2014.
Mr. Demco received the award at the University of British Columbia Alumni Achievement Awards Ceremony at the Four Seasons Hotel in Vancouver. Mr. Demco and six UBC alumni were honoured for their various achievements and contributions.
Recognized as “Godfather” of the Canadian Internet, John Demco is an innovator and a key player in establishing Canada’s online presence. Having had the foresight to establish an early online presence for Canada, he founded the .CA domain registry from his UBC office in 1987. For the next 13 years, Mr. Demco managed the .CA registry on a volunteer basis creating infrastructure and policies, and processing up to 5,000 .CA domain registrations per month.
By 2000, more than 100,000 .CA domain names had been registered by Mr. Demco and his team of volunteers. That same year, the responsibility of managing the .CA domain was transferred to the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA), a not-for-profit organization Mr. Demco helped establish with Industry Canada and other stakeholders. Today, Mr. Demco still serves as on CIRA’s Board of Directors and continues to be an active supporter of technology in British Columbia and Canada.
“I am honoured to receive the UBC Honorary Alumnus Award. I am thankful for the great support and encouragement of many individuals and organizations,” says Mr. Demco. “One never knows what might happen, especially in an environment as dynamic as the Internet. However, .CA has performed well and is recognized as the symbol of Canada’s identity on the Internet. While technology doesn’t concern itself with nationality, the .CA domain’s success is proof that the .CA strongly resonates with Canadians.”
In 1997, John Demco was recognized by then Prime Minister Jean Chrétien as a founder and builder of the Canadian Internet. In 2008, the University of British Columbia’s Department of Computer Science honoured Demco by naming its undergraduate computing learning facility as the Demco Learning Centre. Some of Mr. Demco’s past awards and recognitions include a Diamond Jubilee Medal (2013) and a Lifetime Achievement Canadian New Media Award (2006).