Contestant #11 in our guide to registry operators is Community DNS, which emphasizes robust DNS services and has worked with a number of ccTLDs.

Contestant #10, RegistryASP, operates the registries for .HK, .SG, and .CD. They have proven competence with complicated business rules (.HK in particular), and are doing a good job making a name for themselves as a registry provider. Their web site is one of the more informative among our contenders.

Contestant #9 is CORE, the Council of Registrars. They’ve been around longer than anyone except VeriSign, and have an impressive roster of smart people who have launched both commercial and not-so-commercial TLDs. CORE knows ICANN very well, and have provided useful materials on their site.

Contestant #8 in our domain registry speed-dating contest is AusRegistry International (ARI), a young and aggressive company, best known as the operator of the .AU domain. They’ve also just announced the launch of the new .AE registry for the United Arab Emirates, for which they set up the registry software and hardware, and helped form a policy-setting framework for the ministry of communications. Unlike most of our contestants, ARI has a site that’s focused on their registry services offering, which both customers and the competition (ahem) would be well served to check out.

NeuLevel is the domain name registry wing of the giant NeuStar, which brought you the North American Numbering Plan for telephones. NeuLevel’s first baby was .biz, the ugly stepsister (i.e., least popular) of the unrestricted generic top-level domains — due to the name itself, and not NeuLevel’s service, which is top-notch. NeuLevel designed and implemented an impressive two-tier registrar system for .CN (China), and serves as the interface for non-Chinese registrars. Just as impressive, given the touchy political situation, they have done a similar job for .TW (Taiwan). Obviously NeuLevel knows how to handle complicated business rules in their registries.

Demand Media/eNom is Contestant #6 in our Registry Speed-dating Contest. Demand Media bought Paul Stahura’s eNom, and is therefore a strong player in this space. Enom has 11 million domain names under registrar management and crunches enormous amounts of data to analyze domain names and determine their value — of which they have a keen sense. Their entry as a domain name registry operator is therefore no stretch.

Registry Operator Contestant #5 is Directi, the parent company of LogicBoxes (domain registrar/hosting system) and Skenzo (domain parking service), both very successful, full-featured domain name software platforms. Directi has been dabbling with registry services, with involvement in .MN and (soon) in .PW. Now they appear to be throwing their hat in the registry ring in a serious way. As a fast-growing company attracting significant attention and investment, Directi can sink a lot of resources into its registry systems if it’s so inclined.

Contestant #4 in our registry provider speed-dating is CoCCA (Council of Country Code Administrators) is a terrific co-operative of sixteen (and growing) country-code registries. Their open-source software can either be hosted or installed on your machines. Just as important, they have put together a policy framework, providing their members with registration agreements, dispute resolution services, an ombudsman (think drastically reduced legal fees), ICANN liaison, and other important registry functions. Best of all, they work on a cost-plus basis, so it’s very inexpensive.

Contestant #3 in our registry provider speed-dating was CentralNIC, a durable study in an alternate business model. They’ve been around since 1995, selling domain names under a “two-letter-code.com” taxonomy, for instance uk.com, us.com, and so on. While some have whined that this is “cheating” or “unreal”, the fact is that domain names from CentralNIC work just as well as any other, and aren’t subject to the vagaries of ICANN or ccTLD policies. They have a large network of registrars, and are proof that you can do things differently and thrive.

Contestant #2 in our registry provider speed-dating was Afilias.