Back in the ’90s, when one-strapped overalls, mood rings, Zubaz pants, pagers, discmen and Jumbo Video had taken the world by storm, Kevin Powers was tinkering with the internet and web development. Public access to the internet was new and mostly came in the form of online discussion boards. Yearning to connect with others who had similar interests, Kevin and a group of friends leveraged this new technology to launch a Jeep-related forum—because that was the thing to do back then—hosted on a free platform.
While Kevin and his friends were enthralled by the internet’s proliferation, founder and internet visionary, John Demco and a group of his friends, were in the midst of forming a little-known not-for-profit organization that would become the managers of Canada’s internet domain, .CA. And if you haven’t guessed it yet…that’s us. CIRA!
Back in the wild west of the internet, Kevin and his Jeep-loving friends, visionaries themselves, jumped on the idea of securing a small space on the internet just for them. Kevin registered jeepgarage.ca, starting his journey as a CIRA member through Canada’s internet domain.
Back in the early aughts, CIRA membership looked different to today—every domain registered automatically became a member, represented by its domain holder. Now, domain holders must opt in for CIRA membership.
Fast forward to now, jeepgarage.ca is Kevin’s personal blog about (you guessed it!) Jeeps!
The avid techie that he is, Kevin didn’t stop there. He runs his own at home Pi-Hole DNS server and leverages CIRA’s Canadian Shield technology (a free public DNS for Canadians) to protect his internal network.
As a member and .CA holder, Kevin is a proud supporter of CIRA’s contributions to Canada’s internet. He stays in the loop with our latest activities and participates in CIRA events including our virtual meetups, our annual general meeting and most recently, our first virtual Canadians Connected on the future of the internet.
Thank you, Kevin, for over a decade of your membership, loyalty and support!
Have you been a CIRA member for over 10 years? We’d like to hear about your .CA domain and membership journey—submit your story!
About CIRA membership
CIRA is a member-based organization that values the input of its members and their contributions to enabling a trusted internet. Having a .CA and being a CIRA member supports the great work we do for Canada’s internet.
Membership is free and exclusively for .CA holders. It remains active as long as your domain remains registered—there’s no additional renewal process beyond renewing your .CA domain name!
If you’re not a member and have a .CA domain name—become one! Don’t have a .CA domain name? What are you waiting for—register yours today.
As the Manager of Membership Relations at CIRA, Julie manages the development, planning and delivery of CIRA’s membership and Member-related activities and engagement. She strives to create opportunities for Members and consumers, and partners to share, connect, and learn and get the most out of their relationship with CIRA.
