John Demco

John C. Demco (born November 21, 1952) is a Canadian computer scientist known for his role in establishing and administering the .CA internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Canada. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the Canadian internet.

Demco was allocated .CA from the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) on May 14, 1987. He managed the .CA registry on a volunteer basis from 1987 until December 2000. He also participated in the Canadian Domain Name Consultative Committee, which recommended the establishment of a non-profit organization for the .CA domain, leading to the creation of Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) in December 1998.

Demco became the manager of the Canadian academic and research network CDNnet in 1984, overseeing its growth and development. In 1986, he negotiated with phone companies and the U.S. government to secure a network connection between University of British Columbia (UBC) and the University of Washington (UW).

While working as a computing facilities manager at UBC, he petitioned for and secured .CA (the official country code top-level domain for Canada) from Jon Postel, an American computer scientist who administered the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), on May 14, 1987, He voluntarily managed the .CA registry until 2000, registering and recording more than 100,000 domain registrations

Awards and recognition

Demco is an inductee into Canada’s Internet Hall of Fame