As in previous years, this autumn the Serbian National Internet Domain Name Registry Foundation (RNIDS) is launching its traditional promotional and educational campaign for Internet users in Serbia. The topic of this year's campaign, titled "Znamo se sa Neta" (I Know You From the Net), is business and personal cyber-identity, aimed at sole traders and individuals who need to publicise their work or themselves on the Internet.
The campaign has been inspired by the needs of the modern entrepreneur in Serbia, the small business owner registered as a sole trader, who is regarded in law and by the business environment as a “private individual with a rubber stamp”, that is, an individual for whom business and life, company and family, official and private are constantly interwoven. The sole trader is in a constant state of identity limbo, with a very fine, sometimes non-existent line between his or her business identity as a company and his or her personal identity as a citizen, in terms of ownership, and before the law.
Today, when cyber-identity via a presence on the Internet is also of great importance, he needs to manage his profile in the virtual world both as a businessman and as an individual. This is why the “I Know You From the Net!” campaign aims to give useful advice both on on-line business identity and on personal cyber-identity, on the websites www.nazivfirme.co.rs and www.imeprezime.in.rs respectively. A presence on social networks in and of itself is no guarantee of having an on-line identity, since these are websites owned by a third party. Someone else sets all the rules there, and can revoke your company or personal web presence at any moment, or deny access to the content you have published there, or even to the address at which it was “located”. That is why the best way to secure both types of on-line identity is owning a permanent address on your own Internet domain. Using this address, anyone can find and recognise your company or you at any time.
As a business owner or member of the public in Serbia, the most cost-effective and optimal solution is to use one of the national Internet domains that have been specially priced for you. As an entrepreneur you can register your business-related .CO.RS or .ПР.СРБ Internet domain for less than 1000 dinars a year (around €8), and as a member of the public your personal IN.RS or ОД.СРБ Internet domain for just a few hundred dinars a year, depending on your chosen accredited registrar. This gives you control over your own on-line identity, since you can use this Internet domain both for your website address and email address, whether business or personal.
Registration of national .RS and .СРБ domain names can be carried out by one of 40 accredited registrars in Serbia. The entire process of selecting, registering and paying for a domain name can also be done on-line on the website of a registrar in as little as a few minutes. The first step towards getting your domain is checking its availability at domen.rs/whois. After this you can choose an accredited registrar at domen.rs/registri.