7 Ways in How We at .ME Responded to the Coronavirus Crisis
Here at .ME we believe in the power of community, both online and offline. With the challenges presented by the novel COVID-19 virus that is affecting all of us on a global scale, we have taken actions to help and support our community members during the coronavirus crisis.
.ME Made a Donation to Support the Healthcare
Since the very beginning, the ME registry has been investing in the community, especially when it comes to educating children and investing in the tech sector. However, in light of the current criss, .ME recognized that perhaps the most important contribution now is to support the healthcare system. So we made a donation and made a video as a public appeal to everyone to stay safe and stay at home.
.ME donated 25.000€ for the acquisition of respirator and protective medical gear to the National Coordination Body for Communicable Diseases of Montenegro.
.ME Waiving the RGP Fee to Help Registrants not Lose Their Domains
Having in mind the economic impact the Covid-19 pandemic may have on the .ME community we decided to help .ME domain holders who have trouble renewing their domains by waiving the RGP fee for the participating registrars from May 1st until July 31st.
What does this mean? Usually, when a registrant (i.e. the domain name holder) doesn’t renew a domain, registrar deletes it, and then the registrant is given an opportunity to pay a one-time fee and reclaim the domain before it goes back into the pool of available domains. This fee is called an RGP fee and the system is designed to, primarily, protect registrants who fail to renew their domains on time.
At the times when online presence is becoming more important than ever, we hope that this would be a huge incentive for our registrars, who decide on the price of the RGP fee, to join our program and pass the waiver to registrants. Together, let’s make sure that .ME remains about YOU!
A Series of Blog Posts to Help You Cope with Remote Working During Coronavirus Crisis
As we already mentioned, at the very beginning of the Flatten the curve campaigns across the world, here at .ME we realised that we, as a team that often works remotely, can contribute to the discussion in resolving the challenges of remote work. Our blog series on remote working aimed to ease the transition from the in-office surroundings and communication to an unknown phase of working from home.
You can find our tips and tricks on our blog! So far, we’ve written articles on how to work productively from home, what are the most important digital tools your team can use while working remotely, how to overcome challenges remote work might bring on, how to avoid possible burnout and many more.
We Partnered with our Friends to Help You Create Your Website for $0.99
With the recent growth of unemployment and this time of economic uncertainty, a number of workers in the U.S. and around the world turned to freelance, and we want to help, not only by advising in their “how to freelance” research but also to offer a domain and a website builder for $0.99, with the hope that it would give them a hand to kick start their freelance carrier.
Our friends from Porkbun, helped us in offering you the first-year registration of a .ME domain name and a three-month Weebly website builder service for $0.99. It’s time you express yourself with a personalised domain! To claim the offer, use WORKWITHME code at checkout and activate the free builder through Domain Management.
.ME also partnered with our friends from Register.it to offer you the quickest way to get your personal brand online. Register a .ME domain for 0,99 EUR (applies to the first-year registration), activate “Microsite” in the control panel and publish your site. Please note that the offer is valid for EU countries only.
If you are interested, through our landing page you can register your .ME domain for free.
We hope you use this opportunity to build your brand online and grow your career! To further help you along, we are doing our best to help everyone to make a memorable online presence by sharing tips and tricks on how to create a website in a quick and easy manner. For more details – stay tuned!
We Organised an Online Programming Competition – DoMEn Cup and an Online Guide for Programming for Kids
For many years, .ME and the Faculty of Science, University of Montenegro, have been making efforts to bridge the gap between formal education and programming as a key skill to have in these modern times. By partnering together, in addition to the DoMEn School of Programming for kids age 10 to 18, which runs throughout the school year, we have organised DoMEn Cup – the only online programming competition for elementary and high school students in Montenegro.
Held entirely online, the DoMEn Cup is an opportunity for young programmers who nowadays spend their days at home to test their knowledge and measure strength with peers across the country, without requiring them to even leave the comforts of their living rooms.
Hey, if they have to stay at home, we might as well give them something interesting and challenging to do! 🙂
And to be honest, you won’t find us sitting still, twiddling with our thumbs, so it should not come as a surprise that we poured our efforts in empowering our youngest minds. Through our project STEM Edukacija (STEM Education) we created an online guide that turns Scratch programming classes for children into a game – something that kids and parents can do together for fun during these days. More to come soon, so stay tuned! We cannot stress enough how excited we are!
Doing Our Part in Putting an End to Fake News
In times of the worldwide coronavirus crisis, when the panic spreads like wildfire, fake news is the toughest enemy to fight. News circling around the internet claiming to have found the home remedy for the coronavirus or how to do an efficient self-test at home, are only adding more heat to the general panic.
Partnering up with Digitalizuj.ME, one of the first digital hubs in the Western Balkan region, we created a series of articles for local news on how to recognise fake news. We covered topics from how to speak to your children about fake news, to what is the impact of deepfakes and if we can ever again believe our own eyes and ears. We feel that it is very important to help our community and everyone else, recognise the fake news the moment they spot them, as the harm information like this makes can be quite damaging.
An Acknowledgement to Gen Alpha Parents
At last, our regular Gen Alpha posts, written by parents of Gen Alpha children for parents, are always directed towards helping parents to use the wonders of the digital age in educating and entertaining their children. Many times we touched upon the so-called misconceptions of raising your children in the era of the touchscreen technology and debunked myths surrounding the same.
During coronavirus crisis, parents are doing their best to balance home and work lives (we are here for you) while keeping their children aware of what is happening in the world and not scaring them at the same time, we directed our Gen Alpha blog series to capture the essence of what the parole stay at home truly means for parents. Therefore, we tackled topics like how to motivate your children to learn and how to entertain your children during this impromptu staycation.
Before We Go
We hope that this coronavirus crisis has not significantly impacted you and your family. Here at .ME we sincerely believe that any situation however bad can be turned into an opportunity to grow as people and help others and do go for others. .ME will continue to contribute to those in crisis and help them restart their careers by offering a domain name registration and a website builder for $0.99. To make sure you are well equipped, we shared some advice on how to use your online resources to help you see beneficial results.
Hope you and your loved ones are staying safe and healthy.
With love,
.ME
