Internet á Íslandi (Iceland Internet), usually called ISNIC, manages the registry for the .is country-code top-level domain according to the priciples specified in the registration rules of .is domains. ISNIC stands for "IS Network Information Center".

When I started working for ISNIC, late last century, they were still receiving applications for domains on paper via fax. You could not apply for a domain online. ISNIC had a lot of registration rules for the .is domains and a high persentage of the applications were rejected due to lack of formality. During my time at the company the rules changed but the general rule for registrations of domains with ISNIC remains the same "first come, first served".

During my stay at ISNIC I fought for creating a new, user-friendly website but did not succeed - although when I left the company most applications did come through the web, it was/is not very user-friendly and because of that we had to do a lot of customer service, helping people apply for domains on the website.

My vision for ISNIC was to create a website that was very user-friendly with clear navigation and effective self-service options - and I was not afraid to voice my opinion on that. That is why the CEO of ISNIC contacted me in 2010 and asked me to work for them as a project manager to put together a new website, but since I had decided to move to Denmark I had to decline.

I soon became the "voice of ISNIC". If you needed help registering, I was the one you talked to - and I would be the one to reject applications.

One of my responsibilities as Marketing manager at ISNIC was to select the Christmas card ISNIC sent out to it's biggest clients every year to the hosting companies in Iceland. My first year I was looking through a folder full of cards and I knew this wasn't good enough. We were a very unpopular company and rejected a lot of applications due to formality and had great communication problems with our customers - and this is where I got an idea.

I talked to my superiors and they liked the idea so I talked to the illustrator Brian Pilkington and with him the first ISNIC Christmas card was produced.

"Hafnað" means "rejected" and "samþykkt" means "approved".

I sent Brian back three times to make her more horrible and mean looking, and each time he looked puzzled and asked: "this is you? this is a Christmas card?"

Turned out I was right, this is exactly how our customers saw me and the card was such a huge success that some of our clients asked if they could get it as a poster. Of course they could. This Christmas card changed the company image over night. Yes, ISNIC was a rigid company with strict rules, yes we should have a way to apply online but we didn't, and yes we were old fashioned and boring - but at least we had a sense of humor about it. The communication problems with the hosting companies decreased dramatically and there was no doubt, we would do this again next year.

In 2002 we sent out a card where we make fun of our systems administrator where he has accidentally unplugged the Internet. Everybody knew ISNIC was a UNIX based company and this card was a hit as well.

Ironically, three weeks before Christmas, we had a black-out in the building where ISNIC resided and the backup system didn't kick in. With the .is root servers offline, all .is domains disappeared for a few minutes.

On the banner above us in the 2003 card it says: "Our policy is to give our customers personal assistance" - obviously untrue since ISNIC's goal was to handle all registrations directly through the website. This year I asked Brian to make a picture of a group photo, that would be easily changed later into a photo where we are all injured.

Inside the card was a small voodoo-like doll, pins and below it is written: "This is an ISNIC employee. Prick him if something is wrong."

When I was making the dolls for this project I ended up with something very different I called Magic dolls.

On the banner above us it says "We thank you for your business this year". Obviously the doll had been used quite often and the staff broken and bruised.

Inside the card it says (in very small letters):

"Our insurance company has forbidden us to send a ISNIC employee out this year"

No ISNIC employee got hurt or injured during the year of 2004.

When we first started registering the special character domains we knew it was a can of worms. The rule "first come, first served" still applied - but now someone could register rúv.is, even though the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service is called "RÚV" and owned ruv.is.

I wanted to make fun of the special character domains in this years Christmas card and finally found the spin.

The ISNIC Christmas cards became very popular and sough after - and it isn't hard to produce something fantastic when you work with someone like Brian Pilkington. We had a very successful partnership, no matter what I asked him to draw, he did it to perfection and exactly like I had in-visioned it.

There was no card for 2006 since I had left the company to work for Glitnir bank so "Can of worms" was the last card Brian painted for us.

Brian's originals in ISNIC's headquarters:

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