Future of .org is to be decided soon

Tue Jul 16 08:55:57 PDT 2002

On Mon, Jul 15, 2002 at 02:45:35PM -0700, Mark C. Langston wrote:
> I'd recommend BayLISA steer clear, as an organization.  Particularly
> if it cannot afford to send representatives to the semi-regular meetings
> ICANN holds, in far-off locales (Melbourne, Stockholm, Montevideo,
> Accra, Bucharest, Shanghai).  No decisions of any import are made in any
> forum other than the in-person meetings, and ICANN has repeatedly failed
> in its mandate to provide open participation in these meetings by taking
> advantage of existing technology.  The few times they've tried, they've
> opted to use proprietary codecs using Windows-only software.  They
> tried IRC once, and -- realizing they couldn't control the participants
> -- gave up on it.  ICANN operates more like a star chamber than the
> NewCo described in the White Paper.

For those who don't follow British history, the Star Chamber was a very
private privy council which would pre-draft edicts for the king to sign,
usually consigning someone to The Tower so their lands could be stripped
and taken by the state. 

> > (In the mean time, I encourage BayLISA members to read proposals and
> > lobby for those that they believe will be best for the community.)
> > 
> 
> ICANN has long since demonstrated that they are uninterested and
> unconcerned with public input.  They've systematically ignored
> the requirements put forth in the White Paper, and even those in
> the Dept. of Commerce MoU.  They manufacture consensus from the
> top down, and many insiders believe the .org selection to be a
> fait accompli.

One of course wonders then, what the logical result of them picking
something undesirable is.

I already see occasional failures of certain pieces of the internet to
reach each other anyway;  this is likely to get worse.

  . | .   Heather Stern                  |         star at starshine.org
--->*<--- Starshine Technical Services - * - consulting at starshine.org
  ' | `   Sysadmin Support and Training  |        (800) 938-4078