<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#CCCCCC" text="#000000">
<div class="moz-forward-container">
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
Fellow Members of the At-Large:<br>
<div class="moz-forward-container">
<div class="moz-forward-container">
<div class="moz-forward-container">
<div class="moz-forward-container">
<div class="moz-forward-container"> <br>
<div class="moz-forward-container">
<div class="moz-forward-container"> I hope you all
will share my delight in last week's resolution by
the the New York Internet Society calling for the
city of New York to hold public hearings before
renewing its contract with Neustar Inc. for the
operation of the .nyc TLD. The resolution stated:
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><b>“The Internet
Society’s New York Chapter urges the city of New
York to provide robust outreach and engagement
opportunities for the city’s Internet
stakeholder community prior to renewing the
contract that will guide the operation of the
.nyc TLD registry for the next 5 years.”</b></p>
<p>The resolution was sent to Mayor Bill deBlasio
and other city officials with oversight of the
city’s digital resources. It cited 14 areas of
concern and called upon the city to undertake a
three stage review before renewing the contract:</p>
<ol>
<li>The City institute a public comment process.</li>
<li>The City convene a town hall event where all
stakeholders may make their views known.</li>
<li>That the City review these comments and, as it
sees fit, make appropriate adjustments.</li>
</ol>
The Internet Society’s New York Chapter (ISOC-NY) is
a NYS non-profit founded in 1997 and also a fellow
At-Large Structure.<br>
<br>
As is touched on in the ISOC-NY letter, there is
minuscule opportunity for meaningful public
engagement in setting our city's Internet policy by
New York City's individual Internet users. This
stems, in part, from our city charter having been
written pre-Internet. An Internet era rewrite is
long overdue. And while there was once a .NYC
Community Advisory Board, it was abolished more than
two years ago. Now the city has indicated that it
plans to renew the Neustar contract without any
public consultation. (The city administration is
seemingly unfamiliar with the concept of
multistakeholder governance.)<br>
<br>
We would appreciate your thoughts and efforts on
achieving our goal of a more responsive,
transparent, and accountable governance of the .nyc
TLD. Please take a couple of minutes to send a short
note to the mayor. <a
href="http://www.nyc.gov/html/static/pages/officeofthemayor/contact.shtml">This
form</a> will allow that. You'll need to select a
topic, I suggest we channel them through the "Ideas
or Suggestions" drop down. <br>
<br>
Sincerely,<br>
<br>
Thomas Lowenhaupt, Director, Connecting.nyc Inc. <br>
Secretary, New York Internet Society<br>
<p>P.S. The full Internet Society resolution is
copied below with a .pdf attached. <br>
</p>
<hr size="2" width="100%">
<blockquote>
<p>February 6 2017</p>
<p>The Internet Society Chapter of the Greater New
York Metropolitan Area<br>
<br>
To: Mayor Bill deBlasio,<br>
Cc: Letitia James, Gale Brewer, Melissa
Mark-Viverito, James Vacca, Sree Srinivasan,<br>
Miguel Gamiño, Jeff Merritt, <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:info@ownit.nyc">info@ownit.nyc</a><br>
</p>
<p>Dear Sirs & Madams,</p>
<p>On March 31 2012 New York City signed a 5 year
contract with Neustar Inc, to manage the .nyc
Top<br>
Level Domain (TLD).[1] The domain was delegated
by ICANN on March 20, 2014 [2], and went into<br>
operation on May 5 2014 [3]. According to
tldstats, as of February 6, 2016, 72,919 domains
are<br>
registered.[4]</p>
<p>The Internet Society’s New York Chapter
(ISOC-NY) is a New York State registered
non-profit founded<br>
in 1997 with the mission “to assure the
beneficial, open evolution of the global
Internet, and to<br>
promote local initiatives, maximize the societal
benefits which the Internet can bring to the New<br>
York area.” As such we have taken a keen
interest in .nyc as a public resource. This has
included<br>
promoting, recording, webcasting, (and, on
occasion, hosting) any and all public events
where the<br>
development of the .nyc TLD has been discussed.</p>
<p>Noting that the Neustar contract is imminently
due for renewal, on January 31, 2017, the
ISOC-NY<br>
Board of Directors passed the following
resolution:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><b>“The Internet Society’s New York Chapter
urges the city of New York to</b><b><br>
</b><b>provide robust outreach and engagement
opportunities for the city’s Internet</b><b><br>
</b><b>stakeholder community prior to renewing
the contract that will guide the</b><b><br>
</b><b>operation of the .nyc TLD registry for
the next 5 years.”</b></p>
</blockquote>
<p>I therefore ask that, before the contract be
renewed.</p>
<p>* The City institute a public comment process.<br>
* The City convene a town hall event where all
stakeholders may make their views known.<br>
* That the City review those comments and views
and, as it sees fit, make appropriate
adjustments.</p>
<p>Sincerely,</p>
<p>Joly MacFie,</p>
<p>President, Internet Society New York Chapter<br>
218 565 9365 <a moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:president@isoc-ny.org">president@isoc-ny.org</a></p>
<br>
[1] <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www1.nyc.gov/assets/forward/documents/dotnyc/Neustar-TLD-Signed%20Agreement_Redacted.pdf">http://www1.nyc.gov/assets/forward/documents/dotnyc/Neustar-TLD-Signed%20Agreement_Redacted.pdf</a><br>
[2] <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.iana.org/reports/c.2.9.2.d/20140314-nyc">https://www.iana.org/reports/c.2.9.2.d/20140314-nyc</a><br>
[3] <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://newgtlds.icann.org/en/program-status/sunrise-claims-periods/nyc">https://newgtlds.icann.org/en/program-status/sunrise-claims-periods/nyc</a><br>
[4] <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://ntldstats.com/tld/nyc">https://ntldstats.com/tld/nyc</a><br>
[5] <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://bit.ly/2kiAozP">http://bit.ly/2kiAozP</a><br>
[6] <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://bit.ly/2kAci22">http://bit.ly/2kAci22</a><br>
[7] <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://bit.ly/2kA9mma">http://bit.ly/2kA9mma</a><br>
[8] <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.ownit.nyc/faq">http://www.ownit.nyc/faq</a><br>
[9] <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.ownit.nyc/restricted-reserved">http://www.ownit.nyc/restricted-reserved</a><br>
[10] <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www1.nyc.gov/site/forward/initiatives/dotnyc/dotnycdocs.page">http://www1.nyc.gov/site/forward/initiatives/dotnyc/dotnycdocs.page</a><br>
[11] <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://youtu.be/yH0clLwPEfo">https://youtu.be/yH0clLwPEfo</a><br>
<p>-----</p>
<p>Appendix 1 - Observations & Nitpicks</p>
<p>* Since a December 2015 high of 87,960 the
number of registrations has been in<br>
steady decline - down approximately 16% [4]</p>
<p>* 60% of registered domains are parked. [4]</p>
<p>* According to connecting.nyc many auctioned
premium names are non-functional/up<br>
for resale. [5]</p>
<p>* Neustar Inc.itself is being sold [6]</p>
<p>* The Community Advisory Board set up by the
City [7] never had public meetings<br>
or published minutes, and appears to have been
summarily disbanded.</p>
<p>* The FAQ on the ownit.nyc website appears not
to have been updated since<br>
the launch.[8]</p>
<p>* Also the ownit.nyc site does not include a
list of reserved names (link is RGP list). [9]</p>
<p>* However, in 2015, the Mayor’s Office did make
a proper info page. [10]</p>
<p>* The contract says: “Neustar shall publish the
website in English and the top six<br>
non-English languages spoken by City residents,
as set forth by Executive Order<br>
120 (dated July 22, 2008) (“E.O. 120”). This is
only done using google translate,<br>
thus not checked for accuracy.</p>
<p>* After outreach “community webinars” were held
in just 2 of the 5 boroughs. The<br>
rollout of ‘neighborhood names’ seems
stalled.[11]</p>
<p>* The neighborhoods.nyc template only includes
modules from the City’s vendor<br>
with no open API or process to include 3rd
parties e.g. BetaNYC.</p>
<p>* Clause 6(g) of the contract calls on Neustar
to conduct 50 nexus spot checks/week.<br>
There is no documentation that this has been
done.</p>
<p>* The nexus requirement, while desirable, may
inhibit personal use of .nyc because of<br>
privacy concerns, as all info is available via
whois. The City might want to<br>
instigate a proxy mechanism for individuals.</p>
<p>* ownit.nyc is not available via IPv6. And also
the IPv6 nameserver appears to<br>
give a different result to the IPv4 nameservers.
If so, this is not kosher.</p>
...end...</blockquote>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>