[NA-Discuss] "What's At Stake" gTLD conference - The City View
Thomas Lowenhaupt
toml at communisphere.com
Fri Oct 21 18:43:45 UTC 2011
At this point there's a bum's rush to get cities online. (As well as
everyone else, .lowenhaupt for only 500K
<https://plus.google.com/u/0/114753028665775786510/posts/BRupnoLpzqD>
how can I resist!)
In the instance of New York City, there appears to have been little
serious preparation for the process by city government
<http://connectingnyc.org/tick-tock/>. Yet hubris demands that Paris,
Berlin, London... not get there before us.
The ICANN hasn't prepared cities for optimizing this Critical Internet
Resource. Nor have the nation-states.
For city bureaucrats its been a hurry up and wait
<http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/hurry+up+and+wait> game that's been
developed around the globe in 41 venues over 13 years, leaving the city
off guard. "We'll pay serious attention when the deadline arises." was
the reasonable response I received from an overworked city bureaucrat
last year. Events like "What's At Stake" provide one more reason to
procrastinate - "Is it really happening?"
Now, with no time to think through the potentials - it took 3 years to
put the Commissioners Plan of 1811 together that set up Manhattan's
street grid - we should not be surprised when carelessness, chicanery,
and cronyism result.
What's to be done?
I recently suggested to a leading registry operator that cities should
be able to submit an "intention to file" along with the requisite check,
enabling them to complete a baseline study
<http://www.coactivate.org/projects/campaign-for.nyc/from-darpa-to-carpa> and
make optimum use of this critical Internet resource. "Can't be done.
They'd need to make exceptions for everyone else. Unfair."
I know some on this list have expressed a "TLDs and cities, what a
waste" attitude. And there are too many important issues for At-Large to
give them all their due. And I sometimes suspect I'm the only list
participant with city planning / operations / governance experience - if
that's the case outreach is required (last I checked cities are home to
more than 1/2 the human race.)
So let me make another plea: Please At-large, will you take a look at
the situation with cities and TLDs? Will you help provide the time and
structure so that a reasoned plan for city-TLDs can be developed? Will
you help organize a study of the potentials of TLDs providing a digital
grid for city resources?
We can blame city administrators, ICANN, GAC, and lots of others for the
situation. But it's the city residents - the old, the young, the
healthy, the weak - who will be the real losers if At-Large doesn't act.
It's the At-Large that represents the cities and its residents at ICANN,
not the GNSO.
It just seems so wasteful to allow this resource to be squandered.
I hope you find the resources to step-up on this issue.
Best,
Tom Lowenhaupt
-----------------------------------------------
Thomas Lowenhaupt, Founder & Chair
Connecting.nyc Inc.
tom at connectingnyc.org <mailto:tom at connectingnyc.org>
Jackson Hts., NYC 11372
718 639 4222
Blog <http://www.coactivate.org/projects/campaign-for.nyc/blog/> - Wiki
<http://www.coactivate.org/projects/campaign-for.nyc/project-home> -Web
<http://www.connectingnyc.org/>
On 10/20/2011 6:23 PM, Evan Leibovitch wrote:
> It's seeming highly likely that numerous issues -- notably the issue
> of applicant support in developing countries -- may demand a
> committment to multiple rounds. The ICANN Board committed at the last
> meeting to establishing a fund -- and seeding that fund with $2M --
> for this purpose. Notwithstanding community (ie, GNSO, GAC and ALAC,
> expressed through the JAS WG report) concerns about the validity of
> this as an effective tactic, it exists as a commitment. And there is
> no way on earth that an independent foundation to administer such a
> fund could be enabled in time to form and have its personnel,
> structure and funding ready for this winter's round. So one may
> discern that event back in Singapore, the Board envisioned a
> subsequent round while it enabled this one. Plenty of details and
> community fedeback is left TBD, but the collective mindset of the
> Board seemed clear. Timing? No clue. I'm quite happy with "it's ready
> when it's ready", a theme that has driven most Internet innovation
> these days. - Evan PS: Having worked deeply in the Linux community
> during the height of Microsoft's intense opposition to anything open
> source, I think I have a well developed sense of the difference
> between FUD, legitimate concern and petty rumor-mongering. Little of
> what we've seen here is FUD, and it's no surprise that different
> advisors offer different advice. Indeed, these days I'm far more
> concerned with reverse-FUD (ratings agencies saying everything is fine
> when indeed there SHOULD be fear) than the original. On 20 October
> 2011 17:10, Antony Van Couvering <avc at avc.vc> wrote:
>> FUD sucks and hurts everyone and there's far too much of it in this
>> industry. On the other hand, ignoring reality isn't very helpful
>> either. Looking at the realities of ICANN's processes, the studies
>> that the GAC wants done *after* all new TLDs have been in operation
>> for a while, etc. -- what do people here think is a reasonable
>> estimate for when Round 2 happens? I'm asked by potential clients,
>> "When will we see Round 2"? What should I answer? I don't say "now or
>> never," but I do tell them I don't think we'll see a new round for at
>> least a few years -- which is my honest best guess. Furthermore, if
>> they have a common trademark like "United," a competing application
>> from another "united" trademark holder is perfectly possible in this
>> round. If they have a coined, unique name like "Xerox" then they can
>> easily wait for Round 2 or 3 or whenever. So the impetus to apply in
>> this round is different for different brand holders. Antony On Oct
>> 20, 2011, at 1:57 PM, Michele Neylon :: Blacknight wrote:
>>> Bret I've been hearing the same thing from quite a few people -
>>> including
>> potential applicants for this round.
>>> Personally I'd hate to see the good and positive aspects of new Tlds
>> being overshadowed by FUD being touted as "advice" by some of the new
>> tld crowd
>>> Regards Michele Mr. Michele Neylon Blacknight http://Blacknight.tel
>>> <http://blacknight.tel/> Via iPhone so excuse typos and brevity On
>>> 20 Oct 2011, at 21:35, "Bret Fausett" <bfausett at internet.law.pro>
>> wrote:
>>>> I really liked the idea that ICANN announce now when it will have the
>> next open application window as a way to take pressure off this
>> round. The "now or never" idea that a lot of consultants and back-end
>> registries are pitching is both factually wrong and, I think,
>> detrimental to the process. Scaring people into operating Internet
>> infrastructure won't be good for anyone, including the company that
>> receives the delegation of something it wasn't really sure it wanted
>> anyway. "Now or never" also will substantially increase the number of
>> applications, which will complicate the evaluation and launch process.
>>>> I'd like to see ICANN announce now that it will open another
>>>> application
>> window in January, 2013. That would give the companies sitting on the
>> fence comfort that they won't be left out, and we all will be able to
>> see whether what comes out of this first round is worth emulating. My
>> expectation is that after seeing what new TLDs really look like, with
>> all of their complexities and expenses, some of the companies now
>> thinking of how to do this will decide not to pursue it at all. For
>> the undecided, I think it's better to watch and learn than to learn
>> while operating a registry.
>>>> Bret On Oct 20, 2011, at 11:36 AM, Evan Leibovitch wrote:
>>>>> Is anyone from NARALO going to this conference?
>>>>> http://www.cadna.org/Whats-At-Stake/ It seems like a very useful
>>>>> approach with which we might want to
>> associate
>>>>> ourselves. Yes, much of it involves major brandholders scared by the
>> influx
>>>>> of gTLDs, but it seems that there is much common ground between that
>> group's
>>>>> skepticism about the program and that of ICANN At-Large. As one
>>>>> example of how this may be interesting, apparently gTLD
>> consultants
>>>>> are unwelcome at the event:
>> http://domainincite.com/whats-at-stake-conference-bans-new-gtld-consultants/
>>
>>>>> ... boo hoo. Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada Em: evan at telly dot
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