[NA-Discuss] .us TLD

[Michael Maranda]

I agree CIRA may provide a good example.  Can we further coordinate on a
statement from US based groups?  The elements of your summary that resonate
most strongly are those that call for community-based policy input.  There
may be other specific policy items on which we differ.

On 7/9/07, Danny Younger <dannyyounger at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> On 3 July the U.S. Department of Commerce issued a
> Request for Quote (RFQ) pertaining to the
> administration of the .us TLD.
>
> The language of the RFQ conveys the sense that there
> is but a single stakeholder in the .us namespace, and
> that sole stakeholder is the U.S. government.  The RFQ
> makes it clear that USG alone sets the policy for .us
> -- an example follows:
>
> "The Contractor shall implement a process for
> accrediting registrars to register names in the
> expanded usTLD.  Such process shall include a contract
> with each accredited registrar
> prohibiting proxy and anonymous registration
> services."
>
> The situation is particularly troubling in view of the
> fact that the current administrator of the namespace
> saw the dissolution of the .US Policy Council over
> four years ago.  In all that time, the .us TLD hasn't
> even enjoyed the pretense of community-based policy
> input.
>
> This heavy-handedness on the part of the U.S.
> government is part of the reason for the
> embarrassingly poor uptake of the .us TLD that
> languishes with just a little more than 1 million
> registrations (by comparison Nominet has just reported
> it's six millionth registration in .uk).
>
> The .us privacy policies are repressive, the kids.us
> namespace has a mere 20 active websites, thousands of
> locality-based delegated managers remain unknown to
> the current TLD manager, and community-based policy
> guidance has disappeared.  This sad state of affairs
> requires an intervention from the American community
> that should be insisting on a formal public comment
> period concurrent with the RFQ.
>
> The RFQ may be read here:
> http://www.ntia.doc.gov/vendors/usTLD_RFQ_070707.pdf
>
> I would recommend that each American on this list
> consider the values offered by CIRA's policy and
> privacy approach in .ca, and commit to writing to the
> U.S. DOC to advocate for a saner approach to the
> management of .us
>
> The DOC contact address follows:
>
> Kalika Boulware, Contract Specialist at kalika.m.boulware[at]noaa.gov.
>
>
>
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-- 
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Executive Director, CTCNet Chicago Chapter
Co-Founder, Chicago Digital Access Alliance
Co-Chair, Illinois Community Technology Coalition
President, Association For Community Networking

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