[NA-Discuss] Foreign Policy and the Internet

Eric Brunner-Williams ebw at abenaki.wabanaki.net
Tue Aug 14 17:54:53 UTC 2012


John,

> It would have been pretty amazing if they awarded it to anyone else,
> given the extremely specialized knowledge involved.  I agree that it's
> really hard to tell what the point of the exercise was.

You know that Verisign implements the changes recommended by the IANA
after the DoC approves the IANA recommended change to the root zone.

Had Verisign chosen to tender a competitive bid, factors other than
the extremely specialized knowledge of the incumbent contractor would
have been determinative.

Similarly, had the North American Numbering Plan Administrator (and
also the .US operator) chosen to tender a competitive bid, again,
factors other than the extremely specialized knowledge of the
incumbent contractor would have been determinative.

I didn't expect VGRS to risk an increase of the the competition policy
interest of the DoJ for a minor dollar value contract. Nor did I
expect NeuStar to risk its 2012 round gTLD applications -- own and
tenant -- for a minor dollar value contract.

I suggest that "the point of the exercise" was:

1. establish that the contract for the IANA Functions is severable
from all other roles of the government contractor currently
responsible for address and names policy coordination, and rules for
the allocations, uses, and recovery of addresses and names;

2. inform the de facto sole source provider of address and names
policy coordination, and rules for the allocations, uses, and recovery
of addresses and names, of certain long-standing deficiencies in its
performance;

3. inform other governments that the period of administrative delay in
changes to A and NS records in the IANA root zone file for the purpose
of compelling obligations from foreign governments to the current
contractor is definitively ended, with metrics in place to detect
administrative, and other sources of delay(s). See #2, supra;

4. provide a 36 month notice to potential competitive providers of
address and names policy coordination, and rules for the allocations,
uses, and recovery of addresses and names, ensuring the government the
best effort of the current contractor during the tender period, or a
prepared, alternative contractor during the subsequent contract period.

Thanks for the comment.

Eric Brunner-Williams
Candidate, NARALO ALAC Rep. election 2012





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