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[Fwd: [IFWP] Esther live (NOW)]





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Jeffrey A. Williams
Spokesman INEGroup (Over 95k members strong!)
CEO/DIR. Internet Network Eng/SR. Java/CORBA Development Eng.
Information Network Eng. Group. INEG. INC.
E-Mail jwkckid1@ix.netcom.com
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this is long, whole log:

he Internet Corporation for
                                 Assigned Names and Numbers,
                                 ICANN, is meeting this week in
                                 Santiago, Chile. This non-profit
                                 organization was tapped by the
                                 U.S. Commerce Department to
                                 take over administration of the
                                 Internet's domain name system
                                  the mechanism that assigns
                 the all-important dot-com names to Internet sites
                 around the world. 
                     ICANN and its chairperson, technology consultant
                 Esther Dyson, have come under fire for handling this
                 responsibility. Critics have called ICANN
                 heavy-handed and unresponsive to concerns about
                 the lack of self-governance on the Internet. 
                     Dyson will be joining ABCNEWS.com readers on
                 Thursday, Aug. 26 at 4 p.m. ET to answer questions
                 about ICANN and its latest actions from the Santiago
                 meeting. Post your questions now, and come back to
                 see what Dyson has to say. 

                 Esther Dyson at 3:50pm ET 
                 Hi! I'm here. will stand by until 4. I have 3.48 right
now.
                 greetings from Santiago! 

                 Moderator at 3:52pm ET 
                 Hello, Esther, glad you could make it! We'll be getting
                 started right at 4 p.m. ET, so if there's anyone who
hasn't
                 posted a question, go right ahead!

                 Moderator at 4:02pm ET 
                 Well, why don't we get started. Esther Dyson, interim
                 chairperson of ICANN, thank you for joining us from
                 ICANN's meeting in Santiago, Chile. Before we start
                 posting questions, why don't you give us a quick run down
                 about what you and ICANN have been doing these past
                 few days? 

                 Esther Dyson at 4:03pm ET 
                 FWIW, I'm sitting here in Santiago, Chile, in the
university
                 auditorim where we have been holding our meetings. RIght
                 now I am sitting in on a meeting of ICANN's "names
                 council" (which fortunately I am not running!, linked up
                 over an Ethernet hookup to the Net. Subliminal message:
                 The rest of the world is getting wired! 

                 Esther Dyson at 4:06pm ET 
                 We held our first open board meeting this morning. Some
of
                 the decisions made (details at www.icann.org) include the
                 adoption/implementation of a Uniform Dispute Resolution
                 Policy to cover purportedly abusive registrations of
domain
                 names. We also adopted an independent review panel (for
                 disputes concerning *our* bylaws), and took steps towards
                 establishing our membership structure. 

                 Peter Vos from [209.193.169.164] at 4:06pm ET 
                 What is the current status on opening up the top level
                 domains to include the proposed .web, .store, .firm,
tlds?

                 Is there a time line associated with this or not?

                 TIA

                 Esther Dyson at 4:07pm ET 
                 basically, we are now (finally) working on substantive
                 policies, rather than designing our own navel. And
overall,
                 the atmosphere here has been much more constructive and
                 friendly than in the past, despite what yo might read in
the
                 (other) press. 

                 Esther Dyson at 4:10pm ET 
                 TH etimeline for new domain names is that ICANN's
                 Domain Name Supporting Organization has a working
                 group to consider this issue - whether, why, how, how
                 many, when...... It won't happen this year, I assume,
                 because our next board meeting - when we could consider
                 this issue after recommendations and public comment - is
in
                 November. 

                 Esther Dyson at 4:11pm ET 
                 PS - is that Peter Vos from Austria (whom I know)? Or
                 some other Peter Vos? 

                 darshan from [204.202.132.11], at 4:11pm ET 
                 Whence does ICANN draw its authority? In other words,
                 who made you guys the domain name czars? 

Esther Dyson at 4:14pm ET 
                 Our authority comes from the Net itself. That's why our
                 proceedings sometimes look fractious! We need to foster a
                 consensus, then adopt policies reflecting that consensus,
                 and then enforce those policies through contracts, such
as
                 the contracts we currenlty have with the new .com
                 registrars. (Separately, we have some delegated authority
                 via contracts with the US government, mostly concerning
                 opening up the .com/.net/.org registry to competition
from
                 additional registrars (the incumbent is Network
Solutions). 

                 Moderator at 4:15pm ET 
                 No word yet from Peter...so we'll continue. 

                 adrian stokes from [204.202.132.11], at 4:16pm ET 
                 What's happened in Santiago to make the whole
                 domain-name policy system more open and democratic? 

Esther Dyson at 4:18pm ET 
                 AMong other things, we accepted the Non-Commercial
                 DOmain Name Holders constituency of the DNS). (SOrry
                 for all the acronyms!) ANd we held both an open meeting
                 *with* the public -lots of comments, suggestions, mostly
                 constructve criticism, moves towards consensus - and also
                 our long-awaited first open board meeting, with the
public
                 and press invited to watch -either in person or over the
                 Web. It went well!

Jim Hisle from [134.193.81.47], at 4:19pm ET 
                 What are ICANN's plans for the individual holders of
                 Internet addresses? I have an address setup in the
process
                 of a small business development. I am concerned that my
                 selected name might be challenged internationally and I
                 would be at a great disadvantage. My domain name
                 currently is not trademarked in the US, but does have
some
                 similar matches internationally.

                 Jim 

                 Esther Dyson at 4:20pm ET 
                 We also pledged to include the views and interests of
                 individuals and non-commercial orgs in drafting the
precise
                 wording of the dispute- resolution policy. 

Esther Dyson at 4:24pm ET 
                 What do you mean by "matches"? Basically, if you have
                 registered the name already, and you have some legitimate
                 claim to it - for example, it's your own name or the name
                 you ahve been doing business under - the policy would
                 support your claim to it against that of anyone coming
along
                 later. (The lawyer sitting next to me says I should
stress
                 that this is not professional advice and you should
consult
                 your own counsel!) 

Dan from [207.107.50.21], at 4:25pm ET 
                 How do you measure consensus?
                 hard members or do you have more than
                 3000 people that agree with ICANN? 

                 Esther Dyson at 4:28pm ET 
                 That's one of the challenges. We consider the messages
                 we get over the Net (after substantial posting), as well
as
                 what people at our meetings say. We also check that a
                 variety of points of view are represented. That is, you
can't
                 go to a meeting of business people and get a consensus
                 there and use that, just as you can't base a judgment of
                 consensus on just a US community - since the Net operates
                 worldwide. There's a fair amount of judgement involved.
                 And most people don't "agree with ICANN" about
                 everything; we do most things issue by issue..... 

LaRell from [143.166.99.43], at 4:29pm ET 
                 Have there been any forward advances toward the
                 problem of running out of IP addresses to match up to
                 "Domain Names"? 

Esther Dyson at 4:30pm ET 
                 There's going to be a whole new addressing system called
                 IPv6 (vs. teh current IPv4) that will solve that problem
in
                 spades. Our Protocol Supporting Organization and Address
                 suppporting organization are shepherding that process. 

                 New Approved Registrar from [207.213.224.105], at
                 4:31pm ET 
                 How is the financing side of things going with ICANN?
                 Many new registrars (including ourselves) have agreed to
                 contribute the $1/domain to help sustain ICANN. How
                 does Esther feel about that $1 tax helping to finance
                 ICANN. Are any registrars blatantly against it or are we
                 pretty much in agreement? 

Esther Dyson at 4:39pm ET 
                 The financing side is going better, thanks to some loans
                 from MCI and Cisco among others (details on the site). We
                 appreciate your support - moreal and financial! - but let
me
                 stress that this is not a tax but a user fee. It is
proportional
                 to use and you don't have to pay it unless you register a
                 domain name. NSI is against it, but no one else (among
                 registrars) that I know of has protested violently.
Compared
                 to the $9 fee NSI charges for its registry services, it
looks
                 pretty reasonable. And compared to the former $70 per
                 year retail price before ICANN came along, it looks
                 positively cheap! 

                 FWIW, we won't resolve long-term funding (as opposed to
                 loans and donations) until we have a larger board with 9
                 elected members in November. We now have a task force
                 consisting of registrars, registries, and other affected
parties
                 to figure out how to fund the organization long-term. 

                 Patrick Greenwell from [208.225.97.66], at 4:40pm ET 
                 The current unelected Interim board 
                 has engaged in some very substantial decision-making
                 without either the board itself of the ICANN structure
                 being fully constituted, yet there is still no process by
which
                 to elect a board that is truly representative of 
                 Internet users. When will such a process be in place?

Esther Dyson at 4:44pm ET 
                 We're working hard to put it in place. The first nine
elected
                 board members shold be seated by November (as I said
                 above). The other challenge (in parallel) is the At-Large
                 Membership, and it is a challenge given an undefined
                 electorate, limited funds, etc. etc. We made a fair
amount
                 of progress here and the process should be in place over
                 the next few months. The *people* should be in place - at
                 least the first tranche - by next summer. ANd there will
be
                 nine of them by Septeber 2000, when the current members
                 will all have stepped down. 

Moderator at 4:45pm ET 
                 We've had a number of questions about a petition from
                 individual domain name owners that was submitted at this
                 meeting. Can you tell us what happened with that
petition?

Esther Dyson at 4:49pm ET 
                 Yes. We deferred consideration of it because we had
                 promised to deal first with the initial seven
constituencies
                 we had decided to establish (by consensus) last March.
                 However, wehave been working hard (as in the dispute
                 resolution procedure policy I mentioned above) to make
                 sure the vies and interests of individuals get
considered.
                 Today, for example, the Intellectual Property
constituency
                 of the DNSO announced that it would accept - in fact,
                 welcome - individual members. 

Carlito from [128.125.253.192], at 4:50pm ET 
                 Jon Postel, "Father of the Internet" was one of the
                 dominating voices in this area. Do you believe that alot
of
                 the current controversy over ICANN would have been
                 avoided if Jon Postel was still alive? 

                 Esther Dyson at 4:50pm ET 
                 PS - We also invited Joop Teernstra, who proposed that
                 petition, to help us in reaching out to and establishing
our
                 At-Large Membership. I hope he agrees to do so! We need
                 all the help we can get in reaching that worldwide
                 community.

Esther Dyson at 4:56pm ET 
                 any more questions?? 

                 Esther Dyson at 4:57pm ET 
                 ps - moderator only - any sign of Mike ROberts? 

                 Dennis Schaefer from [24.218.113.208], at 4:57pm ET 
                 Yesterday I submitted a comment at your meeting stating
                 how disappointed I was that ICANN didn't represent
                 individuals and hadn't consulted them in adopting its
dispute
                 policy.

                 You said my concerns belonged to the noncommercial
                 group in ICANN. But they also had no voice in your
policy.

                 Shouldn't you really go back and do this right... before
                 ICANN begins to look like an organization captured by
                 business interests?

                 Dennis Schaefer
                 Cyberspace Association
                 Individual Domain Name Owners
                 www.democracy.org/idno

Moderator at 4:58pm ET 
                 Esther: unfortunately, Mike couldn't logon here. 

                 Esther Dyson at 4:59pm ET 
                 Well, thanks a lot! Hope people fond it useful and
                 interesting. FWIW, you too are welcome to get involved
                 and help shape the consensus on all the topics above.
What
                 do *you* think about new gTLDs? how to fund ICANN?
                 etc. etc. 

                 Moderator at 4:59pm ET 
                 Actually, if you have the time, we do have one more
                 question.

Moderator at 5:00pm ET 
                 It's listed above, from Dennis Schaefer.

Esther Dyson at 5:01pm ET 
                 For Dennis - I did *not* say that indivs; concerns belong
in
                 noncommerical constituency. I am an individual and I have
                 a lot fo commercial interests. As I explained, we did and
                 will consider both invdivs and noncom interests in the
                 dispute resolution policy and elsewhere. Hpapy to
continue
                 this by e-mail edyson@edventure.com 

                 Moderator at 5:01pm ET 
                 Thanks, Esther, for taking the time to chat with our
readers.
                 And thanks to everyone who participated here today! 

Esther Dyson at 5:02pm ET 
                 You're welcome. thanks again. signing off - but will
check
                 once more for word from Dennis or others. 



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