[Comment-Dnso] Re: Fwd: [IFWP] Did Cook really do his Homework (etc.)

[Michael Sondow <msondow@iciiu.org>]

I don't read or reply to postings of William Walsh any more because,
for one thing, he has no position but just says whatever will get
him a little attention, and for another, his messages bypass my
inbox for the nether regions, seemingly on their own. However, as
this concerns an interesting question of development of new policy,
I feel it's worthwhile to defend a position which is shared by many
people, including numerous large civic organizations in New York.
That position is, in essence, that a separation of the domain name
system, much like what was envisaged by the originators of the .com,
.org. .edu separation, could still be usefully put into practice
through a new conception of the .US domain, and that, if done
intelligently, it would help to mitigate some of the confusion and
conflict that has occurred in the gTLD space, while reorganizing the
US ccTLD space.

Mr. Walsh, in his hysterical and distorted rendering of my recent
proposals to the NTIA, has intentionally distorted them so as to
make it appear that I am advocating governmental control over .US.
That is not the case, any more than is it the case that government
sanctioned ccTLDs in those countries that use them for both public
and private networks is government control of the domain space.
Rather, what is suggested is a segregation of the spaces, to reduce
conflict. This is rather similar, in reality, to what the trademark
and business interests are suggesting for the gTLDs, with the
addition, in my proposal, that the government seed the development
of the public space so that it has a better chance of proliferating.

Community networks, when well organized and well run, are an
efficient means of providing connectivity to those who need frequent
information transfer within a restricted geographical area, without
the impediment of wading through the clogged bandwidth of the
commercial network. This has already been achieved by universities,
who run their own "internets", as it has been also by the scientific
research communities. The geographically circumscribed civil
communities, however, have only achieved it to a very limited
degree, and only in certain places. 

New York City is an example of a large US agglomeration which has
not achieved any community networking, despite the fact that it is
probably the city in the US that has most need of it due to the
extremely stratified nature of its poltical and ethnic subdivision.
A full discussion of the potential for geographically-based
community networking in large urban environments is given by Tom
Lowenhaupt in his numerous postings to this and other lists,
postings which, due to the narrow and narrow-minded interests of
most of the persons on these lists, have gone unappreciated for the
most part. Fortunately, there are better-informed and more powerful
people in the US, and they are taking heed to the potential for
designing a new domain space like .US so that it can accomplish the
original goals of the gTLDs with more success.

Not to belabor the point, suffice it to say that my suggestions to
the .us list were not in contradiction to a full commercial
exploitation of .US, but rather, if taken in their true perspective,
a means of allowing a more efficient and complete use of
internetworking that includes both its commercial and non-commercial
aspects. It can only be hoped that the people who will be making the
decisions regarding the allocation of space in .us will be capable
of that larger perspective, and that they will not be handicapped
with the myopia of such as William Walsh.

 
> >From: william@dso.net (William X. Walsh)
> >To: list@ifwp.org
> >Cc: domain-policy@lists.internic.net, discuss@dnso.org,
> >        dnso.discuss@lists.association.org, comment-dnso@icann.org,
> >        simons@acm.org
> >Subject: [IFWP] Did Cook really do his Homework before endorsing/defending
> >Sondow?  Where does Mr Sondow REALLY stand?  Let his words speak for
> >themself
> >Date: Wed, 02 Jun 1999 22:06:24 GMT
> >MIME-Version: 1.0
> >Sender: owner-list@ifwp.org
> >Precedence: bulk
> >Reply-To: list@ifwp.org
> >
> >On Wed, 2 Jun 1999 14:17:54 -0400, Gordon Cook <cook@cookreport.com>
> >wrote:
> >
> >>Gosh Marty....what a profound contribution to the well belong of the
> >>Internet you have made here.  Sondow has become extremely clueful.  maybe
> >>some day you will follow his example?
> >>
> >
> >He HAS??
> >
> >Jeez, Gordon, I usually have a lot of respect for your reports, but
> >I'm really beginning to wonder if you DO pay attention to the details
> >and backgrounds of the things you report.
> >
> >For example, the comments Mr Sondow made to the NTIA in re: the .US
> >domain.
> >
> >I will paste them below for reference.
> >
> >You will see the DEFINITE bigotry Mr Sondow holds for any commercial
> >use of the internet, that places him in the same extremist position as
> >Ms Hauben.  If you thought Mr Sondow's positions had changed to be
> >more in line with yours, maybe this will open your eyes to REALITY.
> >
> >Thanks to the anonymous source who dropped this in my mailbox.
> >
> >Read it carefully, it is abundantly clear where Mr Sondow stands, and
> >after reading this, it should be clear WHY he has no place in the
> >leadership of this process.
> >
> >Mr Sondow needs to do the honorable thing and not let the NCDNHC be
> >tainted by his ego trip for leadership.  The ACM needs to disavow any
> >relationship with Mr Sondow in order to have any legitimacy in
> >continuing their excellent efforts to work for a consensus in the
> >formation of this constituency.
> >
> >
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: Michael Sondow <msondow@iciiu.org>
> >To: .US reorg. list <us-list@ntiant1.ntia.doc.gov>
> >Sent: Wednesday, 02 June 1999 16:41
> >Subject: ICIIU proposals for the public sector use of .US
> >
> >
> >> The following comment regarding the reorganization of the .US domain
> >> space has been submitted to the NTIA, and is offered here for public
> >> comment.
> >>
> >>
> >> U.S. Department of Commerce
> >> NTIA/OIA Room 4701
> >> 14th and Constitution Avenue NW
> >> Washington DC 20230
> >>
> >> To whom it may concern;
> >>
> >> The ICIIU has previously submitted comments to the NTIA on the
> >> reorganization of the .US domain space and, although we were unable
> >> to participate in the March 9th meeting in Washington, the ICIIU, as
> >> a vehicle for the expression of independent Internet users and the
> >> public sector, remains actively committed to a .US space organized
> >> with these interests in mind. In that spirit, the ICIIU offers for
> >> consideration the following principles, which we believe would form
> >> a reasonable basis for organization and allocation of domain names
> >> within .US:
> >>
> >> 1. The creation, promoted by the U.S. Government, of a network of
> >> non-profit connectivity providers belonging to the public sector,
> >> organized by state in the 50 states of the U.S. Such public sector
> >> ISPs would be allocated blocks of IP addresses and perform the task
> >> of registering domain names for individuals and non-commercial
> >> entities so that commercial ISPs, whose financial requirements may
> >> not permit them to function properly as public sector registrars,
> >> will not be burdened by this work and perform it inefficiently.
> >>
> >> 2. The promotion by such state registrars of state-wide networks of
> >> public sector non-profit sub-registrars for the registration of
> >> regional and city subdomains, for the specific purpose of creating
> >> community networks. The Federal Government, in collaboration with
> >> the state governments, would create funding and organizational
> >> mechanisms, and provide information and assistance to local
> >> communities, for these community networks on a state-wide and
> >> national scale.
> >>
> >> 3. If it is decided to allocate domain names within the same
> >> subdivisions - geographical or otherwise - of .US for commercial
> >> purposes, the creation of a nomenclature specific to individual and
> >> non-commercial domain name use, so that the problems that have
> >> occurred in the gTLDs, and the prejudice to non-commercial and
> >> individual users that those problems has entailed, will not be
> >> repeated.
> >>
> >> 4. The publication and distribution, by the state and national
> >> registration entites, of detailed lists and diagrams of the
> >> non-profit and community network domain names in use. This
> >> information will promote the inter-relatedness and interconnectivity
> >> of the public sector and community network registrants, and benefit
> >> their development and that of the public sector use of .US in
> >> general.
> >>
> >> 5. The creation of a web-based registration template procedure,
> >> conformed for all States, so that individual and non-commercial
> >> registrants will have control over their domain names, and so that
> >> the public sector registrants will not be unduly burdened by the
> >> day-to-day handling of names and addresses and can devote their
> >> resources to technical improvements and the production of
> >> educational and informational materials.
> >>
> >>
> >> Yours,
> >>
> >> Michael Sondow (for the ICIIU)
> >>
> >> ============================================================
> >>  "We need to be able to judge which is more important - the
> >>  images on the screen, the mechanisms that produce them, or
> >>  the world that they are striving to represent."
> >>
> >>             --Oscar Kenshur, in 'The Allure of the Hybrid'
> >> ============================================================
> >> International Congress of Independent Internet Users (ICIIU)
> >>         http://www.iciiu.org       iciiu@iciiu.org
> >> ============================================================
> >>
> >
> >--
> >William X. Walsh william@dso.net
> >General Manager, DSo Internet Services
> >Fax:(209) 671-7934
> >
> >The Law is not your mommy or daddy to go
> >crying to every time you have something
> >to whimper about.
> >
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