I. SPONSORING ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE

C1. Structure And Nature Of The Sponsoring Organization

SRI International is a nonprofit research institute that is uniquely suited to be the Sponsor for the proposed top-level .geo domain. Its 1,400 researchers, scientists, technologists and business consultants recently celebrated 50 years of scientific discovery, new technology applications and innovative management approaches that have benefited businesses, governments and organizations worldwide. Its original charter - to "promote and foster the application of science in the development of commerce, trade and industry [for the] prosperity of mankind" - remains its mission.

As important as its charter and wide-ranging research, engineering, and business experience, are SRI's deep roots in the Internet and the administration of its infrastructure:

ARPANET:   SRI was one of the first two nodes of the ARPANET.

NIC:   SRI served as the Network Information Center (NIC) for over two decades.

Given SRI's unique suitability for such a sponsorship, we propose to form a new body within SRI, hereafter referred to as the .geo Forum, to provide explicit oversight of the new TLD, .geo. The .geo Forum will be responsible for formulating policy and standards for the .geo TLD and for establishing and operating an open consultative framework and process. SRI will be responsible for all management and support staff of the .geo Forum and for implementing a communication and marketing strategy for these activities.

The Charter of the .geo Forum will assert its responsibility for:

A key element of this new domain will be trusted consultative relationships with affected communities. We have identified the following communities likely to demand explicit input into the formulation of .geo policies and standards, with whom we will correspond:

Consultation with these groups will be conducted by the Forum via the establishment of peer-to-peer relationships and the formation of two Advisory Councils, as described below.

C1.1 SRI International Articles of Incorporation.

 

Attached [C1_1_SRI_ART_INC]

C1.2 SRI International Bylaws.

 

Attached [C1_2_SRI_BY_LAWS]

 

C1.3 List of SRI International Board of Directors

Samuel H. Armacost (Chairman of the Board)

Mariann Byerwalter

Curtis R. Carlson (President and CEO)

James E. Carnes

James T. Curry

Marye Anne Fox

James F. Gibbons

Charles A. Lynch

Philip J. Quigley

William J. Spencer

C1.4 Resumes of Board of Directors and Officers of SRI International.

Samuel H. Armacost, Chairman of the Board, SRI International

A member of SRI International's board of directors since 1981, Samuel H. Armacost was named Chairman of the Board in 1998.

For more than 22 years, Armacost worked with Bank of America and BankAmerica Corporation where he served as the President and Chief Executive Officer from 1981 to 1986. Following his tenure at Bank of America, Armacost was Managing Director of Weiss, Peck and Greer, LLC, a San Francisco investment management and venture capital firm, and with Merrill Lynch Capital Markets.

Armacost serves on the board of directors of the Sarnoff Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of SRI International; and on the boards of Chevron Corp., Exponent, Inc. and Scios Inc. He is a Director of the James Irvine Foundation and a member of the Advisory Board of the California Academy of Sciences. He is also on the Executive Board and Steering Committee of the Bay Area Science Infrastructure Consortium (BASIC), which was recently established by the Bay Area Economic Forum. From 1971 to 1972, he served as an advisor to the State Department's Office of Monetary Affairs.

Armacost holds an M.B.A. from Stanford University and B.A. in economics from Denison University.

Mariann Byerwalter, Vice President for Business Affairs & CFO, Stanford University

Mariann Byerwalter, Chief Financial Officer and Vice President for Business Affairs at Stanford University since 1996, joined SRI International's board of directors in 1998.

Her broad business, finance and administrative responsibilities at Stanford include government cost and rate studies, business development and information technology systems and services.

Previously, Byerwalter served as CFO at Eurekabank, as a partner and co-founder of America First Financial Corporation and as Vice President of Strategic Planning and Corporate Development at Bank American Corporation. She currently serves on the board of directors at Stanford Health Services, Stanford Management Company, America First Companies, Metra Biosystems and Redwood Trust, Inc.

Byerwalter received the 1998 Financial Women of the Year Award from the Financial Women's Association of San Francisco. She holds a B.S. from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Curtis R. Carlson, President and CEO, SRI International

Curtis R. Carlson was named President and Chief Executive Officer of SRI International in December 1998 after 25 years with the Sarnoff Corporation, an SRI wholly owned subsidiary.

Carlson joined RCA's Sarnoff Laboratory in 1973 as a member of the technical staff focused on testing and development of imaging systems. He was named head of the Image Quality and Perception Research Group in 1981, Director of Sarnoff's Information Systems Research Laboratory in 1984 and Vice President of the laboratory in 1990. In 1995, Carlson became Executive Vice President of Sarnoff's Interactive Systems Division.

In 1990, Carlson helped establish and served as Executive Director of the National Information Display Laboratory, a new collaborative model for research, development and commercialization between government and commercial industry. He also founded and led the HDTV program at Sarnoff, which culminated in the Grand Alliance HDTV system established by the FCC as the U.S. standard. Carlson has served on several government task forces, including the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board and the U.S. Army Research Laboratory Technical Assessment Board. He is also a charter member of the Highlands Group, which makes recommendations to senior government officials about technologies of importance to the U.S. government.

Carlson has published or presented more than 50 technical publications and holds more than 15 U.S. patents in the fields of image quality, image coding and computer vision. While at RCA's Sarnoff Laboratories, he was the recipient of two RCA Outstanding Achievement Awards.

Carlson received his B.S. in Physics from Worchester Polytechnic Institute and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Rutgers University. He is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Sigma XI, Tau Beta Pi and the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers.

James E. Carnes, President & CEO, Sarnoff Corporation

James E. Carnes is President and CEO of the Sarnoff Corporation, a subsidiary of SRI International.

He began his career in 1969 when he joined RCA Laboratories as a member of the technical staff. In 1977, Carnes transferred to RCA's Consumer Electronics Division, holding a variety of management positions, including Vice President of Engineering. In 1987, when Sarnoff became a subsidiary of SRI International, Carnes was named Vice President of Consumer Electronics and Information Sciences Research.

In addition to serving on the board of directors of SRI International and Sarnoff, Carnes serves on the board of several emerging growth technology companies including Sensar, Inc., Sarif, Inc., Orchid Biocomputer and Sarnoff Digital Communications.

Carnes earned his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Princeton University and B.S. in engineering science from Pennsylvania State University, and served four years in the U.S. Navy. Carnes holds nine U.S. patents and is the author of more than 100 papers and presentations. He received the David Sarnoff Award for Outstanding Technical Achievement in 1981.

James T. Curry, Former CEO, BHP Utah Minerals

James T. Curry's business and management experience includes a 30-year career with Utah Construction and Mining Co., which later merged into General Electric and was subsequently sold to BHP. During this time he served as the CEO of Queensland Mining Operations in Brisbane, Australia, Executive Vice President, Utah Division of BHP and the CEO of BHP Minerals.

Curry has served on the board of directors of several companies including American Mining Congress, Australian Industry Council, Business Council of Australia, Broken Hill Pty., Ltd. (BHP), Hillsborough Schools Foundation, Pima Mining Company, Marcona Mining Company, St. Luke's Hospital and Utah International Inc. Curry is a Director of the California Academy of Sciences, U.S. Berkeley College of Engineering and Family Service Agency of San Mateo.

Curry graduated with honors in civil engineering from the University of California. After two years of service with the U.S. Army, he received his M.B.A. from Stanford University.

Marye Anne Fox, Chancellor, North Carolina State University

Marye Anne Fox was elected to SRI International's board of directors in March 1999. Fox, a chemist and member of the National Academy of Sciences, is North Carolina State University's twelfth chancellor, having assumed the duties of the top post at the state's leading science, engineering and technology university on August 1, 1998.

Previously, Fox was Vice President of Research and the M. June and J. Virgil Waggoner Regents Chair in Chemistry at the University of Texas at Austin. She was responsible for administrating a research portfolio that included $246 million in sponsored research from 1996 through 1997.

Fox chairs the National Research Council Committee on Undergraduate Science Education and serves on the Council of the National Academy of Sciences and on its Committee on Science and Engineering Public Policy. In 1990, she was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve on the National Science Board, and served as its Vice Chairman as well as chairing its Committee on Programs and Plans. She acts as advisor to the Association for Women in Science, and also has served on advisory panels for the U.S. Army, the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

Fox has published more than 300 refereed papers, five books and more than 20 book chapters primarily in the fields of organic photochemistry and electrochemistry. She received a B.S. from Notre Dame College, an M.S. from Cleveland State University and a Ph.D. from Dartmouth College.

James F. Gibbons, Professor of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University

James F. Gibbons has been a distinguished member of the faculty at Stanford University since 1957. He frequently consults with SRI International on technology planning and joined the board of directors in 1998. Gibbons has served on the boards of several leading technology companies, including Cisco Systems, Raychem and Lockheed-Martin.

Gibbons' research accomplishments are in the area of semiconductor device analysis, process physics technology and solar energy. He has written or co-written several books and nearly 300 papers. Gibbons was named Special Counsel to Stanford University President and Provost for Industry Relations in 1966. He is credited with developing the Tutored Video Instruction Technique, a model for education of engineers, with colleagues from Stanford in 1972. In recent years, he applied that model to improve productivity and quality in children's education, particularly for children of migrant farm workers and at-risk teens.

Gibbons has received many awards and was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy or Arts and Sciences. In 1997, he was inducted into the Santa Clara County Business Hall of Fame and was one of three chosen for the Silicon Valley Engineering Hall of Fame.

Charles A. Lynch, Chairman, Market Value Partners Company

Charles A. Lynch, a recognized management leader focused on transforming companies into profitable, market-driven enterprises, joined SRI International's board of directors in 1988.

Lynch is current Chairman of Market Value Partners Company, a management, mentor, and/or advisor resource for existing and emerging businesses, and Chairman of Fresh Choice, Inc., a 53-restaurant retailer.

Lynch currently serves on the board of directors of Fresh Choice, Inc., Pacific Mutual Holding Company, International, Inc. and a number of emerging growth companies throughout Silicon Valley. He has served on the boards of several prominent San Francisco Bay Area companies, including Nordstrom, Crocker National Bank, Southern Pacific Transportation Company, Syntex Corporation, Consolidated Freightways, Greyhound Lines and others. Lynch is currently a Trustee of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Director of the Bay Area Council and a member of the University of California Berkeley Business School Advisory Board. He was a Director and Chairman of the United Way of the Bay Area and Chairman of the Business Roundtable.

Additional experience includes serving as President & CEO of Levelor Corporation from 1988 to 1989, Chairman and CEO of DHL Airways, Inc. from 1986 to 1988, and Chairman and CEO of Saga Corporation from 1978 through 1986. Prior to that, Lynch held management positions at W. R. Grace & Co., SCOA Industries Inc. and E.I. duPont de Nemours & Co., Inc.

Lynch holds a degree in industrial administration from Yale University and an honorary Doctor of Laws from Golden Gate University.

Philip J. Quigley Chairman, President & CEO (retired), Pacific Telesis

Philip J. Quigley, former Chairman and CEO of Pacific Telesis, joined SRI International's board of directors in 1998. Quigley was named Chairman and CEO of Pacific Telesis in 1994 and following Pacific Telesis' merger with SBC Communications in 1997, served as Vice Chairman. Quigley served as President and CEO of Pacific Bell, COO of PacTel Corporation and CEO of PacTel Cellular.

Since his retirement in December 1997, Quigley has pursued venture capital investment and management advisory interests. His is a Director of Wells Fargo Bank, Vina Technologies, Protocal Communications and SNAP Technologies, as well as Chairman of the California Business Roundtable.

Quigley holds a B.S. from California State University in Los Angeles.

William J. Spencer, Vice Chairman, SEMATECH

William J. Spencer has served as an executive of SEMATECH, a research and development consortium jointly funded by semiconductor industry member companies and the U.S. government, since 1990. Before joining SEMATECH, Spencer was Group Vice President and Senior Technical Officer at Xerox Corporation and Vice President of Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. Spencer also served as Director of Systems Development at Sandia National Laboratories and Director of Microelectronics at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque. He began his career at Bell Telephone Laboratories.

Spencer received an A.B. from William Jewell College and an M.S. in mathematics and a Ph.D. in physics from Kansas State University. He was awarded the Regents Meritorious Service Medal from the University of New Mexico, and an honorary doctorate degree from William Jewell College. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of IEEE, and serves on numerous advisory groups and boards.

C2. Organization Information

SRI International's principal location is 333 Ravenswood Avenue, Menlo Park, CA 94025. SRI is a nonprofit Corporation, organized and existing under the laws of the State of California, and is in good standing with the State of California.

C3. Organization Structure

Sponsor. SRI International is a large nonprofit business organization employing approximately 1,400 employees headquartered in Menlo Park, California, and with additional offices in Washington, D.C., Princeton, NJ, State College PA, the United Kingdom, Japan and Korea. The roles and duties of the Directors and Officers of SRI are the traditional roles associated with a corporation and as indicated in the C1 attachments.

SRI's .geo Forum.   The .geo Forum will include SRI staff assigned to the Forum and given responsibility for conducting its operations. The Forum will establish two Advisory Councils as advisory bodies. Their purpose will be to direct the oversight operations of the .geo Forum and SRI in its role as sponsor of the .geo TLD. These two Advisory Councils, the Policy Advisory Council and the Technical Advisory Council, will be formed and operate at the discretion of SRI. Their memberships will be determined by invitation and each will meet at times and places to be determined by its members.

The Policy Advisory Council will:

The Technical Advisory Council will

As .geo evolves, we anticipate that the Forum will become increasingly representative of its community of stakeholders. How this will happen will depend greatly on the development of .geo and the needs and demands of the community. Since SRI is committed to the growth of .geo - and since issues of trust, usability and accessibility are critical to this growth - SRI must and will evolve the organization in order to foster trust.

Additional Roles. Due to the unusual nature of the .geo architectural and business requirements, and in order to effectively launch .geo, SRI must assume roles beyond that of a standard Sponsor. As such, SRI will be heavily involved in the marketing and promotion of .geo as a provider of software, hardware and GeoRegistration services until there is sufficient market acceptance to attract others offering similar services. These additional roles are described in sections D13.2.2 to D13.2.4.

C4. Organization Purpose

SRI International's chartered mission is to promote and foster the application of science in the development of commerce, trade and industry; the discovery and development of methods for the beneficial use of natural resources; and the improvement of the general standard of living and the peace and prosperity of mankind. SRI's research activities benefit people around the world.

C5. Appropriateness of Community

Many communities will use and benefit by .geo, since it enhances the usability of the Internet generally. Below we list a number of existing communities that will be served by the creation of the .geo infrastructure, including

In addition, new communities of interest may evolve, possibly including:

C6. Representation

The activities of the .geo Forum will be open to all interested parties, and appropriate representatives will be invited to sit on the Advisory Councils to formalize the consultation process. In many cases, the Advisory Council members will explicitly represent stakeholders in the .geo infrastructure (the Accreditation Authority, gTLD registry, GeoRegistries, and GeoRegistrars, and, if desired, ICANN) and provide them with direct access to the policy and standard formulation activities.

For the general public and other users of the .geo, the .geo Forum will maintain a web site (http://forum.geo) to act as the central information source for .geo policies and standards and as the primary public consultative forum. Open discussion forums will be made available on the web site so that the .geo Forum can gather feedback on any of its actions or policies from all affected users.

In the larger world, technical standards upon which the .geo infrastructure will be built are, for the most part, already the result of representative processes among other bodies (e.g. IETF, ISO, OGC, etc.). SRI will continue to rely on these representative bodies for the formulation and evolution of technical standards. SRI will participate within these bodies in the evolution of standards relevant to .geo. SRI in turn will refer .geo-specific standards to these bodies.

C7. Openness and Transparency

The .geo Forum's primary mechanisms for gathering community input are the Advisory Councils and an open web site that will act as a portal for all of the activities of the .geo Forum.

The web site will operate as an information portal for all members of the .geo community, and will operate on the following general principles:

C8. Initial Directors and Staff

For this TLD application, there will be no initial directors and staff other than those who presently hold those offices. Their qualifications are as listed in the C1 attachments.

C9. Selection of Directors, Officers, Members, Staff, etc.

See C1.2, SRI International Bylaws.

C10. Policymaking Procedure

The initial development of .geo policies and standards will make substantial demands for simplicity and efficiency. We therefore propose that policies will be formulated by the SRI/.geo Forum staff, in consultation with the public via the Forum message boards and the Advisory Councils. All consultation on these policies will take place via peer-to-peer relationships, the Advisory Councils, and the public web-based forums. Formalization and oversight of these policies will be the responsibility of SRI and the .geo Forum staff.

For reasons of openness and accessibility, the .geo Forum will require that all working drafts of policies and standards be published on the web site on a continuing basis while being formulated. Prior to their adoption, draft policies will be made available for public comment as described above.

C11. Meetings and Communication

As much as possible of the Forum's business will be conducted online. The first actual meetings will be those of the Advisory Councils, who will assist in the design and construction of .geo. Except in special circumstances, meetings of the Advisory Councils will be conducted by telephone at dates and times determined by the Councils themselves; or in-person, again as determined by the Councils. All meetings, via telephone or face-to-face, will be announced on the public web site. Accurate minutes will be taken at these meetings; decisions and recommendations will be published on the web site.

In subsequent years, the .geo Forum will organize meetings and conferences to which all interested parties will be invited. These meetings will examine the use and impact of .geo, and propose new directions for its development. The nature and scope of these meetings will depend on their prospective participants' expressed needs and the actual development of the .geo infrastructure.

C12. Fiscal Information

SRI International's fiscal information is contained in the Consolidated Financial Statements and Consolidating Information of December 25, 1999, and December 26, 1998 (with Independent Auditors' Report Thereon), found in the C1 attachments.

C13. Liability

The liability of SRI International and of its directors, officers, and staff is as set forth in the California laws that govern corporations, directors, officers and staff; and by federal laws, state laws, and federal, state and local regulations for the conduct of business within the United States of America, the State of California, and among the various states and other jurisdictions.

C14. Amendment of Articles of Incorporation or Bylaws

The procedure for making amendments to SRI International articles of incorporation, by-laws, and other organizational documents is by resolution presented to the Board of Directors for discussion and vote, requiring a quorum and majority as set forth in the by-laws and found in the C1 attachments.

C15. Reconsideration and Review

All policies, standards, and activities of SRI as the Sponsor will be subject to ongoing review by .geo Forum staff. The public forums will provide the .geo Forum staff with advance indication of possible needs for adjustment and review of policies or standards. In addition, the Advisory Councils will recommend the review of any policies or standards as they see fit.

II. PROPOSED EXTENT OF POLICY FORMULATION AUTHORITY

C16. Delegation Of Policy Formulation Authority

SRI has a proven record as a trusted authority for formulating and administering policies governing Internet infrastructure. As one of the first two sites on the ARPANET and the long-time home of the Network Information Center (NIC), it has demonstrated its ability to operate and develop Internet infrastructure and to do so with the best interests of the global community in mind. Given the nature of .geo and the open infrastructure on which it depends, policies must be formulated and administered by just such a trusted authority.

Openness and responsiveness to the larger community will also be essential to the development of .geo from a technical prototype to a functioning infrastructure on the global scale such as outlined.

Given SRI's fundamental interest in the success of .geo as a global infrastructure, it is inherent to SRI's own interests that the TLD will be administered in the best interest of the Internet community, the community of.geo stakeholders, and the global community at large.

C16.1. Accreditation of Registrars

 

We do not anticipate a need for domain name registrars in the initial test period.

 

C16.2. Registry Contract

C16.2.1. Scope of authority sought

The scope of the authority sought includes matters pertaining to the negotiation and performance of the Registry Contract.

C16.2.2. Reasons/justifications for seeking authority

Since the operation of the registry under this domain will involve a number of technical and policy variations from ICANN's usual requirements, it will be necessary for SRI as the Sponsor to oversee this contract in collaboration with ICANN.

C16.2.3. Administration of the policy

See C16 above.

C16.2.4. Timing of Variation

This authority must be granted prior to the opening of the new TLD.

C16.3. Domain Name Restrictions

C16.3.1. Scope of authority sought

The scope of the authority sought includes matters pertaining to the naming of domains and sub-domains in the TLD.

C16.3.2. Reasons/justifications for seeking authority

Since the operation of the .geo TLD will be critically dependant on a naming convention to establish the hierarchy(ies) within the TLD, it is essential that policies governing naming within the TLD be under the authority of the Sponsor.

C16.3.3. Administration of the policy

See C16 above.

C16.3.4. Timing of Variation

This authority must be granted prior to the opening of the new TLD.

C16.4. Accreditation/Supervision of Domain Name Registrants

C16.4.1. Scope of authority sought

The scope of the authority sought includes matters pertaining to the accreditation and supervision of domain name registrants (the GeoRegistries).

C16.4.2. Reasons/justifications for seeking authority

The stability and usability of .geo will depend critically on oversight of the GeoRegistries and their operations. Since the policies governing this oversight will be in the hands of the sponsor and particular to this TLD, it is necessary for the Sponsor to be granted this authority.

The primary goals of the GeoRegistry accreditation process include:

 

Therefore, the basic principles for the accreditation of an organization as a GeoRegistry must include:

C16.4.3. Administration of the policy

See C16 above.

C16.4.4. Timing of Variation

This authority must be granted prior to the opening of the new TLD.

III. CONTRACT TERMS WITH REGISTRY OPERATOR

C17. Identification of Registry Operator

 

JVTeam, LLC

1120 Vermont Avenue, NW

Washington DC   20005 USA

Phone: +1 202 533 2600

Fax:     +1 202 533 2670

C18. Contract with Registry Operator.

C18.2. Proposed Terms For A Contract  [Attached, CONFIDENTIAL]

    By signing this application through its representative, the Applicant attests that the information contained in this Description of TLD Policies, and all referenced supporting documents, are true and accurate to the best of the Applicant's knowledge.

 

_______________________________

Signature

 

 

 Richard Cramer                                   

Name (please print)

 

 

 Assistant Corporate Secretary           

Title

 

 

SRI International                                   

Name of Applicant Entity

 

______________________________

Date