Interesting challenge - .reality

[Alex Gakuru]

The introduction of trademarks rights at the heart of the naming
system was, I think, a bad thing for the internet's future. Perhaps
worse than the cold war.

Here's why:
- - -
InfoWorld: When you participated in development of internet
technologies, did you think the internet would ever materialise into
what it has become today?

Cerf: The honest short answer, of course, is no, but the honest longer
answer is we did know – Bob Metcalfe and I, anyway – knew in 1973 that
we had an incredibly powerful technology here. We already had a lot of
experience with Doug Engelbart's work at SRI and a lot of other things
that we don't have time to go into, so we both knew that whatever was
going to happen, we had very powerful stuff. Then the question was
would it be something that could be rolled out to the rest of the
world? We didn't know for sure but when we worked on it, we decided
not to patent, not to copyright, not to control, but to share
everything we knew about the internet design to the general public all
around the world. What's amazing is that it was a [US] Defence
Department project and we were in the middle of the Cold War. In spite
of all that, we made all of this completely available to everybody and
the only reason it was possible is nobody paid any attention to us.
...
http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/technology/turning-off-pieces-of-the-net-not-sensible-vint-cerf

regards,

Alex

On Thu, Mar 18, 2010 at 4:47 AM, Tan Tin Wee <tinwee at bic.nus.edu.sg> wrote:
> The sum is a typical one size fits all solution that obviously financially favors you know who... I was ccTLD for .sg before so I should know and for developing countries with a small user base relative to commercial operations, the cost of operations is very low. Such decisions coming from this organization doesn't surprise me any more. It is so so sadly predictable. One might speculate that one of the key emotions Jon Postel would have felt at the past ten years of internet stewardship and today's state of internet governance is grief.
>
> As a professor, we have to publish papers and page charges for some open access journals can be  prohibitive if we don't have a research grant  or if we are from developing countries. Nevertheless we can apply for waivers.
> No one who needs it that cannot afford to pay is denied.
>
> Alas the whole domain name business is so badly corrupted by money politics and greed. As an internet volunteer in the spirit of internet voluntarism as many of you are, I am sure you feel a tinge of injustice at the very least if something invented for the main purpose of helping disenfranchised communities, especially in the case of IDNs, who don't use English to get online, that 12 years later and in the foreseeable future they will continue to be shut out for financial reasons and excluded on the wrong side of the digital divide because the entry barrier is raised so ridiculously high.
>
> And most the decisions made are shaped largely by the concern of the haves at the expense of the havenots. As a internet pioneer for tech nology and community way back then, I look back at the world before the Internet and cannot feel the strong sense that this powerful technology has been abused in several important ways to make life worse than before for significant groups of people without adequate measures that could have been taken by those in positions of power. They have bowed to the pressure of other rich and powerful people and groups, or they themselves have now joined the club of the rich and the powerful. Which is not a bad thing per se, but it is what you ought to have done or stood up for but failed to, that condemns. These days, this group is about the only one list I read on matters relating to ICANN.  I am not rich or powerful but I feel condemned already for being part of that Internet which I championed but failed to do enough. Such is the sad reality of today's Internet.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Carlos A. Afonso <ca at CAFONSO.CA>
> Sent: Thursday, March 18, 2010 8:48 AM
> To: NCUC-DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
> Subject: Re: Interesting challenge - .reality
>
> Not now... Icann staff did yet another blunder with a concoction named
> "EOI" and they are back to the drawing board in deciding what the
> pre-qualification process will be. In the meantime, keep at least US$55K
> ready to throw into a [very] high risk venture.
>
> frt rgds
>
> --c.a.
>
> Marc Perkel wrote:
>>
>>
>> Jorge Amodio wrote:
>>>> spiritual counseling class) - So - if (when) I apply for .reaity - what
>>>>
>>>
>>> Make sure that on your application you don't recreate the typo :-) ...
>>>
>>> Cheers
>>> Jorge
>>>
>>
>> Good point.
>>
>> BTW - how do I apply for the .reality TLD?
>>
>
> --
>
> Carlos A. Afonso
> CGI.br (www.cgi.br)
> Nupef (www.nupef.org.br)
> ====================================
> new/nuevo/novo e-mail: ca at cafonso.ca
> ====================================
>