NCSG Principles-- [economic] nature of names : Public Goods

Tue Dec 20 23:00:20 CET 2011

Thanks Alain - FYI, I am about to post a summary of discussion so far. I
understand competing work priorities. Inputs from Lori would be great, but I
hope that NPOC members do not feel they need to have an agreed "position"
before providing input - this is an open dialogue to which all NCSG members
are free to contribute.

Regards

Joy

From: NCSG-Discuss [mailto:NCSG-DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On Behalf Of Alain
Berranger
Sent: Wednesday, 21 December 2011 4:12 a.m.
To: NCSG-DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: Re: NCSG Principles-- [economic] nature of names : Public Goods

Joy, Nicolas,

...very necessary policy work, I would say... I will hopefully have some
minor contributions to make in the future but will first refer you  to Lori
Schulman, the new interim NPOC EC Policy Committee Chair, as she may wish to
engage with you and NCSG on this. Remember that we are a new constituency
and as such have not yet completed a number of consultations with our
currently NCSG-approved membership on policy issues and future members
awaiting admission... Our priority is to deal first with our constituency
issues.

Alain

On Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 10:37 PM, Nicolas Adam <nickolas.adam at gmail.com>
wrote:

First principle I would like to submit goes to the nature of the resources
that we deal with here, domain names.

To address what is the nature of those resources, for us, is to
fundamentally segregate the analogies that are and aren't "on point", when
it comes to policy proposals.

I suggest we address this nature on a few ontological axis. I will start
with the economic axis.

############

I submit that we should fundamentally recognise that domain names are
*public goods* because they are both non-rivalrous and non-excludable.
Especially in the context of exploding gTLDs, this has never been truer.
Might even be amongst the purest examples of such.

As i've said in a previous post, with limitless alphanumeric strings
available, even if one market participant in a sector (i.e. healthy food, or
religion) obtains the obvious gTLD (.religion or .healthyfood), there is
many other ways to refer to those ideas for their competitors (.faith or
.healthybody, etc...) and so they are truly non-rivalrous.

[note that that is less so in the context of just a few TLDs (hence my
liking of the expansion). I would perhaps debate that they already are under
existing TLDs, or that the difference from the purest form is a matter of
degree and not nature]

So, this *public good* nature of domain names would be its fundamental
economic *nature*. That is *what* they are, economically.

We can debate this. Anticipated policy implications are welcome.

If we all agree, we can start writing a "Whereas .... domain names are
public goods", but we should really work on completing a list first, and
then go on the "Whereas ..."

######

Just to give examples of where this would lead, as a general scheme:

amongst the other ontological axis that I envision we should address and
craft a fundamental something on, the [technical] nature of names
(addresses), the [expressive] nature of names (free speech?) come to mind.

We might also want to address the *nature* of the DNS-root zone (common good
?), the *nature* of users (and their centrality), and some other relevant
entities fundamental nature in this little thought exercise.

But for now i'd like to hear what y'all think of this scheme in general, and
of this principle in particular.

Nicolas

On 12/1/2011 4:46 PM, Joy Liddicoat wrote:

Dear all - reflecting on my first few months as a GNSO councillor and the
various NCUC and NCSG conversations it occurred, imho, that there seems to
be a reasonably frequent resort to *fundamental* principles-type discussions
from various voices in the policy discussions (domain name take downs, UDRP
review, law enforcement, IPR to name a few) .. Meanwhile I was taking a
fresh look at RFC 1591 and participating in a policy principles discussion
on TLD policy in New Zealand that was kind of interesting and got me to
thinking:

as a new NCSG member, what do I know about the policy principles that guide
the NCSG (not the principles in our various Charters, but policy principles
that inform our SG policy inputs as a whole into ICANN related activities)?
What are the perspectives on these and what do members think? Are there some
core policy principles that we are agreed about? If so, how these could be
drawn on to help guide our policy inputs in ICANN related matters
(particularly as Councillors responsible for considering issues in light of
diverse NCSG views)?

I am may be mad for thinking about this (and I feel very gratified to be in
a SG that will clearly tell me if this is so!) but I would like to initiate
a dialogue about this in NCSG - even if it takes some time to work through.
I am willing to take responsibility for facilitating this discussion and to,
get the ball rolling, wonder if a list of policy principles for NCSG might,
for example, look like this:

.         NCSG prioritises the non-commercial, public interest aspects of
domain name policy.

.         Guardianship: gTLD policy should be focused on responsibilities
and service to the community.

.         Multi-stakeholder: gTLD policy should be determined by open
multi-stakeholder processes.

.         Human rights: gTLD policy should meet human rights standards,
including transparency and the rule of law.

.         Equity: parties to domain registrations (including non-commercial
registrants) should be on a level playing field; domain registrations should
be first come first served.

.         Competition and choice: gTLD policy should ensure competition and
choice for non-commercial registrants and non-commercial internet users.

.         In case of conflict, the principle of guardianship prevails.

If necessary, we can split discussion of each of these policy principles
into separate discussions on the list, but perhaps we can start here ..

Joy

Joy Liddicoat

Project Coordinator

Internet Rights are Human Rights

www.apc.org

Tel: +64 21 263 2753 <tel:%2B64%2021%20263%202753>

Skype id: joy.liddicoat

Yahoo id: strategic at xtra.co.nz

--
Alain Berranger, B.Eng, MBA

Member, Board of Directors, CECI, http://www.ceci.ca
<http://www.ceci.ca/en/about-ceci/team/board-of-directors/>

Executive-in-residence, Schulich School of Business, www.schulich.yorku.ca

NA representative, Chasquinet Foundation, www.chasquinet.org
interim Vice Chair, NPOC, NCSG, ICANN, http://npoc.org/
O:+1 514 484 7824 <tel:%2B1%20514%20484%207824> ; M:+1 514 704 7824
<tel:%2B1%20514%20704%207824>
Skype: alain.berranger

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