[NCUC-DISCUSS] Reuters reports new cooperative formed to take over management of .ORG

[Wisdom Donkor]

In this 7 January 2020 article
<https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/07/reuters-america-internet-nonprofit-leaders-fight-deal-to-sell-control-of-org-domain.html?__source=sharebar%7Ctwitter&par=sharebar>
we
learn that, "*prominent internet executives told Reuters they have created
a nonprofit cooperative they are offering as an alternative owner of .org.*"

This would appear to me to pose an existential threat to ISOC, as this
nonprofit cooperative - whose membership appears to me to have more
political muscle than ISOC has - is not proposing to buy PIR from ISOC, but
to instead have the .ORG Registry Agreement assigned to it by ICANN.

The full article is here, and I have extracted some relevant quotes below:
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/07/reuters-america-internet-nonprofit-leaders-fight-deal-to-sell-control-of-org-domain.html?__source=sharebar|twitter&par=sharebar

*“What offended me about the Ethos Capital deal and the way it unfolded is
that it seems to have completely betrayed this concept of stewardship,”
said Andrew McLaughlin, who oversaw the transfer of internet governance
from the U.S. Commerce Department to ICANN, completed in 2016.*

*Maher and others said the idea of the new cooperative is not to offer a
competing financial bid for .org, which brings in roughly $100 million in
revenue from domain sales. Instead, they hope that the unusual new entity,
formally a California Consumer Cooperative Corporation, can manage the
domain for security and stability and make sure it does not become a tool
for censorship.*

*... **The initial seven directors of the cooperative include former
founding ICANN President Michael Roberts, MacArthur Foundation
philanthropist Jeff Ubois and Bill Woodcock, whose Packet Clearing House
now runs the technical aspects of the .org system under contract.*

*The new group has briefed members of the U.S. Congress and hopes to prompt
the Internet Society to reconsider the sale. But its best shot at stopping
the pending sale lies with ICANN, which can veto any change in ownership
out of concern for the security, reliability or stability of the .org
domain.*

Best wishes,

*WISDOM DONKOR*
President & CEO
Africa Open Data and Internet Research Foundation
P.O. Box CT 2439, Cantonments, Accra | www.aodirf.org  / www.afrigeocon.org
Tel: +233 20 812 8851
Skype: wisdom_dk | Facebook: kwasi wisdom |  Twitter: @wisdom_dk
__________________________________________________
Specialization:
E-government Network Infrastructure and E-application, Internet
Governance,  Open Data policies platforms & Community Development, Cyber
Security,  Domain Name Systems, Software Engineering, Event Planning &
Management,
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