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

[Alan Levin]

Hi,

Milton, I am surprised by this.... it's pure opinion, and I must point it
out to others... :(  comments inline...

On Wed, Jan 8, 2020 at 7:41 PM Mueller, Milton L <milton at gatech.edu> wrote:

> Oh, this is such hypocrisy. So Andrew McLaughlin, Mike Roberts and Esther
> Dyson (who totally dissed the noncommercial constituency when they held
> positions of power in ICANN are now coming to the rescue of the
> noncommercial community by altruistically offering to take over an asset
> worth $1 billion.
>

Well actually at that time there was a MUCH stronger focus on At Large and
we had a global election! Things were way better from the point of end
users, we even had an accountable diverse board.  Some 20 years down the
line there are still major issues here...

 Those people are _*not*_ our friends.
>

Well, speak for yourself.  As far as I can see they are way better than the
organisational ISOC/Ethos deal, from the .org perspective.

This is an example of why we need to be careful how we react to this
> proposed sale. This is just turning into a land grab, by which certain
> interests (e.g. Wikimedia Foundation) are seeking to exploit the
> controversy to take over ORG for themselves.
>

So are you also pointing to the wikimedia foundation as exploitative??

I have been involved passionately in ISOC for 25 years... after Salt Lake
City it was never the same. The Internet Society of South Africa had to
split and create Internet South Africa. ISOC has institutional control and
is in the Ethos deal.

Sincerely

Alan


 *From:* Ncuc-discuss <ncuc-discuss-bounces at lists.ncuc.org> *On Behalf
Of *Wisdom
> Donkor
>
> *Sent:* Wednesday, January 8, 2020 5:28 AM
> *To:* NCUC-discuss <ncuc-discuss at lists.ncuc.org>
> *Subject:* [NCUC-DISCUSS] Reuters reports new cooperative formed to take
> over management of .ORG
>
>
>
> 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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