FYI -----Original Message----- From: Mitchel Ahern [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] FYI - Sent to AIP members. Antony ******************************************************************* Sent: Wednesday, January 27, 1999 8:57 PM Subject: AIP Survey - Official Update Survey Participants, Below find Bret Faussett's report on the International Domain Names Meeting he attended last week to present the AIP DNSO proposal. Mitchel ********************* Here's the official update, please circulate. On Thursday and Friday of last week, I attended the "International Domain Names Meeting" in Washington, D.C., as the representative of the AIP. The conference was designed to discuss the creation of the Domain Name Supporting Organization ("DNSO") and the five competing drafts. The hosts of the conference were the Commercial Internet Exchange (CIX), Council of European National Tol Level Domain Registries (CENTRE), European ISP Association (EUROISPA), International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), International Trademark Association (INTA), Internet Council of Registrars (CORE), Network Solutions (NSI), Policy Oversight Committee (POC), and the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA). Also in attendance were Esther Dyson and Mike Roberts, from the ICANN Board of Directors. The presenters of draft proposals for the DNSO included the AIP, the INTA, the Open Root Server Confederation (ORSC), CENTRE, and a loose affiliation of independents known by their website, dnso.org. The proposals fell into three categories: top-down decision-making, bottoms-up decision-making, and hybrids. The dnso.org and INTA proposals are considered the "top-down drafts," with a strong Names Council that makes all policy recommendations. The ORSC proposal is "bottoms-up," with policy-making coming from the membership. Our proposal is a bit of a hybrid, though leaning more toward bottoms-up. In our proposal, a group of experts steer the research process with open support from a large membership base. The CENTRE proposal also was a hybrid, with a two house approach to governance: a "general assembly" that made decisions and a small "Names Council" that coordinated the decision-making process. Our proposal was well-received, with almost everyone expressing support for the concept of the "Research Committees," set forth in Section 8 of our draft bylaws. Most of the Europeans were very supportive of the idea of bringing expertise to bear on the DNS issues through these committees. After the proposal, I also received interest in the AIP draft from the ICC and the United States Council for International Business, which both found our proposal "commerce-friendly." The one place where our proposal drew some criticism (though also some curiosity) was in the "Affiliate Organization" concept, which made all of the members of an "Affiliate Organization" -- such as the AIP -- a member of the DNSO. Many at the conference (especially the registrars) believed that this would lead to persons with only a tangential interest in domain policy voting on issues that were at the core of their business. Basically, they're worried that amidst the thousands of AIP members, the hundreds of registries and registrars would have a worthless, diluted vote. We'll need to explore ways of addressing this valid concern. At the meeting, we learned that ICANN very much hopes that we all come together in these final days. To that end, a conference call was scheduled for Tuesday, January 26th to see if we can find any common ground. Both the AIP and CENTRE proposals may be places to start, as they both attempt to balance strong tops-down management with broad consensus-based policy-making. An overview of last week's conference (along with RealVideo of Esther Dyson's introductory remarks) can be found on the WITSA web site, at http://www.witsa.org/press/domain.htm. Please let me know if you have any questions. -- Bret ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Bret A. Fausett Fausett, Gaeta & Lund, LLP e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.fausett.com ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ----------------- End Forwarded Message ----------------- ||| Mitchel King Ahern, MAIP ||| EAW: Webmaster, Technical Marketing, CD ROM/Interactive Media ||| Phone: 508 234-4295 ext 118 Fax: 508 234-8251 AOL-IM: MitchelKA ||| Net: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: www.eaw.com List: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ||| Chairman: Association of Internet Professionals: www.association.org ||| Memory and Worcester Massachusetts: web0.tiac.net/users/mitchela/ **************************************************************** This survey is managed by Lassoo Interactive. 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