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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Roland,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Here's something I wrote a while ago that
sought to put the Net (and ICANN) into an historic perspective with regard to
cities. </FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Imagine that in
1983 Vint Cerf had visited a global city like New York, climbed the steps to
City Hall and said to Mayor Koch that he and Jon Postel had begun thinking
about an Internet enhancement that would make it easier to find the cities
digital resources. That they were thinking of calling it the Domain Name
System (DNS) and using names such as .com, .org and .edu. <BR><BR>And imagine
Vint explaining his vision about this new technology's prospect for addressing
the multiplicity of city needs; concluding with a plea that the mayor gather
the world's smartest minds in New York City, help detail a desired DNS's
feature-set and in the process develop a model that other cities might
follow.<BR><BR>But as we all know, no one knocked on that City Hall door and
the DNS was created without considering its impact on cities. And when it
escaped from the lab, the technology spread like a virus and changed the world
for better and for worse. <BR><BR>Remarkably, the DNS opportunity is again at
hand. ICANN will deliver on its key mission in 2010 and we'll soon see cities
sporting new TLDs such as .nyc, .berlin, and .paris.</FONT><FONT size=2
face=Arial></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Let me note that
this was not written with the intent of criticizing these
Internet pioneers, merely to highlight an area where, with omnipotent 20/20
hindsight, one might observe Net imperfections needing
attention.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr>Roland, with all due respect, I've never
heard ICANN dealing with any of the issues I've proposed for the IGF
Workshop. Yes, they have encouraged the development of "Perfect Sunrise"
guidelines that warrant consideration, and they uncovered that there's a Paris
in France as well as Texas. And to its credit, ICANN has agreed that cities
should have access to TLDs. But city-TLD governance, best practices, and a
primer for city-TLDs - it's just not in their scope. ICANN's concern is commerce
not cities. City-TLDs are (IMHO) perfect for an IGF workshop.</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr> </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr>Tom Lowenhaupt</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr><BR>
<HR>
</DIV></FONT><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>----- Original Message ----- </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>From: "Roland Perry" <</FONT><A
href="mailto:roland@internetpolicyagency.com"><FONT size=2
face=Arial>roland@internetpolicyagency.com</FONT></A><FONT size=2
face=Arial>></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>To: <</FONT><A
href="mailto:governance@lists.cpsr.org"><FONT size=2
face=Arial>governance@lists.cpsr.org</FONT></A><FONT size=2
face=Arial>></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Sent: Sunday, April 11, 2010 2:15 AM</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Subject: Re: [governance] Workshop Proposal for
Vilnius - City-TLDs: Impact, Best Practices, Governance</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><BR><FONT size=2></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT><FONT size=2 face=Arial>...</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial><BR>It sounds interesting, but if (and this is a
serious IGF Governance <BR>point) the IGF is supposed to be non-duplicative,
then the discussion <BR>above would normally be an extremely close fit with an
ICANN meeting. <BR>Indeed I have sat through a couple of very similar sessions
there.<BR><BR>If you consider going ahead at the IGF, you might want to include
a <BR>discussion of how you handle the sunrise period (there are several
<BR>different models been tried out in the past) as this is possibly the
<BR>most challenging aspect[1].<BR><BR>But that's only after you've successfully
got your City-tld. The part <BR>which fascinates me the most (just a personal
interest of course, I have <BR>long collected interesting telephone numbers, car
licence plates, and <BR>yes even domain names) is how competing claims will be
assessed.<BR><BR>For example, the City of Perry with the best Google ranking is
in <BR>Georgia[2], USA, closely followed by others in Michigan, Utah, Oklahoma
<BR>and Florida. Which would have the "best claim"?<BR><BR>[1] For example, what
would it take for Air Berlin not to be a shoe-in <BR>for air.berlin, and would a
decision like that be based on the prior <BR>registration of trademarks, a
community policy, or something else (first <BR>to apply, winner of an auction,
etc)?<BR><BR>[2] With three different domain names already: perry-ga.gov,
perryga.com <BR>and perry.georgia.gov, so maybe they won't want a fourth.<BR>--
<BR>Roland
Perry<BR>____________________________________________________________<BR>You
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