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<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Olivier,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>The DNS was developed within a scope that
saw surfboards, suburbia, and California sunshine as the desired
future. Today, it's cities (or perhaps more accurately, urban areas) that are
ascendant. Two points in that regard: U.N. stats indicate more than half of
us now live in cities with the prediction of 66% by 2050; and planetary
sustainability seems to lean toward the comparative efficiency of
cities.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>But yes, you are absolutely correct, name conflicts could
be contentious in most instances and will be in some. However, I'd think
the various Springfield's could support a disambiguation page, and perhaps
index.paris could have a "Not looking for Paris France?" button. (For fun,
take this "One Name, Many Places" trivia quiz - <A
href="http://www.funtrivia.com/submitquiz.cfm?quiz=35186">http://www.funtrivia.com/submitquiz.cfm?quiz=35186</A> - I
got a 5 of 10.) </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>But having spent decades addressing civic issues here
in New York City, it's quite clear that the local communication and
administrative benefits offered by a thoughtfully developed DNS far outweigh
contention tension. However, in most instances
cities remain unaware of the DNS' utility beyond tourism and are
not aware of its potential in developments like the Internet of
Things, the semantic web, and using the DNS to reduce government
redundancies as a force for regional consolidation (I'm advocating for reserving
Hoboken.nyc). </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Olivier, as you point out, contention is a difficult
issue, but let's find a way to bring the opportunities to light and weight the
options in a public forum. Moving cities to a place where they recognize
their common interest in developing the DNS is the City-TLD
Workshop's goal, and the Vilnius IGF provides the opportunity to
begin a long overdue multi-stakeholder policy dialogue. I hope to see you
there.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Best,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Tom Lowenhaupt</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=ocl@gih.com href="mailto:ocl@gih.com">Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=governance@lists.cpsr.org
href="mailto:governance@lists.cpsr.org">governance@lists.cpsr.org</A> ; <A
title=toml@communisphere.com href="mailto:toml@communisphere.com">Thomas
Lowenhaupt</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Cc:</B> <A
title=roland@internetpolicyagency.com
href="mailto:roland@internetpolicyagency.com">Roland Perry</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, April 11, 2010 4:16
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [governance] Workshop
Proposal for Vilnius - City-TLDs: Impact, Best Practices, Governance</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>Hello Thomas,<BR><BR>On 11/04/2010 09:37, Thomas Lowenhaupt
wrote :
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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Roland,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </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>
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<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></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr><FONT size=2 face=Arial><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></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr><FONT size=2 face=Arial>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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr><FONT size=2
face=Arial></FONT> </DIV><BR></BLOCKQUOTE><BR>I agree with you although I
wonder whether you wish to open such a can of worms. Your aim appears to be to
have an informational session about city TLDs - perhaps working with others to
write a set of best practices?<BR>You'll then have to answer questions of the
type:<BR>If there is a Paris in France and a Paris in US, why don't they use
paris.fr and paris.tx.us ?<BR>Admittedly, how does .nyc relate to the already
existing .nyc.ny.us ?<BR>Roland's questions will also come up.<BR><BR>Are you
ready to have a potentially heated session on this?<BR><BR>BTW, I'm completely
neutral on the matter these days. If some organisations wish to try their hand
at new gTLDs, let them go ahead. If I was to attend, I'd probably enjoy
listening to a good debate.<BR><BR>Kind regards,<BR><BR>Olivier<BR><BR><PRE class=moz-signature cols="72">--
Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond, PhD
<A class=moz-txt-link-freetext href="http://www.gih.com/ocl.html">http://www.gih.com/ocl.html</A>
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