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On Thursday 17 November 2011 12:44 AM, Thomas Lowenhaupt wrote:
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<div>Fellow New Yorkers [see apology below if you're not],<br>
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<br>
Sure, Tom, non New Yorkers are fully with the New Yorkers in their all
their 'occupations' - of the wall street, and of the digital commons.
:). In fact the slogan 'occupy the digital commons' is very much timely
vis a vis SOPA. The exact response that SOPA needs. Maybe the groups
opposing SOPA can organise around this slogan. <br>
<br>
But then I am being naive, I dont expect Google, Facebook et al to
rally behind this slogan. Their opposition to government guarded
Internet enclosures is largely to the extend that it challenges their
privately owned Internet enclosures (a big part of the Internet now).
But, may be the progressive civil society actors can rally behind this
slogan of 'occupy digital commons, becuase digital commons are equally
threatened by statist and corporatist actors....<br>
<br>
Congrats to you and others of your team at the .nyc city commons tld.
parminder <br>
<br>
<br>
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<div> <br>
When Matt Cooperrider suggested a commons approach to governing New
York's TLD in 2007, I said "Nice idea, but people aren't ready for
this." Over the past four years several developments have led this
rusting old head to reconsider Matt's proposition:<br>
</div>
<ul>
<li><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elinor_Ostrom">Elinor Ostrom's</a>
2009 Noble Prize for Economics for "her analysis of economic
governance, especially <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_commons"
title="The
commons">the commons</a>." This transformed a
then slow-growth effort to nurture and reclaim the commons into a
global movement. There's now even a <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.schoolofcommoning.com/">School of the Commoning</a>
in London. <br>
</li>
<li>The city's decision in early 2009 to support an application for
a city-TLD. This relieved us of the burden of developing a structure
and securing financing for a TLD application, and provided time to
think about a city-TLD's broader implications.<br>
</li>
<li>The 2010 closing of city hall's gates to public engagement in
imagining our TLD's role in social and economic development and civic
affairs. (With <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://connectingnyc.org/tick-tock">ICANN's deadline for filing
an application for our TLD fast approaching</a>, we're not sure if that
move represents a blunder, cronyism, or something else.)</li>
<li>ICANN's initiating the New TLD Program without providing any
guidance to cities. With cities home to more than half the global
population, the key generators of economic growth, and the hope for a
sustainable planet, it seems their multi-stakeholder governance model
demonstrated its limits. <br>
</li>
<li>Governor Cuomo's office saying in <span
style="font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 10pt;">September
that New York's </span>TLD issue "was not a priority." </li>
<li> And most recently, at an October 20 <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.coactivate.org/projects/campaign-for.nyc/blog/2011/10/18/commons-governance-of-the-nyc-tld/">"Tea
& TLDs" meeting</a>, <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bollier">David Bollier</a>, a
leading thinker about the commons, observed that city-TLDs provided "an
open greenfield for new governance structures." Further, he suggested
that the Occupy Wall Street movement might provide the opportunity to
present city-TLDs as "greenfields" to cities globally. Since the Occupy
movement has grasped the essence of the commons in the "Whose streets?
Our streets!" mantra, it might be a short hop to urbanites chanting
"Whose TLDs? Our TLDs!"<br>
</li>
</ul>
<div> So with the extant governance structures having failed, we've
decided to explore the commons approach by bringing the city-TLD
opportunity to the Occupy movement.<br>
<br>
While we've explored commons governance over the years - see <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.coactivate.org/projects/campaign-for.nyc/common-pool-resource">here</a>
and <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.coactivate.org/projects/campaign-for.nyc/blog/category/common-pool-resource%C2%AD%C2%AD%C2%AD%C2%AD/">here</a>
- this Thursday we're digging deeper into the potential, participating
in a "Occupy the Digital Commons" meeting at the Atrium, 60 Wall
Street, from 6-8 PM. The meeting was convened by Occupy Wall Street's <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.nycga.net/groups/nurturing-the-commons/">Campaign for
the Commons</a> working group (an entity we're part of). Here's part of
the meeting announcement from the <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.nycga.net/events/event/occupying-our-digital-commons/">Occupy
Wall Street</a> site: <br>
</div>
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<div><i>This will be the first face-to face-meeting of this group.
We’ll start with a brief review of the commons, including the newest
commons, city-TLDs – .boston, .rome, .paris, .london, .mumbai, .nyc,
etc. (Like .com and .org but just for these cities.) </i></div>
<div><i>Then we’ll turn our attention to how we can best create an
awareness of the foundation role the commons play in society and of the
need to nurture them. We’ll look to how the group might fit within
Occupy Wall Street structure, if nurturing the commons might be a
stated goal of the Occupy movement, and if city-TLDs might provide an
engine to advance the cause.</i><br>
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<div> The working group's portfolio is broader than city-TLDs, the <a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_commons">commons</a>
itself, but the hope is that a global Occupy movement can bring some
youthful heads and energy to the development of city-TLDs as public
interest resources, perhaps by serving as greenfields for new
governance structures. (For those not familiar with the many features
of city-TLDs (greenfields is one of about a dozen), use the links below
to our web resources.)<br>
<br>
Hope to see you Thursday. If you can't make the meeting, we'll be
having a prep meeting Thursday morning at our regular <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/107114190098481725633">Tea &
TLDs Google+ Hangout</a>, and we'll blog the Occupy meeting ASAP.<br>
<br>
NOTE: Thursday promises to be an active day for New York's <a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://occupywallst.org/">Occupy</a>
movement. While the Atrium's address is <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/60_Wall_Street">60 Wall</a>,
there's a separate entrance on Pine Street.<br>
<br>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12pt;"> <font face="Arial">Best,<br>
<br>
Tom Lowenhaupt<br>
<br>
<br>
</font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12pt;"><font face="Arial">----------------------------------------------- </font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12pt;"><font face="Arial">Thomas
Lowenhaupt, Founder & Chair</font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12pt;"><font face="Arial">Connecting.nyc
Inc.</font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12pt;"><font face="Arial"> </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:tom@connectingnyc.org">tom@connectingnyc.org</a> </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">Jackson Hts., NYC 11372</font></div>
<div> <font face="Arial">718 639 4222</font><font face="Arial"><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.coactivate.org/projects/campaign-for.nyc/blog/">Blog</a></font>
- <font face="Arial"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.coactivate.org/projects/campaign-for.nyc/project-home">Wiki</a></font>
-<font face="Arial"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.connectingnyc.org/"> Web</a></font><br>
<br>
-------------------------------------<br>
<big>My apologies to those receiving this message with zero interest
in the topic. My email list got messed, and while I've tried to pick
and choose from the 1,000+ names, there are surely
places I've botched. </big><big>I</big><big>f you'd like to be
removed, email me - </big><big><a moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:toml@communisphere.com">toml@communisphere.com</a></big><big>
- and I'll take your name off my .nyc list. </big><big>I've included
those from the ICANN community hoping they can help us think this
through. </big><big>We email about once a month. </big><br>
<br>
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