<div dir="ltr">Dear Ayden,<div>This is perfect, </div><div><br></div><div><div><div dir="ltr" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><div style="font-size:small"><div><div><b>WISDOM DONKOR</b><br></div><div><font size="1">President & CEO</font></div><div><font size="1">Africa Open Data and Internet Research Foundation</font></div><div><font size="1">P.O. Box CT 2439, Cantonments, Accra | <a href="http://www.aodirf.org" target="_blank">www.aodirf.org</a></font></div><div><font size="1">Tel: +233 20 812 8851</font></div><div><font size="1">Skype: wisdom_dk | Facebook: kwasi wisdom | Twitter: @wisdom_dk </font></div><div>__________________________________________________</div><div><font size="1">Specialization:</font></div><div><font size="1">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, <b style="font-size:small"><br></b></font></div><div><span style="font-family:monospace,monospace;font-size:x-small"><u>MEMBER</u></span></div><div><span style="font-family:monospace,monospace;font-size:x-small">UN IGF Multi-stakeholder</span><span style="font-family:monospace,monospace;font-size:x-small"> Advisory Group</span><br></div><div><font size="1" face="monospace, monospace">UN BPF on Policy Option for Connecting and Enabling the Next Billion (CENB)</font></div><div><span style="font-family:monospace,monospace;font-size:x-small">UN BPF on Gender and Access</span></div><div><font size="1" face="monospace, monospace">UN IGF National Regional Initiatives</font></div><div><font size="1" face="monospace, monospace">UN BPF on IOT, Big Data and AI</font></div><div><font face="monospace, monospace"><span style="font-size:x-small">Fellow: Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, NCSG, NCUC, AFRALO</span><br></font></div><div><font face="monospace, monospace"><span style="font-size:x-small">National SDG Data Roadmaps Advisory Committee, Ghana</span> <span style="font-size:x-small"><br></span></font></div><div><font size="1" face="monospace, monospace">ICANN, Internet Society, Freedom Online Coalition, </font><span style="font-size:x-small;font-family:monospace,monospace">Diplo Foundation,</span></div></div><div><font size="1" face="monospace, monospace">Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition</font></div><div><font size="1" face="monospace, monospace">Ghana Open Government Partnership (OGP) Advisory Committee </font></div><div><font size="1" face="monospace, monospace">World Bank Open Data Working Team,</font></div><div><font size="1" face="monospace, monospace">Africa Open Data Collaborative </font></div><div><font size="1" face="monospace, monospace">Ghana Energy Commission Data Task-force </font></div><div><font size="1" face="monospace, monospace">Linux Accra Users Group</font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Tue, Dec 10, 2019 at 2:59 PM Ayden Férdeline <<a href="mailto:ayden@ferdeline.com" target="_blank">ayden@ferdeline.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div>Dear all,<br></div><div><br></div><div>In response to comments in this thread and new developments today, I have proposed some further edits to the statement that we could potentially send to the ISOC Board. Please find below. Note that key changes are in red. Thanks!<br></div><div><br></div><div><div><div>Ayden Férdeline <br></div><div>--</div><div><br></div></div></div><p dir="ltr" style="font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="background-color:transparent"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-family:Arial"><span style="font-size:11pt"><i>To: Gonzalo Camarillo, Chair of the Board of Trustees, Internet Society</i></span></span></span></span></span><i><br></i></p><div><i><br></i></div><p dir="ltr" style="font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="background-color:transparent"><span style="font-family:Arial"><span style="font-size:11pt"><i><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">As members of a network which encompasses many non-commercial organizations and individuals, we are concerned by the announcement that Ethos Capital </span></span><span style="color:rgb(237,65,57)">intends to acquire</span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"> the assets of the Public Interest Registry (PIR) from the Internet Society (ISOC), including the .ORG, .NGO, and .ONG Registry Agreements. We ask that this sale be called off. </span></span></i></span></span></span><i><br></i></p><div><i><br></i></div><p dir="ltr" style="font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="background-color:transparent"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-family:Arial"><span style="font-size:11pt"><i>Principally, we are concerned that the sale of PIR to a private entity investment firm will significantly alter the Domain Name System and weaken ISOC. PIR played an important role, as the only remaining non-commercial top-level domain registry operator, in serving as a counterbalance against commercial exploitation. PIR ran .ORG, .NGO, and .ONG for the benefit of its users, whereas other top-level domains are run by private companies with purely financial objectives. While the interests of companies and users do at times overlap, they can also conflict, and when this occurs there are significant human rights implications. PIR, as a subsidiary of ISOC, could be relied upon to do what was best for domain name registrants, and has a proud history of doing just that. However, PIR also gave ISOC legitimacy and influence. It allowed ISOC to take an active role in shaping Internet infrastructure. In relinquishing its control over PIR, ISOC would lose its ability to directly impact how millions of people around the world positively experience the Internet every day, and we think that is a great pity.</i></span></span></span></span></span><i><br></i></p><div><i><br></i></div><p dir="ltr" style="font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="background-color:transparent"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-family:Arial"><span style="font-size:11pt"><i>We understand that Ethos Capital approached ISOC with an offer in September 2019 and that an agreement had been reached to sell PIR by November 2019. This secret process caught us, and everyone, unaware, not just of the transaction but of the urgency to divest of PIR. </i></span></span></span></span></span><i><br></i></p><div><i><br></i></div><p dir="ltr" style="font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="background-color:transparent"><span style="font-family:Arial"><span style="font-size:11pt"><i><span style="color:rgb(237,65,57)">We join ICANN in its 9 December 2019 letter calling for ISOC to be more transparent about the proposed sale of PIR. We ask that ISOC commit to publishing on its website all correspondence and documents exchanged with ICANN in relation to the proposed change in control of PIR. In addition, we ask that ISOC commit to publishing on its website any filings (including motions and petitions) in the Pennsylvania Orphans' Court relating to the change in status of the PIR.</span></i></span></span></span><i><span style="color:rgb(237,65,57)"><br></span></i></p><div><i><br></i></div><p dir="ltr" style="font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="background-color:transparent"><span style="font-family:Arial"><span style="font-size:11pt"><i><span style="color:rgb(237,65,57)">We expect an organization that operates in the public interest, and who promotes the values of openness, trust, and transparency, to be open and transparent about major decisions. </span></i></span></span></span><i><span style="color:rgb(237,65,57)"><br></span></i></p><div><i><br></i></div><p dir="ltr" style="font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="background-color:transparent"><span style="font-family:Arial"><span style="font-size:11pt"><i><span style="color:rgb(237,65,57)">This is a major decision </span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">that will result in a significant change, for ISOC and for the Internet community, and it has been proposed a) without a human rights impact assessment being conducted, b) without consultation with impacted stakeholders, and c) without appropriate safeguards in place to protect the interests of .ORG, .NGO, and .ONG registrants and the people who visit their websites every day. </span></span></i></span></span></span><i><br></i></p><div><i><br></i></div><p dir="ltr" style="font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="background-color:transparent"><span style="font-family:Arial"><span style="font-size:11pt"><i><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">ISOC has successfully stewarded .ORG via PIR for 17 years, gaining a reputation as a careful manager of a resource that truly is the global home for nonprofits and the noncommercial community. Given this background, and ISOC’s stated commitments to transparency and openness, we are unable to reconcile the path that you have taken with the values we thought ISOC espoused. </span></span><span style="color:rgb(237,65,57)">Accordingly, we call upon ISOC to withdraw from its negotiations with Ethos Capital, to withdraw from selling PIR, and to honor its charter.</span></i></span></span></span><i><br></i></p><div><br></div><div><div><br></div></div><div><br></div><div>‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐<br></div><div> On Monday, December 9, 2019 2:29 PM, parminder <<a href="mailto:parminder@itforchange.net" target="_blank">parminder@itforchange.net</a>> wrote:<br></div><div> <br></div><blockquote type="cite"><p><span style="font-family:Verdana">Thanks Imran, very useful..</span><br></p><p><span style="font-family:Verdana">So a community asset given to ISOC for free,
nay with a $ 5 million subsidy, for safe keeping and management
on behalf of the community is suddenly declared by ISOC to just
be a sterile financial asset -- with no community implications
whatsoever -- that it is selling off to a newly formed for
profit entity in order to maintain and augment its funding. And
we are supposed to stay quiet or just applaud ISOC's financial
astuteness.... </span><br></p><p><span style="font-family:Verdana">It cannot get more absurd that this..</span><br></p><p><span style="font-family:Verdana">parminder </span><br></p><div>On 09/12/19 12:19 PM, Imran Ahmed Shah
wrote:<br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div style="font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><div dir="ltr">Hi Parminder,<br></div><div dir="ltr">There were 11 bidders. ICANN
evaluated 11 proposals when VeriSign was leaving in 2002.<br></div><div dir="ltr">At that time, the bidding
criteria was different, the bidders were quoting their quality
of services, as there was objections on VeriSign Support.
Secondly, bidders were offering the cost of their fee for
services per domain (registration and/or renewal). ISOC was
not the lowest bidder.<br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">No, ISOC/PIR did not have to
pay anything. In compensation from ICANN, VeriSign given seed
money (<span>Endowment</span>) to ISOC/PIR for capacity
building and Registry handling and support <span> 2.6 million
domain names</span>. <br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">Regards<br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">Imran Ahmed Shah<br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div></div><div><div style="font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;color:rgb(38,40,42)"><div>On Monday, 9 December 2019, 09:44:57 GMT+5, parminder <a href="mailto:parminder@itforchange.net" target="_blank"><parminder@itforchange.net></a> wrote:<br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><div><div><p><span style="font-family:Verdana">From those who know I request
response to this question:</span><br></p><p><span style="font-family:Verdana">Was ISOC given the .org registry
as a result of an auction (apart from other
evaluation criteria) or not, meaning did ISOC pay
anything, and if so how much?</span><br></p><p><span style="font-family:Verdana">Thanks</span><br></p><p><span style="font-family:Verdana">parminder </span><br></p><div><div>On
09/12/19 3:27 AM, Ayden Férdeline wrote:<br></div><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></div></div><div><div><div>Indeed John, this criteria is interesting,
particularly number 6, which I have pasted below. I
do not believe Ethos Capital has a "level of support
for the proposal from .ORG registrants," but the
Internet Society did, and that is why .ORG was
assigned to them over other bidders.<br></div><div><br></div><p style="font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none solid currentcolor"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><b><i>6. Level of support for the
proposal from .org registrants.</i></b></span></span><i></i><br></p><p style="font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none solid currentcolor"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><i>Demonstrated support among
registrants in the .org TLD, particularly
those actually using .org domain names for
noncommercial purposes, will be a factor in
evaluation of the proposals. Noncommercial
registrants do not have uniform views about
policy and management, and no single
organization can fully encompass the diversity
of global civil society. There will likely be
significant difficulties in ascertaining the
level of support for particular .org proposals
from throughout the .org registrants and
noncommercial community. Nevertheless,
proposals to operate the .org TLD should
provide available evidence of support from
across the global Internet community.</i></span></span><i></i><br></p><div><br></div><div>Best wishes,<br></div><div><br></div><div><div><div>Ayden Férdeline <br></div></div><div><br></div></div><div><br></div><div>‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐<br></div><div>On Sunday, December 8, 2019 10:49 PM, Sylvain
Baya <a shape="rect" href="mailto:governance@lists.riseup.net" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><governance@lists.riseup.net></a> wrote:<br></div><div><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><div><div>Hi all,<br></div><div><br></div><div><div dir="ltr">Le dim. 8 déc. 2019 9:19 PM,
John Levine <<a shape="rect" href="mailto:icggov@johnlevine.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">icggov@johnlevine.com</a>>
a écrit :<br></div><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div>In article <<a shape="rect" href="mailto:CAJjTEvFXJ%2BZLsdLwYF2vMkChKizoZ9RKN7p%2BO_Bj52yiAn858g@mail.gmail.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">CAJjTEvFXJ+ZLsdLwYF2vMkChKizoZ9RKN7p+O_Bj52yiAn858g@mail.gmail.com</a>>
you write:<br></div><div><br></div><div>><hxxps://<a shape="rect" href="http://www.icann.org/news/icann-pr-2001-03-01-en" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.icann.org/news/icann-pr-2001-03-01-en</a>><br></div><div><br></div><div>It might be more useful to refer to
the criteria used to evaluate<br></div><div>the .org proposals and decide who got
the registry:<br></div></blockquote></div></div><div><br></div><div>Dear John,<br></div><div>...have you used it yourselves ?<br></div><div><br></div><div><div><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><a shape="rect" href="https://archive.icann.org/en/tlds/org/criteria.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://archive.icann.org/en/tlds/org/criteria.htm</a><br></blockquote></div></div><div><br></div><div>...for sure, these criteria are interesting ;
but let me know if there is a specific criterion
which contains, explicitely, the key words : *<i><b><u>By</u></b> and <u><b>For</b></u></i>* ?<br></div><div><br></div><div>Thanks.<br></div><div><br></div><div>Shalom,<br></div><div>--sb.<br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><div><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div>R's,<br></div><div>John<br></div></blockquote></div></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div><br></div><pre>---
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