[governance] Workshop Proposal for Vilnius - City-TLDs: Impact,

[Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond]

Hello Thomas,

On 11/04/2010 09:37, Thomas Lowenhaupt wrote :
> Roland,
>  
> Here's something I wrote a while ago that sought to put the Net (and
> ICANN) into an historic perspective with regard to cities.
>
>     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.
>
>     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.
>
>     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.
>
>     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.
>
> 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.
>  
> 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.
>  
>

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?
You'll then have to answer questions of the type:
If there is a Paris in France and a Paris in US, why don't they use
paris.fr and paris.tx.us ?
Admittedly, how does .nyc relate to the already existing .nyc.ny.us ?
Roland's questions will also come up.

Are you ready to have a potentially heated session on this?

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.

Kind regards,

Olivier

-- 
Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond, PhD
http://www.gih.com/ocl.html

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