RE: [wg-review] Clarifications requested from BoD, Staff, NC, TC, Chair prior to co-Chair elections

["Cindy Merry" <tomerrys@inter-linc.net>]

Kent:  I like business.  I like to make money.  I like the use of the
Internet for my business.  I think it's great to figure out ways to make
money out of the Internet.  I'd like to be the first to come up with a
great idea to make millions with this wonderful tool we've been given.  I
do believe the healthier our businesses are, the healthier we all can
become.  And I'm all for Big business and Little business and different
organizations and everyone with a viewpoint lobbying for their cause.

So with that said, I still think the main question for us may be:  What are
the rules, the policies, the structure that makes the most sense to allow
the most participants to truly participate?

This question of individuals vs. business can circle and circle.  I don't
really think that because Yahoo is a brilliant directory or CNN.com a great
place to go for news that their interests in the Internet are anymore
important than mine.  Because one registry (Network Solutions) controlled
Top Level Domains (TLDs) for so long and now we have some new TLDs that are
going to be apparently controlled by someone else (who gets to make money)
that those Registries have more "significant" input than other people or
businesses.  Yes...they have invested money to make money.   I even like
the concept of paying to play in the business world.

But in every business community that I work within...if only the "Big" guys
play, eventually everything falls apart.  I could hypothesize on why this
happens but sooner or later I think it gets down to the "Big" guys are
outnumbered by the little guys.  So the best bet for the "Big" guys is to
get the little guys on their side.  And that includes defining fair play,
fair and clear rules, a clear understanding on how to participate, and
thoughtful, maybe even visionary planning.

I think the Internet is bigger than just Business.  In fact, I think all
these people who have jumped out there and tried so many (at first blush)
brilliant ideas of how to make money on the Internet are finding it's a
world different than they expected.

I also don't think that one organization with gobs of members should be
more important than another organization with less members.  My first
thought on this is that people come together and contribute a variety of
goals and ideas about how to reach those goals and then find the middle
ground to achieve action, always striving for better and better.  The
majority always needs the minority to advance.

So with that little speech out of the way, I suggest that our work group
try to incorporate as many of the ideas we have heard and offer a VARIETY
of suggestions that allow further growth on how to make ICANN more
responsive to the growing Internet community.  And my other thought is we
try to put it is as clear and simple English as possible.

Thanks for your time,  Cindy Merry

"Hain't we got all the fools in town on our side?  And hain't that a big
enough majority in any town?"  Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-wg-review@dnso.org [mailto:owner-wg-review@dnso.org]On Behalf
Of Kent Crispin
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2001 6:49 PM
To: wg-review@dnso.org
Subject: Re: [wg-review] Clarifications requested from BoD, Staff, NC, TC,
Chair prior to co-Chair elections

On Wed, Jan 10, 2001 at 05:43:25PM -0800, Eric Dierker wrote:
> May I be so bold as to turn this thread back to where I believe it should
> head.
> Clearly ICANN is operating in a monopolistic anti-trust type of
environment.

Yes.

> Clearly that is why it is important for it to move in the direction of
> a more bottom up, consensus oriented approach which includes those
> netizens who would be the victim if they are not adequately represented
> in ICANN.

But it is not at all clear that drastic change is needed to reach
that, because...

>  You see if the monopoly really does represent all of it's
> customers

The question is, of course, who are the customers? The primary customers
of the domain name system are in fact *businesses*, not individual
netizens -- a very large majority of domain-names in use are used for
commercial purposes.  Not surprisingly, business interests dominated the
consumer side in the DNSO formation process, and they continue to
dominate.  The bulk of the affected customer base, in other words, *did*
participate in a bottom-up process, and did arrive at a rough consensus,
and that rough consensus is the current structure.

However, the dialogue in this WG is oriented almost entirely towards
the idea of individual netizens alone.

--
Kent Crispin                               "Be good, and you will be
kent@songbird.com                           lonesome." -- Mark Twain
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