Re: [wg-review] 3. [Constituencies] Business, small business,and individuals

["Elana Broitman" <ebroitman@register.com>]

These issues should be resolved by empirical data, as in census.  If this cannot be
done then that is a very real problem which should be addressed.

Sincerely,

Greg Burton wrote:

> At 04:53 AM 1/11/01, Robin Miller wrote:
> >Kent Crispin wrote:
> >
> > > The question is, of course, who are the customers? The primary customers
> > > of the domain name system are in fact *businesses*, not individual
> > > netizens
>
> In one sense, that's true. If we replace "customers" with "consumers" the
> story changes. With the introduction of .name, this could change in both
> senses.
>
> > >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.
>
> Sophistry, Kent. One can't really call the commercial organizations that
> participated "the bulk of the customer base" even if they are members of
> that class.
>
> >Its my experience that if any business has any majority on the net at all, its
> >the small businesses owned by individuals.
>
> This is something close to true - small businesses, anyway, regardless of
> how they're organized.
>
> >The big corps were late-comers to the Internet game, all of us that have been
> >on the Net for a while KNOW this
>
> Not all big corps came late.
>
> >Those interests have NOT been represented. I had no idea
> >all this was going on until I found out the hard way that I was losing my
> >rights as an individual and a small business owner.
>
> A small-business constituency would be a very good thing. Would it be
> useful to think in terms of usage here? That is, individuals might register
> a domain name for business purposes - in that case, their issues might be
> addressed in a small business constituency. Individuals and families might
> also register a domain name for personal purposes - family genealogy, to
> promote their hobbies, to publish their personal work, and so on. While it
> can be argued that small-business interests have a niche in the business
> constituency, people who register a name for personal use clearly lack any
> vehicle for directly affecting the makeup of the NC or BoD unless they also
> fit into another group.
>
> However, it is a truism that the interests of large corporations are not
> necessarily the interests of small business. That's why there is a Small
> Business Administration as part of the US Government. It's pretty clear
> that the SBA would like to see both an individuals' constituency AND a
> small business constituency, but people need to organize both.
>
> A similar situation to the "small/large business" issue exists within the
> non-commercial constituency, where the concerns of the educational
> community may very well differ from the concerns of charitable
> organizations (just an example).
>
> To some extent, I think the issues of fora and representation are a chicken
> and egg thing. More people or small businesses or educational institutions
> need to be involved in order to create constituencies, but without
> constituencies in place it's very hard to get them involved. It would be
> useful for the NC to recognize this issue and find ways to address it.
>
> >Big business .... are the business interests that
> >have been EXCLUSIVELY catered to in that so-called 'consensus' that
> >resulted in
> >the current structure.
>
> Of all the constituencies that currently exist, it seems paradoxically true
> that the business constituency -clearly one of the best organized and
> strongest - is also the one must vulnerable to "capture". (Just get 300
> small business people to join it.)
> Absent the creation of a small business constituency, this could very well
> happen without anyone intending to capture it.
> It's an interesting situation - and one that should ultimately lead to the
> creation of that constituency.
>
> Regards,
> Greg
>
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