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<p>Fellow ISOC Members,</p>
<p>For over two years Connecting.nyc Inc. has sought to educate the
city of New York on the advantages of instituting public interest
commitments (PICs) for certain civicly important .nyc domain
names. While our message got through with regard to 385
neighborhood names (GreenwichVillage.nyc, Harlem.nyc, etc.) the
city will soon begin auctioning 3,000 names without any PICs. <br>
</p>
<p> We're looking for examples of where PICs have been successfully
used. Any reports on same from Internet Society members will be
greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>The full post <a
href="http://www.connectingnyc.org/abandoning-intuition-forgoing-digital-equity/">can
be found here</a> and is reprinted below.</p>
<p>Best,</p>
<p>Tom Lowenhaupt, Director</p>
<p>Connecting.nyc Inc.<br>
</p>
<p>Here's the post:</p>
<p>Jackson Hts., New York, October 5, 2016 – There were highs and
lows in city hall’s rollout of the .nyc TLD last month. Early on
we were cheered when we received notification that our <a
href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ax9YfDev5GWYALJUNYv0RT3_WdfLh1C-U9DsPQmHHb4/edit?usp=sharing"
target="_blank">application</a> for the JacksonHeights.nyc
domain name had been approved. And with the de Blasio
Administration committed to putting the city’s 350+ neighborhood
domain names under the control of local residents, we began to
imagine that our decade-old vision of an “intuitive” city Internet
might materialize; where one would find informative presentations
of our city’s art galleries at artgalleries.nyc, find banks at
banks.nyc, and locate a church at churches.nyc. And with each such
directory a bonus would arrive: the opportunity for a New Yorker
to form a new small business.</p>
<p>But our confidence plummeted when <a
href="http://www.auctions.nyc/" target="_blank">the city’s
contractor announced</a> that a high-bid auction was to be held
on October 24 for 20 domain names:</p>
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<ul>
<li>Apartments.nyc</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td>
<ul>
<li>Construction.nyc</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td>
<ul>
<li>Kitchen.nyc</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td>
<ul>
<li>Renovation.nyc</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<ul>
<li>Brokers.nyc</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td>
<ul>
<li>Furniture.nyc</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td>
<ul>
<li>Lease.nyc</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td>
<ul>
<li>Roommates.nyc</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<ul>
<li>Brownstones.nyc</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td>
<ul>
<li>Garden.nyc</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td>
<ul>
<li>Living.nyc</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td>
<ul>
<li>Rentals.nyc</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<ul>
<li>Condos.nyc</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td>
<ul>
<li>Homes.nyc</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td>
<ul>
<li>Lofts.nyc</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td>
<ul>
<li>Studios.nyc</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<ul>
<li>CoOps.nyc</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td>
<ul>
<li>Interiors.nyc</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td>
<ul>
<li>RealEstate.nyc</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td>
<ul>
<li>Sublet.nyc</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>These are the first of what might ultimately be <a
href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qeEPuuPQ3MxzDtUjNpWZy5milRVISvt-4QqBmHRgENQ/edit?usp=sharing"
target="_blank">3,000 auctioned names</a>, many of which are
vital to the realization of that intuitive city and the utility of
the TLD.</p>
<p>The basis of our disappointment is epitomized by the hotels.nyc
domain name. It’s reasonable to assume that, in a high-bid
auction, an entity such as the Hilton Corporation, with deep
pockets and 30 hotels in or near the city, will win. When this
occurs two associated outcomes can be predicted with reasonable
certainty: a traveler looking to hotels.nyc for a city hotel would
assuredly be provided with a highly skewed view of the city’s 250+
hotels (a Hilton perhaps?). And a comprehensive listing of hotels
(perhaps creatively mixed to include an AirBnB-like listing)
fashioned by a local entrepreneur will never materialize.</p>
<p>With our being awarded the license for JacksonHeights.nyc, we
have a big stake in this development: If people come to believe
that hotels.nyc and other such civic infrastructure names are in
essence offering “biased directories,” what hope is there that
they will come to trust that JacksonHeights.nyc presents the
considered and collaborative intelligence of its neighborhood
namesake?</p>
<p>To summarize, the city has established a workable model to guide
the allocation of the neighborhood names, requiring detailed
public interest commitments (PICs) from those interested in the
rights to their development. Further, those awarded neighborhood
name must return every three years to demonstrate they’ve met
their PICs. In contrast, the plan for auctioning hundreds, perhaps
thousands of these civicly important names does not require any
PICs from the auction winners. And there’s no review process
whatsoever, with the names issued virtually forever.</p>
<p>If the city sticks with the high-bid auction (a holdover from the
Bloomberg Administration), several negatives will result.</p>
<ul>
<li>Our opportunity to establish .nyc as a managed and trusted
TLD, a safe port if you will, would be diminished.</li>
<li>We’ll loose the opportunity to provide access to these new
resources to non-traditional developers.</li>
<li>Creative offerings from capital starved entities will be
non-existent.</li>
<li>We’ll loose the opportunity to become self reliant and will
remain dependent on distant search engines to filter and present
our resources.</li>
</ul>
<p>Here are several steps the city should take to improve the name
allocation process.</p>
<ul>
<li>City Hall should establish and uphold a consistent public
policy that facilitates the identification and development of
civicly valuable domain names. (See <a
href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qeEPuuPQ3MxzDtUjNpWZy5milRVISvt-4QqBmHRgENQ/edit?usp=sharing">here</a>
for a start.) In setting this policy it should consider the
aggregation benefits that arise with a well managed and trusted
digital resource.</li>
<li>25% of the 3,000 names currently reserved for high-bid auction
be set aside to meet civic and public goals. Auctioning 75% of
the names should settle the Bloomberg financial commitment to
the city’s contractor. When considering considering renewal of
names management contract, the city should consider the
contractor’s flexibility.</li>
<li>Let’s empower little guys with hackathons, networking events,
loans and credits… so that they have a chance to develop these
domains.</li>
</ul>
<p>Let’s begin governing the .nyc TLD as a common that belongs to
all New Yorkers. There’s never been a meaningful public hearing
about the development of .nyc TLD. Let’s have one. Longer term, we
need a policy development process to deal with abandoned names,
idle names, WHOIS, rates, consumer protections, and more. All
stakeholders should have a say in developing these policies.</p>
<p>—–<br>
<em>Thomas Lowenhaupt is the founding director of Connecting.nyc
Inc., a NYS nonprofit education organization advancing the
operation of the .nyc TLD as a public interest resource. His
2001 Internet Empowerment Resolution sparked the city’s
acquisition of the .nyc TLD. Two years ago the Internet Society
of New York and Connecting.nyc sponsored a panel on the
allocation of these “premium” domain names. <a
href="http://wp.me/pBzzv-rS" target="_blank">See a report on
that meeting here</a>.</em></p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
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