[Chapter-delegates] Come to an ISOC Chapters Hangout this Friday to discuss city-TLD governance

Thu Jun 27 08:20:33 PDT 2013

Allow, please, for a counterpoint. Not everybody believes that city TLDs
deserve special status... or are necessary at all.

Had the municipal government where I live considered a TLD I would have
been at city hall actively opposing the effort; I was actively monitoring
this.  Thankfully Toronto -- which is no
slouch<http://www.intelligentcommunity.org/index.php?src=news&srctype=detail&category=Awards&refno=777>in
areas of local use, awareness and commercialisation of the Internet --
made no effort to get a TLD. Indeed, there is not a single Canadian cityTLD
application also a source of pride.=(1).

While I encourage Thomas to advance this issue and welcome his passion, I
am just as ready to make the point that community and public money/effort
on a cityTLD is wasted, and would be much better spent on using
existing-domain-name websites to increase civic engagement and access to
information. There is NOTHING that could be done for New York residents in
.nyc that could not be done under nyc.us, nyc.org newyork.org,
bigapple.netetc etc etc. I even notice that the city government
already provides some
listings for local businesses at nyc.gov!

Most of the arguments I've heard in favour of CityTLDs, boil down to vanity
or a sense of entitlement (a city of our stature *deserves* a TLD). IMO any
city that truly is world class (whatever that means) does not need
marketing trinkets such as TLDs to prove it.

I'll be there on Friday. The issue is useful to debate; I've heard Thomas's
case before and believe the rest of ISOC needs to heard it, but I challenge
his assumptions. I believe that at very least non-community operations of
city TLDs ought to be persuaded to create a reserved second-level domain --
say, community.nyc or civic.nyc or even connected.nyc -- reserved for the
kind of community needs Tom envisions. This kind of thing could (and IMO
should) be asserted into the Public Interest Commitments that all TLD
applicants are being encouraged to do. But let there be no assumption that
there is a sweeping agreement that City TLDs, as a subcategory are indeed
anything more than municipal-government dot-brands. That ICANN demands
munitipal government approval of cityTLD applications is further evidence
of that status.

 (1) I do not consider .quebec a cityTLD, but rather a
geocultural/linguistic TLD akin to .cat -- and I support that.

Cheers,

- Evan

On 26 June 2013 18:59, Rudi Vansnick <rudi.vansnick at isoc.be> wrote:

> Dear Thomas,
>
> Very good idea doing this session. However, as I'll be out of office, I
> will not be able to participate.
> For what concerns .gent, .vlaanderen en .brussels, I can tell you that
> they are all 3 on track and will most probably be launched somewhere mid
> next year. If more details are required, I'll be back after 6/7 and will
> make myself available for additional information. For those going to
> Durban, you can catch me there.
>
> Kind regards,
>
>   Rudi Vansnick
> President - CEO              Tel +32/(0)9/329.39.16
> rudi.vansnick at isoc.be        Mobile +32/(0)475/28.16.32
> Dendermondesteenweg 143    B-9070 Destelbergen
> =.=.=.=.=.=.==.= Internet Society Belgium  =.=.=.=.=.=.=.=.=
> www.internetsociety.be       "The Internet is for everyone"
>
> Op 26-jun.-2013, om 17:02 heeft Thomas Lowenhaupt <toml at communisphere.com>
> het volgende geschreven:
>
>  Fellow Chapter Delegates,
>
> This Friday, 3-4 PM EDT, there's to be an open session on the weekly ISOC
> North American ISOC Chapter leaders hangout. I'd like to encourage chapter
> leaders from North America and elsewhere to attend and share their
> knowledge about public engagement in the planning and ongoing governance of
> their city-TLDs.
>
> I'll be there as a member of New York City's ".NYC Advisory Board" to talk
> about public engagement here and looking for insight on how things are
> going in other cities. I believe Miami, Boston, Las Vegas and New York are
> the only U.S. cities to have had applications submitted, and there's a
> Quebec submission from the north. I've sent invitations to those on a
> google doc<https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AhVMdzMAZzUQdFFwTDlpTXJ6Q2psejdMUkFoZDdNaFE#gid=0>about the city-TLD applications that I've been developing, but it's
> somewhat incomplete. Please invite others who might have interest in the
> matter. (I'm especially interested in the .boston application but have been
> unable to locate anyone there with knowledge of its process.)
>
> This is an open meeting so other matters will be discussed as well. With
> Paul Brigner traveling, Joly MacFie will be at the controls.
>
> Best,
>
> Tom Lowenhaupt
>
>
> ISOC Contacts from the google doc
>
>    - uaew at eim.ae
>    - http://isoc.nl/
>    - http://www.isoc.cat/ info at isoc.cat
>    - http://www.isoc.de/
>    - Hans Peter Dittler    sek at isoc.de
>    - http://www.internetsociety.be
>    - Rudi Vansnick   admin at isoc.be  "
>     - lajos.balint at niif.hu          http://www.isoc.cat/ info at isoc.cat
>            "
>    - http://www.isoc.qa/   info at isoc.qa
>     - uaew at eim.ae
>     - Tommi Karttaavi president at isoc.fi
>     - http://www.isoc-e.org Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond contact at isoc-e.org
>
>     - http://www.isoc-au.org.au  Narelle Clark ed at isoc-au.org.au
>     - http://isoc-ny.org admin at isoc-ny.org
>     - http://www.isoc.fr    contact at isoc.fr
>     - http://www.isocquebec.org Louis Houle info at isocquebec.org
>     -  http://www.isoc.it Stefano Trumpy web at isoc.it
>     - http://www.isoc.se Predrag Mitrovic admin at isoc.se
>     -  http://www.isoc.org.tw  louk.chi at isoc.org.tw
>     - http://www.venus.gr.jp/wiki.cgi/isocjp?page=FrontPage  HIROSHI
>    ESAKI    isoc-jp-rejuvenation at venus.gr.jp
>     - http://www.internetsociety.be   Rudi Vansnick   admin at isoc.be
>
>
>
>
>
> On 6/25/2013 11:35 PM, Joly MacFie wrote:
>
> it's going to be an open session.
>
>
> On Tue, Jun 25, 2013 at 5:28 PM, Thomas Lowenhaupt <toml at communisphere.com
> > wrote:
>
>>  Yes?
>>
>
>
>
>  --
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> Joly MacFie  218 565 9365 Skype:punkcast
> WWWhatsup NYC - http://wwwhatsup.com
>  http://pinstand.com - http://punkcast.com
>  VP (Admin) - ISOC-NY - http://isoc-ny.org
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> -
>
>
>
>
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-- 
Evan Leibovitch
Toronto Canada

Em: evan at telly dot org
Sk: evanleibovitch
Tw: el56
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