[Chapter-delegates] Concerning New York City's High-Bid Auction

[Thomas Lowenhaupt]

Fellow ISOC Members,

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.

We're looking for examples of where PICs have been successfully used. 
Any reports on same from Internet Society members will be greatly 
appreciated.

The full post can be found here 
<http://www.connectingnyc.org/abandoning-intuition-forgoing-digital-equity/> 
and is reprinted below.

Best,

Tom Lowenhaupt, Director

Connecting.nyc Inc.

Here's the post:

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 application 
<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ax9YfDev5GWYALJUNYv0RT3_WdfLh1C-U9DsPQmHHb4/edit?usp=sharing> 
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.

But our confidence plummeted when the city’s contractor announced 
<http://www.auctions.nyc/> that a high-bid auction was to be held on 
October 24 for 20 domain names:

  * Apartments.nyc

	

  * Construction.nyc

	

  * Kitchen.nyc

	

  * Renovation.nyc

  * Brokers.nyc

	

  * Furniture.nyc

	

  * Lease.nyc

	

  * Roommates.nyc

  * Brownstones.nyc

	

  * Garden.nyc

	

  * Living.nyc

	

  * Rentals.nyc

  * Condos.nyc

	

  * Homes.nyc

	

  * Lofts.nyc

	

  * Studios.nyc

  * CoOps.nyc

	

  * Interiors.nyc

	

  * RealEstate.nyc

	

  * Sublet.nyc

These are the first of what might ultimately be 3,000 auctioned names 
<https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qeEPuuPQ3MxzDtUjNpWZy5milRVISvt-4QqBmHRgENQ/edit?usp=sharing>, 
many of which are vital to the realization of that intuitive city and 
the utility of the TLD.

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.

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?

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.

If the city sticks with the high-bid auction (a holdover from the 
Bloomberg Administration), several negatives will result.

  * Our opportunity to establish .nyc as a managed and trusted TLD, a
    safe port if you will, would be diminished.
  * We’ll loose the opportunity to provide access to these new resources
    to non-traditional developers.
  * Creative offerings from capital starved entities will be non-existent.
  * We’ll loose the opportunity to become self reliant and will remain
    dependent on distant search engines to filter and present our resources.

Here are several steps the city should take to improve the name 
allocation process.

  * City Hall should establish and uphold a consistent public policy
    that facilitates the identification and development of civicly
    valuable domain names. (See here
    <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qeEPuuPQ3MxzDtUjNpWZy5milRVISvt-4QqBmHRgENQ/edit?usp=sharing>
    for a start.) In setting this policy it should consider the
    aggregation benefits that arise with a well managed and trusted
    digital resource.
  * 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.
  * Let’s empower little guys with hackathons, networking events, loans
    and credits… so that they have a chance to develop these domains.

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.

—–
/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. See a report on that 
meeting here <http://wp.me/pBzzv-rS>./



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