[Chapter-delegates] The passing of Thomas Lowenhaupt

[Joly MacFie]

As is often the way in such matters, I had been thinking of Tom this
weekend, and that I should reach out and see if he was visitable.

He was a colleague at ISOC-NY for the last 17 years or so - the most
reliable attendee of all and every Chapter meeting and event. He served on
the Chapter Board, and as Secretary.

Tom's interest in Internet policy derived from his membership in a local
community board in Queens NY where, in 2001. He was involved in getting a
proposal passed that the NYC acquire the .nyc TLD. Mostly thanks to
persistent single-minded lobbying from Tom, and a boost from current
Manhattan Borough President, Gale Brewer, the TLD was delegated to the city
in March 2014. Tom had always emphasized that the TLD should be used as a
public resource, as a result many neighborhood names are reserved for
community use, and strong nexus conditions imposed on any .nyc registrant.

Tom often attended ICANN meetings, and this tribute
<https://www.shareable.net/connecting-nyc-managing-a-top-level-domain-as-a-commons/>
includes
a photo of him addressing the ICANN board.

Tom organized many local meetings
<https://www.coactivate.org/projects/campaign-for.nyc/traditional-neighborhood-names-discussions>
to
discuss how the NYC could manage the TLD and  local communities could
benefit their 2nd level domains. The city instituted a multistakeholder
oversight board, and  itself launched a neighborhoods program in 2015,
which assigned the domains to community organizations, and contracted out
to a developer to create a website template and modules.  Tom was on the
.nyc oversight board, and also successfully applied to run the site for his
local neighborhood - Jackson Heights.

Unlike the city's somewhat top-down approach, what had been hammered out in
all those earlier meetings was that a mediawiki format would best serve
community participation, and that is what Tom adopted.
http://jacksonheights.nyc.

Sorry to say, after a few years, the wheels have begun to come off the
wagon. While Tom's health deteriorated, first the City disbanded the
oversight board, then abandoned the neighborhood.nyc template initiative,
That things have reached such a state reflects on just how dependent the
whole process was on Tom as a champion.

He was a charming man, an historic figure, and a fantastic colleague. His
achievements live on.

Joly MacFie

On Mon, Aug 12, 2019 at 9:45 AM Tom Lowenhaupt via Chapter-delegates <
chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org> wrote:

> Thomas Lowenhaupt passed away on Friday, August 9 from ALS (respiratory
> failure). He very much enjoyed his work and his association with ISOC. His
> work with neighborhood names was his final project. Let's hope it will be
> continued.
>
> Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Android device
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Joly MacFie  218 565 9365 Skype:punkcast
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