PAB A Proposal for Formation of a Domain Name Supporting Organization

From: Amadeu Abril i Abril (Amadeu@nominalia.com)
Date: Tue Sep 22 1998 - 11:45:09 PDT


PABrs,

Here you have a proposal for moving forward regarding the Domain name
Supporting organization.
 The website is still under construction.

Amadeu

***************

        A Proposal for Formation of a Domain Name
         Supporting Organization

There is no single organization that meets the exact
requirements specified in the reconstituted IANA draft
Bylaws for the Domain Name Support Organization
("DNSO"). Therefore, such an organization must be
formed.

We present here a proposal for the formation of such an
organization, and we invite interested parties to join us in
completing this work, and presenting an application to the
reconstitued IANA for recognition as the DNSO.

Our proposal follows the third draft of the Bylaws, VI.3.a.ii
and VI.3.b, very closely, and we have tried to present a
structure that represents our best understanding of what
is required. Several points are worth special mention:

        The phrase "any other entities with legitimate
        interests in these issues" (VI.3.a.ii) is a very broad
        membership qualification. Accordingly, we have
        designed the DNSO so that essentially any
        interested entity can participate.

        Funds from the DNSO will represent a major part of
        the funding of a reconstituted IANA. Two sources
        of funds come to mind -- a per-domain assessment
        on domain registrations, and membership dues in
        the DNSO. However, this is sure to be a
        controversial topic, and we present several
        possibilities. Substantial funds for reconstituted
        IANA are a hard requirement, however, and a
        substantial dues structure will be necessary.

        Given a very open structure such as we propose,
        there are almost certain to be many members of
        the DNSO, and we anticipate that there will
        necessarily be an executive committee (we call it
        the "DNSO Governing Committee" that will conduct
        much of the business of the DNSO. Thus, a
        significant part of our proposal deals with the issue
        of how the Governing Committee will be elected,
        and how such an election will meet the
        requirements specified in the ICANN Bylaws.

        The Name Registries and Registrars are clearly a
        special class within the DNSO, both from the point
        of view of special mention in the Bylaws, and from
        the point of view that domain registrations are likely
        to be a primary source of funding for reconstituted
        IANA. But thy are indeed not the only interests to be
        represented within the DNSO. Industry at large,
        trademark interests, users, constitute other legitimate
        classes. We deal with such obvious special classes
        by following a model similar to that in the
        reconstituted IANA Bylaws -- various classifications
        elect certain numbers of members of the Governing
        Committee.

        As specified in the reconstituted IANA Bylaws, the
        DNSO will create a Names Council ("NC"). The NC
        is an adjunct to the DNSO, and is an open
        membership organization. We anticipate that dues
        will also be necessary to be a member of the NC,
        but they will be much less than the dues for a
        DNSO member. The NC will elect some fraction of
        the Governing Committee.

        A decision mechanism for nominating reconstituted
        IANA Board members and deciding policy is a
        requirement from the reconstituted IANA Bylaws.
        We have a proposal, but this is an especially
        delicate area, and some further work seems
        necessary.

        This is a work in progress. In places we have
        proposed alternatives; in other places there are
        simply holes that need to be filled. The general
        framework is very flexible, but there are many
        parametric details that must be decided. And
        indeed, it may be necessary to change the
        framework.

It is clear that a DNSO must be formed very quickly, and
that there needs to be wide participation. We invite you
to join us in this effort. Please send your comments and
proposal for participation to <process@dnso.org>. We
invite all interested parties to a planned meeting in
Barcelona (Catalonia, EU) on October 16, 17, 18, 1998.

Thank you.

http://www.dnso.org (under construction)

The gTLD-MoU Policy Oversight Committee



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Jan 30 2000 - 03:22:35 PST