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ICANN Meeting off to Shaky Start in Uruguay
JoeGee writes: "Reuters is reporting that the quarterly meeting of ICANN got off to a very shaky start in Montevideo, Uruguay on Friday September 8th. Protesters claim that ICANN's domain registration policies are creating a "digital divide". A special telephone party line created for members who could not be present at the meeting went unused. ICANN seems to be internalizing the turmoil that has surrounded the non-profit corporation since its inception in 1998."
A special telephone line?
Why don't they use VoIP, and practice what they preach. Or is the purpose of their screwed-up policy to drive people off the internet and back to the stable technology of the past?
"(Man) tries to live his own life as if he were telling a story. But you have to choose: live or tell." --Sartre
isn't that an oxymoron?
Not that there's anything wrong with choosing Uruguay, but that seems an unusual place to hold an ICANN meeting. Why go there?
It's not exactly a tech hub, is it?
you realy have nothing better to do, do you?
"It can be done, but only I can do it." -Trip Theory
Alan Levin, a South African activist who ran unsuccessfully for a board seat last year, pointed out that of the roughly 40 million registered domain names, only one-fifth of one percent were held in Africa, and the vast majority of those were held in just one country -- South Africa.
"It smacks of potentially legislating the digital divide," Levin said.
Bildt took offense at the charge. "There are limits to the amount of rubbish I can take," he said. "Close to half the world has never made a telephone call. I would not tear down the telephone system of the U.S. because of that."
Well gee i wonder why South Africa holdes the majority. The rest of Africa is off in a civil war and is too buty to care about the internet, and evel less about that telaphone line set up for people to call in. They need to go kill the white facists pigs. Bah to a democracy, we must controll the speech of our people, which means no internet.
my sig sucks.
Their report, due to be presented for discussion on Saturday, also recommends placing limits on the power of the board and setting up a bill of rights for individual users.
I wonder what will be in that bill of rights? What sort of rights should we have to domain names? I don't know how I would write it.
Just you wait until my registration of *.* comes through. Then you'll all be sorry.
"In a report released last week, the committee recommended giving six board seats to "at large" users, with one each coming from North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and India and the Asian Pacific region." Just six? That is less than the majority of the body that makes up ICANN. ICANN seems to be doing a good job butting heads with the "users at large" The users at large should be defining the how we "navigate the internet". politics and technology have a long way to go still. More techies need to run for office!
Just an everyday guy....nothing special
Then I think ICANN will start to understand what the words: "slashdot effect" really mean!
Qu'on me donne six lignes écrites de la main du plus honnête homme, j'y trouverai de quoi le faire pendre.
"It smacks of potentially legislating the digital divide," Levin said.
Bildt took offense at the charge. "There are limits to the amount of rubbish I can take," he said. "Close to half the world has never made a telephone call. I would not tear down the telephone system of the U.S. because of that."
After the meeting, Levin and Izumi Aizu of the Asia Network Research described Bildt's attitude as "paternalistic" and said they were not sure if his committee would take their concerns into account.
Paternalistic, indeed -- nobody is suggesting we "tear down" the internet simply because most people on earth are too poor to afford domain names. They are suggesting that the poor be able to vote or run for office -- hardly a notion I would consider shocking.
Bildt seems to think that instituting a poll tax with only landowners able to vote is the way to increase participation in this democracy? Which version of world history did he study that led him to believe this was at all acceptable in the 21st century?
Recursive: Adj. See Recursive.
Several complained that business interests, which control 80 percent of all ".com," ".org" and ".net" domain names, could potentially dominate a forum intended for individual users.
.org was for non-business interests. Can anyone point at an official charter for the domains?
Odd, I thought the charter of
Bildt took offense at the charge. "There are limits to the amount of rubbish I can take," he said. "Close to half the world has never made a telephone call. I would not tear down the telephone system of the U.S. because of that."
And the other half all have cell-phones, *sigh* (If I hear one more cutesy ring, usually in the middle of something important, It's Clobbering Time!)
At ICANN meetings around the globe, Bildt said, "we're seeing the same people from the same countries turning up at different places. That's not quite global involvement. That's global presence, perhaps."
So why does he keep turning up at different places? I wouldn't trust these people to set my VCR, never mind the standards we'll be stuck with for the next umpty years.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Let's concentrate on what really matters.
in the imortal words of Homer S.
"u-r-gay hehehehe"
kind of the prefect place for ICANN to meet huh?
/sound of me running away at the HORRID attempt at humor/
sorry, someone had to say it ^_^
ICANN (Bildt, et al) has apparently laid out plans to declare that anti-democratic behavior is a good thing for a public non-profit institution that affects *all* our lives. The arrogance is astounding. The elitist board must move toward establishing direct democracy where all people of the world can participate, without their stinkin' poll tax.
Steve Magruder, Metro Foodist
Type the following:
echo "Press enter until Start button appears."
Saying that effective monopolization of domain registrations is part of a "digital divide" is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard. The US has pretty much monopolized the .com/net/org/edu root domains, but that cuts both ways; If you lived in South Africa, you'd tend not to browse .com domains simply because most of those companies don't do business where you live. You'd do your surfing with .co.sa or whichever domain range is valid where you lived.
Also, frankly, vanity domains aren't extremely essential for business on the net. People get their URLs from friends and search engines and price bots, and in my experience nearly never go to "books.com" or "plumbing.com" to see what's there.
I'm sorry, folks. The digital divide only exists in the minds of socialists^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hliberals who worry about the poor folk not having computers, when it's largely a matter of education, not wealth. And the real estate along the information superhighway is practically boundless.
I installed Linux the other day, and I can't find my AOL window anywhere! Help!
linux is 3 1337 4 u
If you're talking about a society that suffers so badly from lack of infrastructure that it can't participate in the global economy, that's not a digital divide, that's a gaping chasm with nothing digital about it.
Once you start stringing wires, then everything changes. Analog phone lines can nearly always support digital communications, even if it's limited to a few kilobits per second. Old and slow computing hardware is cheap, and even if it can't play Quake II without an unacceptably low frame rate, it'll still send email or even run a web browser. (Better uninstall those Flash plug-ins, though.)
Taking cash and throwing it at a project to run fiber through the jungle, and giving Pentium IV machines and free domain names to all the inhabitants, won't help the digital divide one bit. If anything it'd create a cargo cult of the uneducated worshipping the computers, knowing that they will bring prosperity, when in fact they do nothing of the sort. (Well, maybe they'll provide a little recreation, thanks to Solitaire and Minesweeper.)
Sure, in the uk a
So, before you (maybe from a luxury position of being American?) tell others they do not need
Cheers,
Michael
---
BDOS ERR ON A:>
a "corporation" is a legal person that can bring suits, and works in the business world. It pays taxes, obeys the law, and is a real "thing."
:)
a "non-profit corporation" is any artifical person that exists for some reason other than the profit of its shareholders. The most popular and well-known non-profits are charities, such as United Way, the Boy Scouts of America, and the Salvation Army. Non-charitable non-profits also exist, used often to manage something a business wants done (such as Java.)
I believe a church is something different.
Seems this needs answering.
First, a divide is important even if there are people worse off. Do I say "go away with your penut allergy because some people have cancer"? Do I say "you should drive a 5 year old chevy and not that Audi, because some people are starving"? Do I say "you cannot have that DVD player becuase people are landless in Zimbabwe"? Of course not. A rather disingenious argument.
Second - it is very easy for the USA (is that where you are) or Europe to tell other nations that they should not care about this becuase there are people starving.
Third: the whole point about that divide is that opening up the new economy to developing nations gives them a chance to do just that, develop, so they won't be hungry. This divide is something to be taken seriously.
Cheers,
Mike
---
BDOS ERR ON A:>
wow. A slashdot poster that isn't full of shit.
A corporation is, well, incorporated, which means they file papers with a state government, pay a $50-$200 filing feer, have a board of directors, shareholder(s), etc, and are a legal entity.
Interestingly enough, in early US history, corporations were viewed as a bad thing, and the only ones that existed had a strict purpose and a limited lifetime (eg - incorporated to build a bridge). This was back before everone believed that the gov't should do everything for them because they were 'entitled'. Later on, as people got tired of farming, corporatation became more popular.
Hello? McFly? I'm an at-large member, and I never heard of this... Of course no one called an unlisted, unadvertised number. You have to preregister to get the number. It took me a fair bit of searching to find that little nugget of information after reading this article. I'm on the announcement list they say has so few subscribers; I haven't seen any useful announcements.
And if public participation is so low, why do they want to lower it? How many of the current at-large members will remain at-large members once they accept their internal version of the world? The At-Large Study draft doesn't give an estimate. Fancy that.
Flamebait? You bet. They deserved to be roasted alive. This Bildt guy worked for RAND Europe. Hm. Niles is a US ex-Ambassador. Hm. Dandjinou is responsible for the African domain names mentioned in the article. Hm. Many have backgrounds that make me go Hm. Many of the agencies and groups mentioned throughout have ties that give conspiracy theorists major woodies.
Don't insult Adequacy.Org. It owns j00r ass.
...non-profit corporation since its inception in 1998...
Ok, so what went on before 1998??? Utter chaos? No... I recall having used the web back in 1994... So then I must ask... why can't we fall back on the pre-ICANN-watchyamacallit days???
---
Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
I've received two series of emails from Neulevel within 24 hours of each other saying that many of my .BIZ domain name applications conflict with trademark claims (most of which are dubious at best) that some other people have made.
.BIZ applications very soon or they are automatically canceled (possibly as soon as Monday?). Seems simple enough, but it's not...and this is where things get interesting. Neulevel encloses the required Password in the email, BUT NOT the required Username. Neulevel says in their email that one is supposed to use the user ID they were assigned by their respective .BIZ Registrar.
.BIZ applications and I bet others can't either...a .BIZ scam in the making...? Keep in mind that persons who made trademark claims paid approx $90 USD for each claim and thus Neulevel has an incentive to make things easier for them and more difficult for everyone else.
.BIZ registrant has either forgotten their user ID, or was never assigned one by their respective .BIZ registrar, or inexplicably their so-called user ID isn't accepted by Neulevel's system.
.BIZ registrants not being able to complete their .BIZ applications due to the complexity of their system - giving one their password and not their user ID is highly unusual and appears to me to be intended to make the confirmation process so difficult and confusing that many perspective .BIZ registrants can't do it...and even worse, many people won't even realize their .BIZ applications will NEVER be submitted because they never received any emails from Neulevel and/or couldn't understand the procedure.
.BIZ registrant needs to complete their .BIZ application(s). Anything less is unfair and unethical.
The Neulevel emails then go onto to say that one must login and "complete" their
However, I can't login to complete my
In many instances the perspective
Perhaps Neulevel is counting on many perspective
I sincerely hope that Neulevel sends out a followup clarification email that contains ALL the information that a perspective
"U R Gay.....hee hee hee!"
"fist in the air in the land of hypocrisy"
Considering that the same people show up at each ICANN meeting, moving it to obscure locations is silly. They should limit it to, say, the cities where the United Nations has a major presence: New York, Geneva, and Vienna. Or locations that have a root DNS server.
I believe a church is something different. :)
What about the Church of Sc... oh no, Xenu is in my head -- must... get... audited....... NO CARRIER
Please keep in mind that a number of the larger US corporations do NOT pay taxes of any sort to the federal government. They just pay that $50-or-so fee a year and keep on ticking. Some pay subsidies (sp), grants, and "special designation fees", but...
Some don't even pay any state/local taxes via special exemptions that said state/local government gives them in "lieu of staying here N number of years." What's _not_ stated is that the employees of said company get reamed bothways. (If you've never done payroll, that won't make sense to you.)
Unfortunately, some of these corporations turn billions of dollars a year in profit - yes, to the happiness of shareholders, but at the expense of taxpayer. Surprisingly enough, it would seem that most of todays modern individual taxpayers don't give a damn, as long as they get their $1K-5K average.
What's more surprising is that these same taxpayers don't realize that the major corporations aren't paying a dime - in some cases, for multiple decades - in taxes.
Yes, I'm aware that the hard-core Republicans in you would say the economy would collapse if our foremost industry captains would be forced to 'pay their dues.' Makes me want to puke. Or move to Denmark or Britain. Or even Japan. Doesn't matter.
The day our (United States) corporations give like they're SUPPOSED to give is the day before the planet explodes/implodes due to the gravitional pull of the sun. Or Mars. Or the Borg. Or whatever. It'll never happen. Basatards.
Location: palm trees, sunshine, peaceful country, and who in the hell has heard enough about ICANN to raise much of a stink?
...
Location: most of the people who are concerned enough about ICANN cannot afford to get to an out-of-the-way place like Montevideo, Uruguay. Many of them don't even know how to say the name of the city, much less the name of the country.
Location: ICANN hopes to win points (and silence critics) among developing nations by holding a meeting in one of their own.
I think the supposed goal of the committee is to move the quarterly meeting from region to region with the lofty idea of bringing ICANN at its highest level within easy traveling distance of each participating locale. On the other hand there's a big difference between a meeting in Montevideo and a meeting in Rio. People in Rio might have actually noticed
Get off my virtual lawn, you damned virtual kids!
dead things?
Those are not exclamation points, loser. You are inconsistent - that means you are not really mad. LOSER.
If not, you should!
Warning: This signature may offend some viewers.
All the links on the front page of slashdot
for this story are apparently incomplete
ad links.
Now now, they CoS is a church like any other.
:(
If we allow Atheists, Unitarian Universalists, and Satansists (both real and "Gothic") religious protection, then we sure as heck should extend that to the CoS.
Of course, they "should" also play nice, too.
I've been an At-Large member since ICANN started the project. Although I am on the announcement list I haven't received a single e-mail about meetings, initiatives or what-have-you in months (at a minimum).
I, for one, am tired of Esther Dyson's self-righteous elitist cronies telling the rest of us how the Internet should be.
I was skeptical but had hopes when the At Large initiative started. I've now come to see it as it is: a sham that gives the illusion of openness and the air of democratic legitimacy to those who willingly turn a blind eye to the autocratic, business-as-usual attitude of the ICANN Board. By the way, here's the text of a relevant rejected post I sent in:
Studies: Public Participation in Internet Policy (Your Rights Online, Internet)
The New York Times informs us that two new reports from ICANN and the Center for Democracy and Technology both say that more public participation is required in policy-making. DUH! The ICANN report says only domain name holders should have rights, while the CDT report says the process should be open to all interested parties. We'll see what happens on Nov. 14 when the reports are tabled at the next ICANN meeting.
http://www.postel.org/remembrances/18postel.jpg
Why ?
- Because South African companies like those addresses - makes them 'international'
- Because hotmail doesnt have a
.za address
- Because google.com returns search results from the world, and the world is a
.com place
I know Alan Levin because his office is next door to me - he is usually right in his pronoucements. The digital divide is very real in a country where my (internet) phone bill is the same as my rent.What am I doing about it ? See Wizzy Digital Courier
Andy Rabagliati
MAY 1, 2001: ICANN FORUM
AUGUST 31, 2001: ICANN FORUM
Solution to trademark and domain problems is at WIPO.org.uk
On the state and local level, being classified as a church usually entitles the organization to a couple of perks, not the least of which is the ability to build facilities on land to which they have the right, regardless of zoning. Many municipalities have limits on that, such that a 30,000sqft church can't come and plop themselves right in the middle of a residential development made of up comparatively tiny houses.
also, being classified as a church brings up the whole religious freedoms business. churches have more constitutional rights under most regimes than do non-religious charities.
my old sig used to be funny, but then slashcode ate it and now it's not funny anymore
* Because hotmail doesnt have a .za address
.com place
Sounds like a business opportunity to me!
But the number of possible desirable hotmail.com addresses are limited, too. Does that mean there's a digital divide within that system, too?
* Because google.com returns search results from the world, and the world is a
Yes, and that annoys me sometimes; if I'm looking for products to buy, when Google returns links for European firms it doesn't help me any. What's wrong with having a "popsearch.co.za" search engine that only looks for local companies?
I don't get why those Third World representatives and their sympathizers are complaining about ICANN creating a digital divide. Those countries are sitting on a goldmine of barely used two letter domains. Subsaharann Africa, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, South America there's a whole world of domains out there and if a country is savvy enough to open registration up to the rest of us, I would suspect there's money to be made.
.com, .org, or .net with discount registry.
.com or a .net
.st which is Saotome and Principe. It was not cheap but I have the name for three years at $75.
.com but that makes .com common as dirt. An .st raises eyebrows. Having a short name to start with I figure http://zc2zc3.st is not hard to remember. Of course the eyebrow raising effect will die back as more people get these exotic country codes but for now it is nice to be the "first one on my block..."
Most of the Polynesian domains ws, vu, nu, to, tv, sell for at least $35/year, making them more expensive than Internic registrations and certainly more than what it costs to register a
http://zc2zc3.org was already taken when I went to get a domain for ZOID CITY Community and Community Competition. Being avowedly uncommercial and DIFFERENT from other web site competition communities, I did not want a
I went shopping and found
I think it was worth the shopping and worth the price. Sure everybody thinks
I think there would be lots of other folks like me if other third world counntries made it easy to register their domain names.
Eileen H. Kramer/ZOIDRubashov/Roanna
http://zc2zc3.st
Please visit ZOID CITY Community and Community Competition http://www.zc2zc3.st
Depends... Germany decided that the CoS was a business and is taxing them accordingly. And when was the last time the Catholic Church tried to infiltrate the IRS? (Yes, the CoS tried. Partially succeeded too... some of them are still in jail, AFAIK.)
Kierthos
Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
Hey, I never said that they *should* be considered a church. I personally don't think that kids getting together for orgies and drugs should count as a "coven"*, nor should someone have the religious freedom with regards to satanism.
The gov't shouldn't make any law declaring "one true faith", but declaring some "not true at all faiths" isn't that far off--especially if they just let the "tyrrany of the majority" do it by peer pressure**.
____
*: I have many close friends who are devout wiccans, and some of which have actually gotten NYS recognition--but only after they proved that they were more than some punks getting together to rebel.
**: By this comment, I mean that the gov't should enforce the laws that protect any other body (like, oh, the laws that keep a church from being burnt, or a religious person losing their job because of their religion), but that they shouldn't provide special protection for smaller religions. The Catholic Church should have every protection from the state that Wicca or Atheism have.
Sincerely,
Richarde,
Webmaster http://www.dnso.com
Need Mercedes parts ?
Thought I'd take a look at the story. Clicked on the link, ended up at their:
page.
As it happens, I'm running Mozilla 0.9.2 on WinNT (yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what the company supplies me with). I may have told it to lie a wee bit about its, and my, identity, but is that any reason to cut me off from seeing those ads the customers are paying them to run?
I refuse to believe corporations are people until Texas executes one. -- desert rain on http://www.dailykos.com/user/