<div dir="auto"><div style="font-family:sans-serif;font-size:12.8px" dir="auto">I agree with Evan. This is an astounding sort sighted deal by ISOC which essentially squandered the trust of it's membership for financial gain. Trust is the most precious commodity of any non profit and hard to regain once lost.<br></div><div style="font-family:sans-serif;font-size:12.8px" dir="auto"><br></div><div style="font-family:sans-serif;font-size:12.8px" dir="auto">Furthermore, ALAC and CPWG should urgently amend our advice on the contractual issue to reflect new situation. I am no longer in support on this issue.</div><div style="font-family:sans-serif;font-size:12.8px" dir="auto"><div style="width:380px;margin:16px 0px"><div><div dir="auto"><br><div data-smartmail="gmail_signature">Sent from my Pixel 3XL<br><br>John Laprise, Ph.D.</div></div><div dir="auto" style="color:rgb(66,133,244);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;padding:24px 0px">Show quoted text</div></div></div><div style="height:0px"></div></div><br><br><div data-smartmail="gmail_signature">Sent from my Pixel 3XL<br><br>John Laprise, Ph.D.</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Tue, Nov 19, 2019, 3:58 AM Evan Leibovitch <<a href="mailto:evan@telly.org">evan@telly.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:#0b5394">On Mon, 18 Nov 2019 at 09:16, Hadia Abdelsalam Mokhtar EL miniawi <<a href="mailto:Hadia@tra.gov.eg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">Hadia@tra.gov.eg</a>> wrote:<br></div></div><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">I would certainly assume that ISOC got a very decent amount of money from Ethos for the deal to go forward. At this point I would assume that ISOC has insured its way forward. However, what is still to be seen is the effect on the .org prices, hopefully going forward they would have special prices for non profits.</blockquote></div><div><span style="color:rgb(11,83,148)"><br></span></div><div><div style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)" class="gmail_default">Two
factors come to mind in considering the long term effects of the sale,
over and above the financial-stability component of which we are all
aware. Consider:<br></div><div style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)" class="gmail_default"><div><div><div style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif" class="gmail_default"><span style="color:rgb(11,83,148)"><br></span></div><div style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif" class="gmail_default"><span style="color:rgb(11,83,148)"><br></span></div><div style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif" class="gmail_default"><span style="color:rgb(11,83,148)"><b>The substance:</b><br></span></div><div style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif" class="gmail_default"><span style="color:rgb(11,83,148)"><br></span></div><div style="margin-left:40px"><span style="color:rgb(11,83,148)">PIR was more than just an ISOC asset. The Internet Society was custodian of the only global <span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)">top-level domain</span> that was, by nature and its very name, acting in the public interest. In a sea of<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"> TLD</span><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"> </span>sharks<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)">,</span>
dot-org could be seen as a body that brought both financial stability
to ISOC and social responsibility among the registries. It<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)">s size and </span>nonprofit <span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)">status</span> would keep costs down and corporate direction serving a social mission.<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"> Its competitive presence could tamp down the excesses of the industry.</span></span><br><span style="color:rgb(11,83,148)"></span></div></div><div style="margin-left:40px"><span style="color:rgb(11,83,148)"><br></span></div><div style="margin-left:40px"><span style="color:rgb(11,83,148)">And
now that's gone. More important than the divestment of PIR is its
change from nonprofit to Just Another Shareholder-Value-Maximizing part
of the domain ecosystem, its uniqueness vanished in a<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)">n</span> instant. In the aim of maximizing its own revenue ISOC has <span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)">eliminated from</span> the <span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)">the Internet the only publicly-accessible </span>nonprofit <span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)">g</span><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)">TLD</span>. <span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"></span>Gone is th<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)">is</span> <span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)">substantial </span>voice
of public-interest sanity within the registry community, replaced by an
entity barely more ethically motivated than Donuts. As a dot-org <span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)">"</span>owner<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)">"</span>,
this hurts personally. But as someone trying to advance Internet
domains as a component of progress, this hurts on a global scale.</span></div><div style="margin-left:40px"><span style="color:rgb(11,83,148)"><br></span></div><div style="margin-left:40px"><span style="color:rgb(11,83,148)"><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)">Stewardship of</span> a socially-motivated registry was one of ISOC's <span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)">core</span> global functions IMO<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"></span>. With that gone<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)">,</span> <span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)">so is </span>part of ISOC's value.<br></span></div><div style="margin-left:40px"><span style="color:rgb(11,83,148)"><br></span></div><div><b><span style="color:rgb(11,83,148)"><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"><br></span></span></b></div><div><b><span style="color:rgb(11,83,148)"><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)">The process:</span></span></b></div><div><span style="color:rgb(11,83,148)"><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"><br></span></span></div><div style="margin-left:40px"><span style="color:rgb(11,83,148)"><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"></span>The path that led to the <span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)">divestment of PIR</span>, both before and after<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"> the decision had been made</span>, has laid bare a core ISOC culture that is the opposite of the openness it asks the world to embrace.<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)">
At a level of fiscal responsibility, ISOC's action was exactly what one
would expect any for-profit entity to do. Maximize benefit through a
secretive process that catches everyone unaware -- not just of the
transaction but of the urgency to do it,<br><br></span></span></div><div style="margin-left:40px"><span style="color:rgb(11,83,148)"><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)">Except
ISOC is not a for-profit entity. It displays itself to the world as a
community body that encourages involvement at a personal, regional,
institutional or national scale. It has carefully crafted and evolved a
Chapters Advisory Council explicitly designed to provide management with
the view from the grassroots, alongside a parallel Council for
corporate participants.</span><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)">
This was combined with global virtual events such as InterCommunity
that were created to give ISOC a global awareness of what was needed to
promote a more-open Internet. And it has always had an
individual-membership program, which isn't really talked about these
days as these "members" have neither any costs nor any benefits.<br><br></span></span></div><div style="margin-left:40px"><span style="color:rgb(11,83,148)"><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)">None
of these mechanisms were employed, none of these entities consulted,
before or after the decision, even under NDA. The community wasn't even
aware that PIR was being shopped around. As a result, there was no open
solicitation, no publicly-competitive process, no opportunity for any
other firm to make a counter-offer that might keep PIR nonprofit. We'll
never know. Or maybe it wasn't shopped around and someone just made ISOC
an offer it couldn't refuse.</span><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)">
But ISOC isn't Jack Woltz. The community had no idea of any sense of
urgency to sell PIR, and certainly was never consulted about the ethics
or consequences of turning PIR for-profit.</span><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"> The common nonprofit practice of having major decisions ratified by stakeholders at an AGM is also nowhere in sight.</span><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"> <br></span></span></div><div style="margin-left:40px"><span style="color:rgb(11,83,148)"><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"><br></span></span></div><div style="margin-left:40px"><span style="color:rgb(11,83,148)"><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)">So
now we know the reality of ISOC's corporate culture. Promote openness
and consultation when convenient, but be opaque when it matters.</span></span></div><span style="color:rgb(11,83,148)"><br></span></div><div><span style="color:rgb(11,83,148)"><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"><br></span></span></div><div><span style="color:rgb(11,83,148)"><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)">I
don't know if ISOC considers me a stakeholder, or for that matter
anyone else on this list, any Chapter or any Organization Member. In
fact right now I have no idea who ISOC considers its stakeholders to be;
it certainly didn't consult any before the fact or ask for any
blessings afterwards. Not even informally. So who shows up at the AGM?
Just the Trustees?<br></span></span></div><div><span style="color:rgb(11,83,148)"><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"><br></span></span></div><div><span style="color:rgb(11,83,148)"><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)">In
any case, the deal is essentially done. ISOC clearly appears to have
assured its financial stability, which is certainly a Good Thing. But
with a crown jewel of the Internet fading away and the shallowness of
its commitment to openness and community exposed in the process, it is
legitimate to ask whether ISOC has sold more than a registry.</span></span></div><div><span style="color:rgb(11,83,148)"><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"><br></span></span></div><div><span style="color:rgb(11,83,148)"><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)">We won't know the answer to that for a while</span></span><span style="color:rgb(11,83,148)"><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"><div><div id="m_8710949781124309624gmail-:bru"><img src="https://ssl.gstatic.com/ui/v1/icons/mail/images/cleardot.gif"></div><div>- Evan<br></div></div></span></span></div></div></div></div></div>
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