[CPWG] Meeting Details - Today: The Future of .ORG: Community Engagement' Webinar

Sat Feb 29 16:13:48 UTC 2020

Hi all.
Sorry for having missed the call.
Tomorrow I will have some time to listen to the recording - I assume that one will be available.
Let me try to provide an answer to Bill and David.
When I was on the PIR Board, we had often discussions about how to innovate, create new services, or even hedging against a slow down of the domain name market. We did indeed try a few things, like launching new TLDs with a different business model, like .NGO/.ONG, or address what we thought was an undersized community launching IDN TLDs, or owning an ICANN accredited registrar.
However, we always had to convince ISOC, the father company, that it was a better idea to spend money in investments rather than to provide more money to ISOC for their activities.
What, probably - but as I said I did not attend the call, so it is just a guess - Jon and Ethos argued is that an investment fund would give more leeway to PIR for managing its business. However, the paranoiac in me suggests that Ethos will keep a similar - if not stronger - grip on PIR, because it all has to be done in a way to maximise the profits of the investors, that will be the new owners.
This said, I believe that PIR as such will indeed become more profitable, but with other means, for instance with a full vertical integration, or by having profitability rather than ethical behaviour as a guiding principle. Whether this will be at the advantage of the registrants - or the Internet users at large - remains to be seen.
Cheers,
Roberto

On 28.02.2020, at 01:32, David Mackey <mackey361 at gmail.com<mailto:mackey361 at gmail.com>> wrote:

Bill,

Yes, sometimes the venture capital world produces fantastic value, but it doesn't come without adding risk, as mentioned by the Ethos CEO today.

I'm open to anyone here explaining how this transaction benefits end users.

After this call, from an end user perspective, I've still not heard of any identifiable benefit to an end user, and yet, there seems to be added financial risk.

Cheers!
David

On Thu, Feb 27, 2020 at 7:03 PM Bill Jouris <b_jouris at yahoo.com<mailto:b_jouris at yahoo.com>> wrote:
As best I could tell, he was saying that with the additional money they could create new (unspecified) services for registrants.  Or maybe for end users.  But what those might be was left entirely to our imaginations.

I get the impression that the existence of such new products and services is an article of faith in the venture capital world.  Sometimes, they turn out to be correct.

Bill Jouris

On Thursday, February 27, 2020, 12:49:34 PM PST, David Mackey <mackey361 at gmail.com<mailto:mackey361 at gmail.com>> wrote:

I'm listening to the presentation now.

Did anyone understand the answer to the question about how end users benefit from the Ethos/PIR transaction?

The PIR CEO gave an answer which confused me. He said the benefit has something to do with how improving the .ORG brand will improve the brand of registrants? or end users?

Can someone help me understand what he said, and how it relates to an identifiable benefit to end users?

Thanks,
David

On Thu, Feb 27, 2020 at 2:14 PM Jonathan Zuck <JZuck at innovatorsnetwork.org<mailto:JZuck at innovatorsnetwork.org>> wrote:

I’ll ask

From: CPWG <cpwg-bounces at icann.org<mailto:cpwg-bounces at icann.org>> on behalf of Roberto Gaetano <roberto_gaetano at hotmail.com<mailto:roberto_gaetano at hotmail.com>>
Date: Thursday, February 27, 2020 at 11:07 AM
To: CPWG <cpwg at icann.org<mailto:cpwg at icann.org>>
Subject: Re: [CPWG] Meeting Details - Today: The Future of .ORG: Community Engagement' Webinar

Folks,

I will be unable to make the call later today, but I strongly believe that there is one question that has to be asked to Ethos - that is the one I have asked yesterday to PIR but did not get an answer to.

The PIR Board selection process is of the paramount importance. Up to now, this was done by the ISOC Trustees, and we were guaranteed that at least the PIR Directors were committees to the ISOC values and shared a vision. This is no longer true, as I assume that Ethos will appoint the future PIR Directors. What is the mechanism that we can design in order to ensure that the profiles of (at least part of) the PIR Board is sensitive to the problems and culture of the non-profit and non-commercial world?

Please consider asking this question in my absence - if you feel that this is an issue.

Cheers,

Roberto

On 27.02.2020, at 11:37, Evin Erdogdu <evin.erdogdu at icann.org<mailto:evin.erdogdu at icann.org>> wrote:

Dear All,

Further to yesterday's CPWG discussion related to ISOC/PIR, please see details regarding the webinar to take place later today:

On Thursday, February 27 2020, from 15:00–16:00 EST (20:00–21:00 UTC), the Public Interest Registry (PIR), Ethos Capital, and the Internet Society (ISOC) invite you to a webinar 'The Future of .ORG: Community Engagement'.

Participants will have the opportunity to ask questions during the Q&A portion.

INFO: https://www.keypointsabout.org/events

LIVESTREAM: http://livestream.com/internetsociety/orgcommunity (open captions)

PARTICIPATE IN CALL: https://pir.zoom.us/j/360446736 (closed captions)

https://pir.org<https://pir.org/>

https://internetsociety.org<https://internetsociety.org/>

https://ethoscapital.com<https://ethoscapital.com/>

Best,

Evin

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