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Re: [ga] Responses by .biz/info/org Registry Operators are Unacceptable

  • To: kidsearch <kidsearch@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Subject: Re: [ga] Responses by .biz/info/org Registry Operators are Unacceptable
  • From: Karl Auerbach <karl@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2006 14:55:20 -0700

kidsearch wrote:

We desperately need a REAL nonprofit TLD such as .NPO that is managed by a
true nonprofit for true nonprofits.

Might I suggest that we eliminate the idea that TLDs are some sort of semantic containers?


DNS was not designed as a semantic directory. It serves, quite poorly, in that role only because, before there were search engines, people got used to using it as a crude tool.

Consider the idea of ".kids" - is it a TLD about young goats or human children? And ".cat" - is it about Catalonian, about domesticated felines, or about boats with two parallel hulls?

And isn't imposing an English word onto a TLD a kind of Anglo-American hubris?

Consider the issue of what is a "non profit". First of all, "non profit" is not synonymous with "non governmental".

Second "non profit" is something which does not mean that the body is somehow beneficent and in the public interest. For example, here in California, one category of "non profit" corporations are religious institutions. That is a clearly separate category from "public benefit" corporations (ICANN lives under this category.)

Non profit does not mean that the principals are unpaid or poorly paid - often non profit structures are simply legal shadows for money pumps into the pockets of the executives.

To my mind the ultimate example of the dangers of using a TLD as a category was when someone came to me and asked about the possibility of establishing a TLD for Christians. I pointed out that history is filled with wars about who is or who is not a Christian. Can you imagine the anger that would be generated if someone set themselves up as the "official internet" judge of who is or is not a Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddist, etc, etc?

Now, if ICANN were to do what it has never done - which is to start granting TLD slots at a reasonable rate (one per day would be fine by me, but I'd be happy with one a week) without intrusive inspection of purposes, business plans, or any other non-technical matter - then TLDs could arise that garner meaning through use rather than having an arbitrary meaning endowed upon it by ICANN.

--karl--

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