Comments on Strategic Plan for 2010-2013.
Thank you for making this process public. My name is Kevin McArthur and I have been involved in Canadian Internet policy for many years now. I have several comments regarding the strategic plan. 1 ) Under the heading "Promote competition, trust, choice and innovation":I am concerned that CIRA may dilute the brand of the .CA CC-TLD by adding further gTLD's. Canadian individuals and companies already see it as important to register their unique domain names in most other TLD's -- resultantly, adding more will not increase choice, but more likely lead to further name confusion (when the same second-level-domain is registered in multiple TLDs) and act to increase the 'Registration TAX' for Internet activities in Canada. My belief is that CIRA should reject implementing extraneous gTLDs and should protect its brand from dilution at ICANN through an aggressive approach to multi-national Internet policy. 2) Under the heading "Contributing to shaping a healthy Internet ecosystem": It is my belief that CIRA is in a unique position to offer identity and authority services in conjunction with its existing registration services. a) CIRA should create a SSL Certificate Authority to offer Standard, EV and personal identity certificates. b) CIRA should create a identity verification process that leverages processes already in place for the verification of CIRA memberships. The postal-system and code mechanism would provide significant improvements over existing SSL-CA entities and CIRA's close relationship with the Government of Canada would help in obtaining access to digital registries from Corporations Canada, Vital Statistics, etc. These sources of data could be used to validate identity in a way that private sector CA's are simply unable to achieve. c) CIRA should take a broader citizen/organizational approach to domain name ownership, promoting the idea that CIRA can be a central pillar in the lives of everyday Canadians. This could include e164.arpa mappings, identity certificates, personal domain names, and so on. 3) Under the heading "Promote competition, trust, choice and innovation":I am concerned that CIRA is not doing enough to enforce it's rights as Canada's TLD authority for the .CA CC-TLD. There have been several recent cases of activities by Canadian ISPs undertaking NXDOMAIN redirection, as well as the DNS level replacement of domain information to create intermediary proxies for content-injection. These activities should be seen as unacceptable to CIRA, and a challenge to the registry's exclusive authority. Should these activities be allowed to continue, and for CIRA to not pursue legislation to make these activities illegal, then CIRA may find itself as only one of many .CA TLD registries within Canada. It is my firm belief that CIRA should take an active role enforcing its exclusive authority to the .CA CC-TLD -- and that this role must exceed technological measures such as DNSSEC and DNS CERT. 4) Under the heading "Promote competition, trust, choice and innovation":In order to increase competition, CIRA should take further efforts to expand its network of certified registrars. Additionally, It should be investigated whether micro-registrars for organizations can be implemented, as there are numerous ISPs, and Web Hosting and Development Companies that offer only a limited number (100s) of domains to their clients, and that would be better served by a direct relationship with CIRA. The maturity of SOA technologies should be able to make this goal cost-effective. 5) Under the heading "Contributing to shaping a healthy Internet ecosystem": I believe CIRA should take an active role in the provision of e164.arpa addresses within Canada. This is certainly an area of the DNS system with extensive room for growth. Additionally NAPTR records, signed by CIRA, could form the basis for automated trust relationships from the registrar. Within the emerging VoIP field, these technologies may be transformational and CIRA should take a leadership role in investigating how they can benefit the Canadian context. --Thank you for the chance to comment on this process, and if there are any follow-up questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. Sincerely, Kevin McArthur StormTide Digital Studios Inc. Founder Neutrality.ca Author 'Pro PHP - Patterns, Frameworks, Testing and More' - Apress 2008 |