July 15, 2002Dear ICANN Board Member:
While
INDEPENDENT SECTOR has not and will not endorse any specific overall proposal, we
are writing to support concepts from the DotOrg Foundation's proposal to operate
the .org registry that we believe will benefit the non-commercial community and their
use of the Internet as a way to reach out to stakeholders and fulfill organizational
missions. In general, INDEPENDENT SECTOR supports the idea of involving the
nonprofit sector in future decision making about the .org registry. We also
support focusing the .org domain on noncommercial activities and discouraging an
increase in the activities of commercial entities.
The DotOrg Foundation intends
to fulfill these principles by:
* Supporting and fostering the participation of
the non-commercial sector on the Internet, particularly by facilitating them obtain
.org top level domain names.
* Implementing validation systems to enhance the
level of confidence of Internet users when visiting a .org, nonprofit, or non-commercial
website.
* Creating a DotOrg Directory that will contain information about .org
non-commercial registrants beyond the information currently collected by the WhoIs
system.
* Increasing the use of .org by non-commercial organizations, particularly
those in developing countries and under-served communities.
* Enhancing the global
dialogue among the non-commercial community and supporting their understanding of
and meaningful participation in the domain name system and ICANN.
* Creating a
governance structure with both a board of directors and advisory council that includes
large representation of nonprofit organizations and other elements of the non-commercial
sector.
INDEPENDENT SECTOR is a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote,
strengthen, and advance the nonprofit and philanthropic community to foster private
initiative for the public good. Independent Sector provides a major meeting ground
for organizations in the nonprofit sector and a force for advancing the nonprofit
and philanthropic community's work. Our vision is a just and inclusive society of
active citizens, vibrant communities, effective institutions, and a healthy democracy.
Given the central role the Internet increasingly plays in fulfilling our mission
and in the day to day activity of our member organizations, INDEPENDENT SECTOR believes
it is important for the non-commercial community and the users of .org to have a
means to participate in decisions that have an affect on what is essentially the
"non-commercial Internet."
We believe these mechanisms, especially the .org directory
and validation system, will ensure that the .org registry is operated in a way that
is responsive to the needs, concerns and views of the global nonprofit and philanthropic
Internet community.
Sincerely,
Peter Shiras
Senior Vice President for Programs