Dear ICANN Board Members,In order to make a decision
as to who should be awarded the .ORG tld registry, please consider the following:
-
A not-for-profit organization should be managing a (generally) not-for-profit .ORG
tld.
- The selected organization should have proven to be technically qualified
and have the experience needed to host the .ORG tld registry. Clearly, the
organization requires a strong understanding of DNS/Bind and the experience in managing
critial Internet Domain Name servers.
- The organization should have a history
of public service to the Internet community and not simply be a new startup with
no history at all with which to base a critical decision on.
- There should be
no bias or potential appearance of bias in selection because of organizational history
/ lineage.
After reviewing all the supplied proposals I wish to express my support,
and that of The Internet FAQ Consortium (faqs.org), hypermail.org, and WU-FTPD.org,
for the selection of the IMS/ISC team to manage the registry for the .ORG tld.
The
IMS/ISC team is joint effort of people who have a solid background as builders of
the Internet's infrastructure. The projects they have been associated with
have enhanced the Internet's viability, reliability, redundancy, ease of use and
provided better access to public information. They now propose to do the same for
the .ORG tld. The team is well known and respected by those who have been around
the Internet for many years. They are not dot-comers who are here only because there
is "another opportunity".
This partnership already has the experience needed to
drastically improve the .ORG tld. They have experience in operating a root server.
They are currently providing DNS hosting for 19 ccTLDs, 3 legacy gTLDs, and the F
root server. They have produced and continue to support the BIND software,
the critical software running most domain name servers globally. They know the domain
name system extremely well. This is not a case of just "an opportunity", as seems
to be the case with a few of the proposals. This is a case of "a real passion"
to improve the .ORG tld.
IMS/ISC team members are experienced Internet pioneers.
They have been active in the Internet community for over 20 years. During that
time, they have designed, authored, and maintained some of the most innovative and
critically useful software and services. At the same time, they assured the software
they developed was freely available to all. This has been an important item
that helped fuel the growth of the net. Additionally, they understand service to
the global community. Besides their direct involvement with producing and or supporting
BIND, DHCP, and INN software, they also provide hosting for the various projects
such as Lynx Web Browser, the NetBSD Foundation, the OpenLDAP Foundation, the IETF
User Services Area, the XFree86 Project, and the Linux Kernel Archives. The
team understands large scale database development and management. Their history with
the SEC and USPTO made important public information truly public. These efforts are
proving even more important given today's environment.
The IMS/ISC team is
a not-for-profit organization and will not be under the same pressures a "For-profit-based"
organization would be. The selection of the IMS/ISC team will be extremely
beneficial for all .ORG sites. With profit removed from the equation, their primary
focus will be on improving services and support for the .ORG tld. The IMS/ISC
team will be able to grow the domain from a perspective of value, not revenue...
One of the candidate proposals describes how they are already looking at additional
ways to generate more revenue. The IMS/ISC proposal however, documents an "Intent
to Donate" to the IETF and IAB. This shows the IMS/ISC's commitment to the Internet's
continued growth. It is also a unique approach to assuring ongoing Internet
standards work for infrastructure improvements.
As their history has shown,
they are extremely technologically talented, innovative, highly ethical and focused
on enhancing the foundation on which the Internet rests.
Comparing the proposals
side by side, it is extremely clear the IMS/ISC proposal provides the best future
for the .ORG tld and those of us who exist within it.
Kent Landfield