There are comments attributed to August 29th. Either the inflow was backed up (many reported delays) or someone forgot to shut the system off or they simply won't consider posts after August 28 or they "got religion" and are prepared to accept public comment.
All it took was a little, low cost, online public awarenes and public education activity. I thought public education and awareness about the domain name system was a role assigned to or accepted by ICANN and the central registries. I was mistaken.
At this point it will be wise to contact your elected officials, explain (briefly) the history of what has and is taking place, and ask them to respond in writing to ICANN.
There may be no better action you can take than to contact the Department of Commerce as the DOC has long been the watchdog of ICANN. (Anyone have the contact information for the oversser? Please post it.)
Clearly the public input if overwhelming against the proposed changes. I can imagine that IF ICANN had done a proper job of bringing the contract issues before the public the volume of comments would have been 5, 10 or 50 fold greater.
Is it now clear that we ALL are or NEED TO BE ICANN watchdogs? What do you plan to do to fulfill that role?
Transparency is a word that comes to mind when I think about excercising my role as citizen overseer. It's difficult to act as a juror when the evidence is kept hidden away, isn't it?
Has anyone seen - anywhere - "the record" - the compilation of data, facts, expert analysis and other information - that was supposedlly extensively considered and discussed and that lead to the decision to push for new contracts? I haven't seen it.
Have you?
If you look at some of their other forums, a number of posts are spam. I guess the only purpose of the authentication eMails is to verify that it is a live address, and nothing more.
But, it does not appear to have the amount of transparency it should have, especially when they speak of wanting to build "consensus" policies. How can you get a consensus when reports are missing and it isn't clear how to get involved?
I see that they are soliciting opinions on their web site design. Of course, that's by "consensus" too, I imagine. So, we'll probably end up with a web site full of bells and whistles that only broadband subscribers will be able to download. ;-) And, ICANN fees will go up another nickel to pay for it.
I've mentioned in another post that I think we all need to keep a closer eye on ICANN and what they are doing. The problem is that many of us (or maybe just me) aren't initimately familiar with legalese to pick up on things. The loophole allowing variable by domain pricing is something I would have been hard-pressed to pick out, especially not knowing to look for it. And, the issues with presumptive renewal and traffic data are things I would probably never have picked out.
So, for most of us, even keeping a more watchful eye on ICANN isn't going to help much.
What we really need is a lawyer, or at least someone very familiar with legalese, to work on our behalf and scour ICANN documents looking for things that will have a negative impact on us.
You would think some of the webmaster associations that are out there would be doing this. But, judging from the lack of prior comments on the ICANN message boards, those associations, if they were watching ICANN and doing so was part of their mission or charter, were asleep at the wheel and, were I a member of one, I would certainly be questioning the value of my membership.
There are some other ways to follow through too, but need not provide a complete public roadmap for the other side to counter.
Some have suggested anti-trust aspects of the contracts. That's one thing that the other side can't easily counter:
[usdoj.gov...]
There are other creative approaches, too.
I spent the last 20 minutes or so composing a message, putting together a short list of contacts and a link to a page that had a whole lotta info. I was just adding some HTML style codes to bold print some of the stuff to make it easier to navigate and then... the computer locked up.
All gone!
Back to square one...
I'll try to put together another reference guide with useful stuff for U.S. webmasters that want to write to their elected officials.
Assuming lack of computer lock-ups, of course...
ARGHHH!
I spent the last 20 minutes or so composing a message, putting together a short list of contacts and a link to a page that had a whole lotta info. I was just adding some HTML style codes to bold print some of the stuff to make it easier to navigate and then... the computer locked up.
I feel your pain ccDan! It's happened numerous times to me over the last few years! Thanks for taking the time to get the infomation for us!
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My observations? IMHO, not knowing a lot about these things, it seems to me that ICANN has done this whole thing in a very sneaky way. It is clearly obvious that very few posts were made before GeorgeK advised us of the situation here at WebmasterWorld. Then the posts were flooding in. Just think how many there would have been had ICANN bothered to do any press releases or be open about the proposed changes.
Next step? I would assume we need to get a public outcry going on here. We all need to write our senators, congressmen, the DOC, or any other government agency that MAY help. I don't think it would hurt for all of us to do some Press Releases advising the public the sneaky tactics that ICANN is employing. If we get enough press releases out there some news agency may notice and do a big story about it. The average Joe Public is not aware and unless they are told the big picture and how it will affect them, they will not care.
However, IF the variable pricing is left uncapped, and we all lose our businesses, Joe Public's taxes go up because many of us will be in the unemployment line or begging for handouts. When something big happens in any industry, it is not just the people or businesses of that industry that are affected. If some small business owner, should get the bad news renewal notice but manages to somehow scrape the money together to renew his/her domain name, the money has to come from somewhere. Guess what? Joe Public is going to pay higher costs for things he buys online.
Let's let the public know what is afoot here. But let them know how it will affect THEIR wallets, otherwise, if they do not have any domain names, they really will not care.
I have already done so, but will continue to contact my congressmen and senators. I'm going to do the Press Release route, as my first press release, (would have not gone out in time anyway), was put on editorial hold by PRWeb for some reason, haven't quite figured it out yet.
I have a list of the members of the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, and some contact information, but I need to complete that, plus I'd like to add the links where you can find who pay whose bills, as well as who is up for re-election.
WolfLover writes:
Next step? I would assume we need to get a public outcry going on here. We all need to write our senators, congressmen, the DOC, or any other government agency that MAY help. I don't think it would hurt for all of us to do some Press Releases advising the public the sneaky tactics that ICANN is employing. If we get enough press releases out there some news agency may notice and do a big story about it. The average Joe Public is not aware and unless they are told the big picture and how it will affect them, they will not care.
WHO WILL BE AFFECTED
* Anyone who purchases goods over the Internet. A dramatic increase in domain name renewal rates will force Internet businesses out of business or to raise prices on goods.
* Anyone employed by an ecommerce company that sells goods over the Internet. A dramatic increase in domain name renewal rates could force employers to reduce staff.
* Anyone employed by a company that sells goods at a store and online. A dramatic increase in domain name renewal rates could force employers to choose between reducing staff or shutting down online ventures, in which case a staff reduction might also be necessary.
* Anyone employed by a company that provides goods to ecommerce companies. Ecommerce companies closing or raising prices will result in fewer sales and may necessitate reducing staff.
* All businesses that pay unemployment taxes. With increased unemployment rates, taxes could go up.
* All taxpayers. With increased unemployment and perhaps increased welfare recipients, taxes will increase.
Anyone a member of the ACLU? I remember in the early nineties, they got all worked up about postage rates going up, because it impacted the free speech rights and poorer people would be adversely affected, etc. How about when your domain name renewal goes from $8 a year to $8,000 a year? Isn't that going to impact bloggers and small businesses, etc.?
What about church groups? What happens when the registry decides that PRAISETHELORD.DOM is worth $18,000 a year, and that's more than your little food drive raises in a year? I don't think the registries will accept payment in cans of soup and boxes of crackers.
Contact your local chamber of commerce too!
[edited by: ccDan at 6:43 pm (utc) on Aug. 29, 2006]
I advised him we'd be looking out to see what he has to say or what he does on this issue. I did not think I was allowed to copy and paste the email from him. Webwork, if I can, let me know and I will.
I am still putting together a press release and will send it out as soon as I complete it.
Anyone else have any news? Any replies? Anything happening with this?
