June 26, 2002

4:06 PM

Verisign (aka Satan) is set to relinquish the management of the .org domain pool this week, after agreeing to drop both the .org and .net registries to keep the .com one until 2007. ICANN is meeting on it this week (webcast). The list of all interested parties with competing applications is here, but personally I'm pulling for Carl from media.org's proposal for a public trust. For anyone that owns a .org domain, this is one to watch.
posted by mathowie (8 comments total)

Good, at least I don't see Ultimate Search or X10 on that applicants list. Imagine if every .org was turned into a redirect to a tasteless X10 ad?

I think the public trust idea is interesting. Since the applicants are both not-for-profit corporations, does this mean prices will be lower when registering .org domains?
posted by insomnyuk at 9:52 PM on June 26, 2002

Hi -

You can read the details of our bid at trusted.resource.org.

We looked at the "market" carefully, and our pricing policy is "as low as the lowest." We don't think .org wholesale fees should be lower than others as that doesn't get translated into retail savings. E.g., if we charge $4 instead of $6, registrars won't lower your fee from $30 to $28.

We are projecting wholesale prices halving over 5 years, but we're ready to knock it down even further if our efforts are successful. The big thing we're doing to lower prices is release all of our software as open source, which we think will encourage a different breed of registry operator, break down this artificial oligopoly, and take the mystique out of running a registry.

Becky and I would be more than happy to answer any questions people have.

Regards,

Carl
posted by CarlMalamud at 11:14 PM on June 26, 2002

Go Carl! Anyone responsible for Santa's Official Web Site is okay by me. I can't think of anyone better suited to run .org, and as the owner of three such domains, I hope you win.
posted by geneablogy at 4:33 AM on June 27, 2002

So it's Santa vs. Satan?
posted by pracowity at 4:46 AM on June 27, 2002

Twenty bucks on the guy in red...oh, wait...
posted by ColdChef at 6:47 AM on June 27, 2002

Just wanted to say this is absolutely the best idea in years. Greedy, incompetent corporations already hold the keys to our cars (not that I'm mentioning any names). The dot-org registry should absolutely be administered by dot-orgs. Especially folks who know what they're doing, like Rebecca and Carl.

Given ICANN's history, they're quite likely to turn the job over to the next Verisign or similarly incompetent company. But ICANN will pay attention to community comments in favor of the public trust alternative. We do have a chance to be heard and to perhaps influence the outcome. Post a comment and make a difference.
posted by Zeldman at 10:43 AM on June 27, 2002

Great luck with this, Carl. Spread the dot.
posted by iconomy at 12:46 PM on June 27, 2002

Thanks for the heads up mathowie.

I've been too out of touch on this stuff lately. I'm in for a penny and the pound to boot.

Just added the dot to the main page...
posted by Samizdata at 11:13 AM on July 20, 2002