The sale of .ORG

Mark Surman, the Executive Director of Mozilla had an interesting view on
the sale of .org. \”ICANN and the ISOC board are both in a position to slow
things down and offer greater scrutiny and public transparency. We urge
them to step back and provide public answers to questions of interest to
the public and the millions of orgs that have made dot org their home
online for the last 15 years.\”
blog.mozilla.org/blog/2019/12/03/questions-about-org/

On KENIC, the community gave the current KENIC trustees a carte blanche to
operate without any form of transparency by not putting in place mechanisms
for the organisation to be accountable to the community.

@Ali Hussein <[email protected]>, who owns Internet Society? I don\’t know.
We are told Organisation members, and Chapters, and individual members.

______________________
Mwendwa Kivuva,

On Wed, 4 Dec 2019 at 11:02, Mallory Knodel via kictanet <
[email protected]> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> We have accountability mechanisms in place, albeit imperfect at times. The
> London office of ARTICLE 19 had been working with PIR to do an assessment
> in January 2020 anyway. This is a good opportunity to enable the voluntary
> principles of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
>
> We have been encouraging g+ccTLDs to do these assessments. The KeNIC
> community could encourage the same to bring some concrete action to what
> was discussed at the last AGM.
>
> For reference on the dot org sale:
> www.vice.com/en_us/article/ne8agb/the-quest-to-save-org-from-being-ruined-by-private-equity
>
> -Mallory
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On 4 Dec 2019, at 07:25, Ali Hussein via kictanet <
> [email protected]> wrote:
>
> 
> Barrack
>
> Interesting. Great that you bring up the KeNIC issue. During the AGM
> certain promises were made about transparency, bringing the community more
> into the organization etc.
>
> I wonder where we are at on that?
>
> Regards
>
> *Ali Hussein*
>
>
> Tel: +254 713 601113
>
> Twitter: @AliHKassim
>
> Skype: abu-jomo
>
> LinkedIn: ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim
> <ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim>
>
>
>
>
> Any information of a personal nature expressed in this email are purely
> mine and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of the
> organizations that I work with.
>
>
> On Wed, Dec 4, 2019 at 10:03 AM Barrack Otieno <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
>> @Ali Hussein <[email protected]>
>>
>>
>> www.internetsociety.org/blog/2019/12/the-sale-of-pir-the-internet-society-board-perspective/
>> <www.google.com/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.internetsociety.org%2Fblog%2F2019%2F12%2Fthe-sale-of-pir-the-internet-society-board-perspective%2F&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNFNkWEFb0gVDzY0vxAUzkybewyqyg>
>>
>> This is a very interesting transaction that brings into play economic
>> aspects of the Domain Name Industry. Our very own @KENIC
>> <[email protected]> will soon be worth USD 1B. Are we prepared for that
>> season. Do we have safeguards that will ensure it continues to serve the
>> Public interest?
>>
>>
>> Back to PIR
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Dec 2, 2019 at 9:04 PM Liz Orembo via kictanet <
>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>> @Lordmwesh, history has it that it won the auction and was awarded .Org
>>> because of its public interest outfit.
>>>
>>> Check this out
>>> www.ahfb2000.com/threads/1068-Verisign-loses-org?p=5368&viewfull=1
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, Dec 2, 2019, 19:03 Ali Hussein via kictanet <
>>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Mwendwa
>>>>
>>>> I see your point.
>>>>
>>>> I just have one more question:-
>>>>
>>>> Who owns ISOC? That answer should put this conversation to rest. And
>>>> were the owners consulted? 🙂
>>>>
>>>> Regards
>>>>
>>>> *Ali Hussein*
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Tel: +254 713 601113
>>>>
>>>> Twitter: @AliHKassim
>>>>
>>>> Skype: abu-jomo
>>>>
>>>> LinkedIn: ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim
>>>> <ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Any information of a personal nature expressed in this email are purely
>>>> mine and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of the
>>>> organizations that I work with.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Mon, Dec 2, 2019 at 4:15 PM Mwendwa Kivuva <
>>>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Of course reading Kieren McCarthy\’s articles will never give a
>>>>> balanced view. He looks at things from the most cynical perspective.
>>>>>
>>>>> Yes, we have been following the debate keenly.
>>>>>
>>>>> Ali, here is ICANN\’s allegedly response
>>>>> domainnamewire.com/2019/11/30/icann-says-it-does-not-have-authority-over-org-transaction/
>>>>>
>>>>> And you cannot really compare the sale as selling a public playground.
>>>>> The .org was owned 100% by PIR and in extension ISOC. It is not owned by
>>>>> communities, neither is it owned by non profits. Don\’t let names like Ethos
>>>>> Capital or Public Interest Registry fool you. It is all commercial. ISOC
>>>>> won a competitive bid to manage the .org in 2003, and they have ultimate
>>>>> authority over how they profit from it.
>>>>>
>>>>> Here I some good reading on the debacle:
>>>>>
>>>>> 1. The interesting connection between the .Org deal and ICANN
>>>>> domainnamewire.com/2019/11/13/the-interesting-connection-between-the-org-deal-and-icann/
>>>>>
>>>>> 2. Ethos paid $1.135 billion for .Org
>>>>> domainnamewire.com/2019/11/29/ethos-paid-1-135-billion-for-org/
>>>>>
>>>>> 3. ISOC CEO repeats the registry competition fallacy
>>>>> domainnamewire.com/2019/11/26/isoc-ceo-repeats-the-registry-competition-fallacy/
>>>>>
>>>>> 4. ISOC chapter breaks ranks, criticizes deal to sell .Org
>>>>> domainnamewire.com/2019/11/27/isoc-chapter-breaks-ranks-criticizes-deal-to-sell-org/
>>>>>
>>>>> On Mon, Dec 2, 2019, 14:03 Ali Hussein via kictanet <
>>>>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Sidney
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks for sharing. This is akin to selling public land assigned for
>>>>>> public good to a private developer.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> What is going on? And what is ICANN\’s response to this?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Regards
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> *Ali Hussein*
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Tel: +254 713 601113
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Twitter: @AliHKassim
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Skype: abu-jomo
>>>>>>
>>>>>> LinkedIn: ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim
>>>>>> <ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Any information of a personal nature expressed in this email are
>>>>>> purely mine and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of the
>>>>>> organizations that I work with.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Mon, Dec 2, 2019 at 1:12 PM Sidney Ochieng via kictanet <
>>>>>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Hi all,
>>>>>>> Have you all be keeping tabs on the sale of the the .org TLD?
>>>>>>> Catch up here:
>>>>>>> Internet world despairs as non-profit .org sold for $$$$ to private
>>>>>>> equity firm, price caps axed:
>>>>>>> www.theregister.co.uk/2019/11/20/org_registry_sale_shambles/
>>>>>>> Please take some time to oppose this here: savedotorg.org/
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> —
>>>>>>> Regards,
>>>>>>> Sidney
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> *Twitter:* @princelySid | *Web: *
>>>>>>> sidneyochieng.co.ke
>>>>>>> *Skype: *sidney.ochieng | *Github:* princelySid
>>>>>>> <github.com/princelySid>
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>>
>>
>> —
>> Barrack O. Otieno
>> +254721325277
>> +254733206359
>> Skype: barrack.otieno
>> PGP ID: 0x2611D86A
>>
>>
>>
>>
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> for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and
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> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
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