[Reformatted to 70 columns.] =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= This message was forwarded through the Red Rock Eater News Service (RRE). You are welcome to send the message along to others but please do not use the "redirect" option. For information about RRE, including instructions for (un)subscribing, see http://dlis.gseis.ucla.edu/people/pagre/rre.html =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Date: Thu, 17 May 2001 15:30:35 -0700 From: Barry Shell <shellat_private> To: pagreat_private Subject: Asking for your support for my CIRA Board Nomination This may not be appropriate for your list, but it's interesting. The Canadian version of ICANN, CIRA is electing it's first "real" board of directors. The elections are open to anyone with a .ca domain, but the whole process is heavily skewed towards corporate interests. I'm trying to mount a grass-roots anti-corporate campaign and can use all the help I can get. Only 6 months ago, the .ca domain was free and run for free by a group of volunteers. Now suddenly it's big business with a multi-million dollar annual cash flow. Please post or forward the following to anyone with a .ca domain name. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- I am formally running for the Board of Directors of CIRA, the Canadian Internet Registry Authority. This non-profit non-governmental body is collecting ten or fifteen million dollars a year for .ca domain names. If ordinary citizens do not take control, how will this corporate- dominated group use this money? If you want something more than a better online shopping experience, if you want to continue to share stuff for free online, this is your chance to do something about it in Canada. I need 50 people who own .ca domain names to throw their support behind me as a candidate and this must be done by midnight Wednesday May 23. All you have to do is visit the CIRA website where you can read my Nomination Statement as well as all the others at http://www.cira.ca/cira/election?FN=PUB_VIEW_CAN_LIST&lang=en. Compare what the others have to say. You can support more than one candidate. NOTE: You must be an owner of a .ca domain name. I am asking everyone I know to relay this message to friends and colleagues who own .ca domain names. Your help is appreciated. You can support my nomination by going to http://www.cira.ca/en/nominate-candidate.html and clicking on the words "Support A Candidate" or "Support Form". You must have your CIRA user account number and your password handy for this. These were emailed to you when you, or your technical support people, when you registered your .ca domain name. If you forgot this information, you should contact your Registrar. They will be able to re-issue your password and account number. You can find out the name of your registrar by entering your domain name in the CIRA whois at the top of the page at http://www.cira.ca/en/nominate-candidate.html. A full list of Registrars and their contact information is available in the list of certified registrars at the CIRA site. CIRA will then email a replacement Member Password and Account number to your administrative contact. Please send this message to more friends and colleagues who have .ca domain names if you think they will support my notions of a free, open, cooperative Internet made for sharing, perhaps even more than for commerce. ELECTION RULES FROM THE CIRA WEBSITE (excerpt) (http://www.cira.ca/election-rules/6.Election_rules_april16final.txt) 2.13 To be included in the final list of candidates and obtain a place on the final ballot, a members' nominee must have the support of at least 50 members at midnight EDT May 23, 2001. 2.14 Members will be able to show their support for any members' nominee at any time during the nomination period by accessing the designated page on the CIRA website and following the instructions for showing support. Members must use their Member Private Password and User Account number to get access to this page and to show support. (Members who have lost their Member Private Password or User Account number should contact their Registrars for a replacement.) 2.15 A member may show support for as many nominees as the member wishes. 2.16 A member may only show support once for a particular nominee regardless of the number of .ca domain name registrations the member holds or the number of Member Private Passwords or User Accounts numbers the member has been issued 2.17 CIRA's registry system is set up to recognize the administrative contact identified by the member as the only person having the authority to act on behalf of the member. This means that for showing support for members' nominees, CIRA will recognize the member's administrative contact as the member. Showing support through a proxy, a power of attorney or any person (including a registrar) who is not identified in the registry as the member's administrative contact is not permitted. 2.18 Nominees who are members may show support for themselves. 2.19 After showing support for a members' nominee, the member will be given one opportunity to review the show support form and make corrections. 2.20 After the nomination stage is over, the number of members showing support for each members' nominee will be counted. Every members' nominee who has the support of at least fifty members will be included in the final list of candidates and the nominee's name will be placed on the ballot for members' directors 2.21 The names and the number of members who supported each members' nominee will not be made public or shared with the nominees but will be subject to verification by CIRA's auditors. ============================================================================== For the record, here is my Statement of Nomination: --------------------------------------------------- I am nominating myself for a position on the board of CIRA because the board needs more representation from ordinary people -- people not involved in the corporate sector. By any analysis, the nature of the vast majority of Internet usage is non-commercial; hence the CIRA board should contain a proportionally larger number of members who represent non-corporate interests. The exact opposite is the case both with the current board, and in the slate of pre-selected nominees. If one examines the current board of directors one finds that out of eleven voting members, seven have obvious corporate connections and a few more are leaning that way. Turning to the nine new board nominees posted on the CIRA site, things appear better with about half corporate and half non-corporate types, however, several are arguably corporate-leaning, based on their past associations and writings. The well-publicized protest at the recent Quebec Summit reflects a growing public distrust and unhappiness with corporate power and world domination. The Internet was originally created by graduate students and physics professors specifically to circumvent corporate and commercial interests, and despite popular notions to the contrary, the Internet's compelling nature and unbelievable growth rate are chiefly driven by its decidedly anti-commercial slant. For this reason it is extremely important that CIRA represent this constituency: non-corporate interests. By far the greatest use of the Internet is still email, and (ignoring spam -- wouldn't we all like to ignore spam) certainly the vast majority of this email usage is non-commercial in nature. Note that the most popular application download by far is ICQ, which consistently ranks about double the second most popular download (usually WinZip). Studies show that after personal communication via email and chat, the largest use of the Internet is to find information, and to share files for free. These uses are recreational or personal and are NOT corporate or commercial in nature. Anyone who has been around for a while knows that the original designers of the Internet and it's protocols (TCP/IP, HTML, MP3, etc.) where all meant to provide free egalitarian access by all with no corporate or money-making intentions whatsoever. In fact it is clearly this that drives the Internet, not eCommerce. Any honest observer can see that these notions are alive and well. Look at the "killer aps", the top 25 downloads at www.download.com (click on Most Popular). Except for about two, most focus on free sharing of information. Apart from a few exceptions, the Internet was not designed as a tool of commerce and hence little commercial activity is ever successful online. I believe the crash of the dot.com boom is a direct result of this fact. CIRA should strongly and clearly reflect what the citizens of Canada (and the world) are truly doing with the Internet, not what the corporate sector wishes they would do. For the most part people are not using the Internet for commerce. I have written about this since 1993, with articles published in Adbusters, the New York Times, the Georgia Straight, and others -- see articles linked at www.css.sfu.ca/update/barry.html. Based on what people actually do online, I believe the CIRA board MUST represent non-commercial interests and if elected to the board I promise to do this. I am currently on leave from my position at SFU as Research Communications Manager for the Centre for Systems science where I maintain the CSS website and other websites in Applied Sciences at SFU. While on leave I will be renovating www.science.ca. As part of this project, and in the true spirit of the Internet, we will make available the entire contents of the "Great Canadian Scientists" book and CD ROM I wrote a few years ago. As well, we are designing a general use Ask-A-Question web application using OpenSource tools and rules, (Apache, mySQL, PHP, GNU General Public License etc.) and we will give away the application source code through SourceForge or some other online distribution point. I see a lot of corporate representatives, university and legal representatives, but I do not see anyone representing what the majority of Internet users do: share stuff for free. Please elect me to the board of CIRA and I will see that the founding notions of the Internet and the World Wide Web, notions of sharing, egalitarianism, cooperative anarchy and freedom have a voice on the CIRA board. Barry Shell Research Communications Manager shellat_private Centre For Systems Science http://fas.sfu.ca/css/update/barry.html Simon Fraser University 604-291-4710 FAX: 604-291-4424 Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6 Canada
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