[Netreach-L] Candidates needed for Leadership Positions at ICANN

[P. Wingfield-Stratford]

To Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond <ocl at gih.com>
 From Peter Wingfield-Stratford
peterws at tobeistodo.demon.co.uk

Ref ICANN and a discussion open on DNS Naming concerned with non-latin 
scripts.

I have some comments.

1) On the ICANN webpage of description of discussion..
It seems impossible to comment, despite the invitation to comment.

Same point I made before. The ICANN system isnt a discussion space, its 
a publication space. Why bother to publish if no comments are possible 
to enter. If the system were a genuine discussion, the opportunity would 
be offered immediately to enter a comment. Not possible. The reason is 
the ICANN system isnt a Computer Mediated Conference software. Its some 
kind of network of permissions that take one completely away from the 
topic. ICANN needs a CMC software. Not a HTML publishing system.

2) On the ICANN item, comments on DNS evolution with the possibility to 
have ICANN DNS to cope with countries having non-latin scripts or 
mixtures of several non-latin scripts with or without Latin script 
elements in names.

I am working on some smart free-text-search software at present. It has 
to cope with all the varieties of Latin scripts in ISO-ASCII and we are 
thinking about how to make room for incorporating searches that have 
higher than ASCII 128 characters in the Unicode system. Its a Java 
system of course.

ICANN  will need to be thinking along similar lines if the Top level DNS 
is to cope with the evolution of domains and nations with many languages 
and forms of script. Thats the end-user point of view. In India I have a 
friend who speaks 32 local languages ! These are the people who really 
will have to enter a Domain in a next-generation mobile, or computer 
device of some sort. They deserve to be coped with by the next ICANN DNS 
nomenclature.

Its clear the ICANN proposition for future DNS here is stuck up a 
gum-tree.
They want to tie everyone to English-sounding or some single all Unicode 
format that will fit neatly in a look-up table to derive a DNS value 
code.

Bonkers ! thats in Unicode by the way !.

Its not easy to search any name in ISO-ASCII limited to 128 values, let 
alone higher Unicode values. The routines we are working with do this 
more or less. They still have errors even though they are lightning 
fast. There are complexities in cursive and pictographic scripts that 
make term searching even more complex. Firstly the scripts run up or 
down the page and left or right ordered which affects how the future DNS 
might be entered. Then many of the scripts are made up of words, rather 
than character-letters as we have in the Latin characters used in most 
computers. DNS coding depends on spelling - an idea peculiar to Latin 
scripts. That may affect validation also might constrain the user of 
"terms" as they might appear duplicated to a DNS interpreter.

The  many World human languages have become a feisty mixture of local 
scripts and Latin, sometimes I expect several formats might be expected 
in a DNS on local human logic. Thats the logic of the punters who enter 
a DNS on their computer device wherever in this networked world.

The ICANN DNS extension proposals offer to ban any of these "Human" 
formats in future DNS tabling. Sounds like made by Microsoft thinking.

I am opening a debate on the future software design for DNS reading and 
DNS naming all at once. That seems intimately linked to a future need 
for a versatile DNS naming scheme for these countries and peoples who 
exist in the non-latin scripted countries. You have to rethink how the 
DNS tabling will work in the next generation of server systems for DNS. 
Its going to need to search more by pick-n-mix than lookup tables. That 
is a fundamental change that ICANN needs to take on board.

By the way, since I CANT enter this in the ICANN system as im not 
enabled there, perhaps you can enter this for me.


In message <4B97904B.50101 at gih.com>, Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond 
<ocl at gih.com> writes
>Hello Peter,
>
>sorry for not having replied to you earlier about this. I was extremely
>busy in the run-up to the ICANN Nairobi Meeting, where I am at the moment.
>
>There are still a couple of days left in the meeting currently taking place.
>
>http://nbo.icann.org
>
>This has a whole section engaging public participation, and each meeting
>taking place has someone monitoring the chat room for comments/questions
>etc.
>
>And tomorrow Thursday is the public forum, in which I suggest you send
>questions etc.
>
>Also, ongoing processes at ICANN require public participation input at:
>
>http://www.icann.org/en/public-comment/
>
>So I am surprised that you think that ICANN is not engaging enough
>public comment, because this is one of the *key* processes taking place
>at ICANN.
>
>I hope you can contribute to the debate still going on until the end of
>this week, and beyond. I'll try to respond to the rest of your message
>when I return home (and after I get a little sleep :-) )
>
>Kindest regards,
>
>Olivier
>
>
>Le 03/03/2010 03:01, P. Wingfield-Stratford a écrit :
>> To Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond
>> From Peter Wingfield-Stratford
>> peterws at tobeistodo.demon.co.uk
>>
>> Ref Participation in ICANN
>>
>> I have browsed the ICANN Website, followed a Discussion on improving
>> participation.
>>
>> Interesting : I have something to say too.
>> Sadly ICANN dont seem to have any mechanism to add debate to a posted
>> topic or to an item in a topic. ICANN is a Closed little world.
>>
>> The ICANN is supposed to be about Communication,
>>
>> Yet ICANN doesnt seem enabled to empower people to Communicate.
>>
>> Re On Line Discussion of ICANN busines.
>>
>> Of Course ICANN needs On-Line Discussion, just see the content of
>> debate on this..
>>
>> ICANN doesnt seem aware of the power of Computer-Mediated
>> Conferencing. What is that one might hear back ???
>>
>> Netreach had several systems that individual members ran on the Dialup
>> of those days to give users a debating space that allowed separate
>> topics and sub-topics to be added to the stack of content. These were
>> examples of Computer-Mediated Conferencing..
>>
>> NetReachers will recall EIES, which was a real Computer-Mediated
>> Conference system, run over the "Internet" out of MIT but only in Text..
>>
>> I ran MIST in Oxford for 10 years until the hardware was becoming a
>> trifle flaky and also the use of Dial-up Conferencing had apparently
>> become overtaken by the use of simple E-Mail and the Internet.
>>
>> My MIST system was a sub-set of the routines developed for EIES, which
>> ran on multi-user mainframe computers under UNIX. MIST operated a very
>> featured system of real CMC on a single-user PC machine. It had
>> incredible flexibility and potential for tailoring the features, also
>> an excellent security framework. Users could use Alias, real names or
>> keep their stuff anonymous. Conferences had moderators, a structure
>> enabling management of debate, participants and the possibility to
>> make questionaires and voting. There was a hugely configurable
>> Database with searching built-in which gave great versatility and
>> security in storing data. All these are things needed if ICANN were
>> seeking to enable On-Line debate. I even have a version of MIST that
>> operates over the Internet, but single-user only.
>>
>> MIST was used to connect my Server in Oxford with PC computers in the
>> jungle in South America via the INMARSAT Satellite network directly
>> from my Barn in Oxford. It was able to be configured quite simply to
>> do that. Nowadays such software could be operated readily by Mobile
>> phones from anywhere in the globe. People would of course nowadays
>> expect software that delivered HTML pages just like the usual systems
>> of the Internet and multiple users and security - all the other stuff
>> we expect in 2010..
>>
>> The Communitree Conference system was the first of this family of
>> Conferencing software, for Apple. Lynn Hurn ran one for years also
>> in Brontlys in Wales.
>>
>> There were other CMC systems but they fell out of favour because of
>> changing standards, demise of Videotext, Service Provider charges and
>> restrictions. Windows had a lot to answer for in how the firm cut out
>> so many good software innovators.
>>
>> NetReach had the Prestel Videotext Conference system which ran in
>> demonstration conditions on a ship, HMS President on the Thames
>> opposite the Law Courts.
>>
>> It is surely not difficult now to create or to buy-in a pukka
>> Computer-Mediated conferencing system having some or all of the
>> features required for Debate by ICANN delivered in a modern way via
>> the Internet. The problem is only that no-one seems to remember the
>> power these systems had and how useful they could be. We have all
>> become obsessed by tacky commercial systems of E-Mail stacks which
>> seem like discussion, Blogs full of trivia, Social networks and so
>> forth. These all lack vital features of a real powerful CMC Conference
>> software. Anyone can start chats now, no-one can track what they
>> discuss and apart from Wikipedia, does it matter. All the participants
>> of such E-Mail stacks live in their little worlds. Thats not real
>> debate. The cause of the difficulty is they are not true CMC.
>>
>> I have all the source code for MIST routines, that is the interactive
>> framework of interpreter-language scripts out of which the MIST
>> appearance and the Conference structure was created out of the
>> underlying MIST interpreter and database delivery system. Nowadays we
>> dont need the underlying delivery system as we can re-create the CMC
>> directly by software development in an Internet-savvy Programming
>> system like Java.
>>
>> If ICANN wants to do something useful they MUST enable public
>> participation at least in their Topic database. They need buttons to
>> add comment and an editor or monitor to mediate debate. They need
>> someone to issue Press releases onto the Search-engines to publicise
>> the debates.
>>
>> I would happily assist there, but really the issue is ICANN needs a
>> proper CMC and to show people how to use it and to use it to have
>> debates and involve the feedback from external non-ICANN participants.
>>
>> NetReachers for Ever !
>>
>> NB Did you see the debate on how Google et all are driving all
>> humankind into a clone-situation of self-feeding interests and
>> consumerism on BBC TV late  1st March. ?
>>
>> In message <4B8ACE15.5060107 at gih.com>, Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond
>> <ocl at gih.com> writes
>>> Hi everyone,
>>>
>>> please distribute this note to your local communities.
>>> There's a real number of opportunities there to make a significant
>>> difference! Apologies for cross-posting.
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond
>>> ICANN Nominating Committee 2010
>>>
>>> --- cut here ---
>>>
>>> Call for Candidates for Leadership Positions at ICANN
>>>
>>> To reach another person on the Internet you have to type an address into
>>> your computer - a name or a number. That address has to be unique so
>>> computers know where to find each other. The Internet Corporation for
>>> Assigned Named and Numbers, ICANN, coordinates these unique
>>> identifiers
>>> across the world. Without that coordination we wouldn't have one global
>>> Internet.
>>>
>>> ICANN was formed in 1998. It is a not-for-profit partnership of people
>>> from all over the world dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable
>>> and interoperable. It promotes competition and develops policy on the
>>> Internet?s unique identifiers.
>>>
>>> ICANN doesn?t control content on the Internet. It cannot stop spam and
>>> it doesn?t deal with access to the Internet. But through its
>>> coordination role of the Internet?s naming system, it does have an
>>> important impact on the expansion and evolution of the Internet.
>>>
>>> More information about ICANN on:
>>> http://www.icann.org/en/participate/what-icann-do.html
>>>
>>> We're looking for candidates!
>>>
>>> ICANN's Nominating Committee is looking for volunteers to fill several
>>> ICANN leadership positions
>>> and is accepting applications. The closing date is April 2, 2010.
>>>
>>> Positions to be filled this year:
>>>
>>> * Three members of the Board of Directors of ICANN
>>> * Two At Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) representatives (one each
>>> from
>>> the European and North American regions)
>>> * One member of the Council of the Generic Names Supporting
>>> Organization
>>> (GNSO)
>>> * One member of the Council of the Country-Code Names Supporting
>>> Organization (ccNSO)
>>>
>>> Successful applicants will take their seats at the conclusion of the
>>> 2010 AGM, (5-10 December, Latin America.)
>>>
>>> For information on how to apply or to recommend someone, see
>>> < http://nomcom.icann.org/ >
>>>
>>> If you have any enquiry, please do not hesitate to email
>>> nomcom2010 at icann.org
>>>
>>> --
>>> Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond, PhD
>>> http://www.gih.com/ocl.html
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Netreach-L mailing list
>>> Netreach-L at gih.co.uk
>>> http://salsa.gih.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/netreach-l
>>
>

-- 
P. Wingfield-Stratford