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Some notes from the .org bidder presentations




These are just some notes (again not verbatim quotes) 
of what the groups said here (i.e. promotion, if you 
want to put it like this)

UIA

Points to history and pioneer role. Regarding
the cooperation with VeriSign: Acknowledge that it was
a controversial decision. Think that VeriSign is
the best operator to start and want to move within
very short period of time to another operator. 
Governance as broad as possible. Want to concentrate
for the first part of transition on developing
activities, civil society interests. Money: Will
think about ways to bridge across the digital divide.
Thinking about enhanced services: Interested in
network of relationships between dot org organizations.
Interested in networks not only of organizations, but
also of problems and strategies. UIA is a group of
150 individuals who provide custodial care for the
operations. Relationship with 40,000 organization
entirely through information gathered. Very interested
in diversity. UIA financed by sale of information
through publishers.


.ORG Foundation (aka "the Period-ORG foundation")

.ORG Foundation brand new foundation. Initial team:
Melessa Rogers, Sheila Richardson, Bob Duffy,
eNom, .Org supporters, Microsoft, Terry Drayton
("serial entrepreneur", e.g. homegrocer.com). 
Strong technical and financial capability. Technical
and financial support from Microsoft. Lowest price,
superb services: US$ 4.95. All proceeds plus
matching funds to .orgs. Enhanced competition: New
registry. Expect to at least double VeriSign
endowment. Proposing nothing controversial, very
straightforward. Governance by a sample of 
organizations, starting from 15 Board members.
eNom thinks that running a registry is actually
easier than running a registrar.


Internet Society

Proposing setting up "Public Interest Registry";
Afilias as back-end service provider which has
most experience with running EPP registries.
Board appointed by ISOC Board (expect there to be
very little overlap between the two boards).
Open input mechanisms and educational outreach
programs. Have received over 400 letters of
support. Ten Board members are members of ISOC,
but no ICANN Board member today has a position in
the governance structure of ICANN. PIR completely
separate entity -- subsidiary corporation of the
Internet Society. 


IMS in partnership with ISC

trusted.resource.org/presentation/
Rock-solid public utility, operate F root server.
Proven ability to carefully innovate, stability
as first goal. Will publish freely available
software for registrars and registries. We 
produce BIND. Open and transparent process,
finances and operations. Used to create level
playing fields. People: Suzanne Woolf, Rick
Wesson etc. Governance structure: Board
includes Rick Adams, Pindar Wong, Dave Farber,
Daniel Karrenberg. Parables: Global Villages
require mix of public and private infrastructure.
Have experience with transitions of databases.
Planning with 19.75 full-time employees.
Set to operate 15 to 30 million names, hardware
for about a hundred.


Dot-ORG Foundation (aka "the D-O-T-org foundation")

Essential: Outreach, validation and technology.
dotORG Foundation will note become validator itself.
Public-private partnership: commercial partners
RegistryAdvantage (technical subcontractor)
and Kintera. Searchable online DotOrg Directory,
independent 3rd party validots of noncommercial
registrants, certification. Initial money came
from private partners as loan to foundation.
Registration costs will definitely be under 6 US$,
but you can only really learn that once you are
operational. Will not spend money which are not
directly related to keeping a stable and strong
registry. Emergence of validators is a very 
important steps in a civil society.


UnityRegistry

Joint venture of geographically diverse and
complementary partners. Have experience transitioning
multiple existing registries. Not requesting and
not requiring VeriSign endowment. Extensive
marketing plan to differentiate the domain.
Accountability structure: User cooperative.
10% net profit before tax to develop new services
influenced by user input. Support from non-commercial
organizations. 


SWITCH

SWITCH a private sector foundation similar to NSFNet.
Multilingual, already supporting six languages. 
Operating Gigabit fiber networks in Switzerland.
SWITCH operates .ch and .li registries. For .org
registry: two independent systems, at SWITCH/Zürich
and CERN/Geneva with immediate change possible.
12-14 name servers globally distributed with
a variety of architectures and platforms. 
SWITCH to develop an improved SRS (RRP+). Gateway
allowing 3000+ simultaneous connections. RRP+
will be made available to ccTLDs at no cost.
Cooperative marketing approach involving registrants,
registrars and the registry. Initial price 5 US$.
Offices in Zürich, Asia/Pacific and North America.
ORG-at-a-glance database. ORG Community Council
deciding on allocation of surplus funds (enhanced
services vs. lower prices). Amount of endowment
proposed: 1.8 million US$ used for registrar
platform and to initiate community process.
Chance for new blood in gTLD registry business,
non-profit, European, multicultural, multilingual
neutral registry.


Global Name Registry

Partnering with Red Cross. Emphasize .org differentiation.
[Video with classical music.]
Operational excellence. Main site in UK.
VeriSign will play no role in the operation of .org.
.org Steering Committee using NCDNHC leadership.
Price reductions up to 42%. .org resource centre showing 
success stories. Causeway Community Foundation decide 
and input on where grants are made.


Neustar

No new capital required to operate .org; community
outreach. No need to coordinate with multiple
partners = less risk. Independent .org Global Policy
Council drawn form all sectors, geographies and
both large and small organizations. Council members
selected by Selection Committee of independent 
noncommercial representatives. Neustar funds staff
person for council. Support e.g. from CNNIC, TWNIC.
All marketing targetted at noncommercial community.
Neutral third party model, no ownership in a
registrar. Price 5 US$. 


Register Organization (aka RegisterOrg)

Competition in registrar market has been succesful,
little competition in the registry market: Only four
meaningful players. VeriSign 95%+ market share.
Register.com funded RegisterOrg with 10 million US$.
Not requesting endowment. Benton Foundation and
Open Society Institute grants. 


OrganicNames

Market forces to focus a registry's attention on the
needs of registrants: For-profit bid. .org has no
community; we have to build that community. It's
not the business of registries to fund good causes.
Profitable, but competitive. Not connected to
other registries; organization from CentralNic and
Nominet. Don't want endowment. Nominet has 4 million,
CentralNic 1.5 million names. Transitioned registries
five times by now. We're not so much about community
and policy, we're more about registry.