An Open Letter to the Alternative Roots

Dec. 4, 2012 - PRLog -- ShofarDomain has published an open letter (http://ShofarDomain.com/Blog-2012-12-04) advocating that the alternative roots abandon the idea of seeking “a chair at the table with ICANN, but… bring in a new table”.  Their rootless TLD approach uses technology rather than policy to eliminate ICANN’s monopoly and opens the door to an “aggressive high school kid in Iowa, an enterprising family in Latvia, or even the IT department of a fortune 500 corporation running their own TLD.”

The letter quotes Buckminster Fuller: “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the old model obsolete.”  The letter goes on to show the existing reality as the current ICANN dominated DNS.  The new model, the rootless TLD, is described as working with the old model, but does over time makes it obsolete.

Some of the issues tackled include Saudi Arabia lobbing to prohibit the “.gay” and “.bible” TLDs.  Gutenberg’s movable type is used as a great analogy to address this question.

The alternative root Name.Space, which has brought suit against ICANN, has numerous TLDs that conflict with new TLDs that ICANN has received an $185,000 application fee.  The letter proposes letting the market decide these issues rather than “a closed door committee.”

Sure to inspire both ICANN loyalists and detractors, the letter spells out a rational plan to dethrone ICANN from is lofty perch.  After almost two decades of failed attempts and currently struggling attempts, ShofarDomain has laid down the gauntlet with a new set of terms.  2013 should be an exciting year for those building up or tearing down central authority for the Internet.