[liberationtech] Breaking: $1, 135, 000, 000 to Internet Society if .org Deal Goes Down

[Yosem Companys]

Tim Berners-Lee, over 10,000 at https://savedotorg.org/#add-org, slews of
reporters, 3 ISOC Chapters and almost all well-informed independents are
strongly opposed to the deal. The Internet Society just revealed it would
get 1.13 Billion from very rich US investors for .org. That is enough money
that honorable people have decided the damage to the Internet from the deal
should be overridden. The deal will die if Pennsylvania or ICANN blocks or
even delays.

If I were on the board, I might have voted for the deal. I've been among
the most skeptical, partly because the amount and many other key details
were totally secret. I would have demanded much more information and public
discussion.

I'm strongly advocating ISOC now take extraordinary steps to heal the rift
with the chapters and restore the public perception of ISOC.

http://netpolicynews.com/index.php/89-r/1166-1-300-000-000-to-internet-society-if-org-deal-goes-down


About Net Policy News
NPN was planned in 2012 when I thought ITU/WCIT might change the rules of
the net. As I learned more, I wrote that nothing of substance would be
achieved in Dubai. Amid lots of rhetoric, nothing of substance did occur.
On a near-trivial symbolic item, the U.S. said "fuggedaboutit" and blocked
consensus. I've since attended the ITU Plenipot in Busan and as many other
events I can afford.

    The battle between the "Incumbents" and the "Want Change" faction at
ITU is colorful but ultimately one of the least important issues in net
policy. Making the net affordable for all is my primary goal, and nothing
at ITU, ICANN, of the rest of the acronyms will make a big difference.
Rules on spectrum, patents & royalties, competition, who builds
infrastructure and many are far more important than any of the diplomatic
rhetoric. I'll do my best to report widely.

    I've been on the U.S. State Department International Telecom Advisory
Committee for nearly a decade. I'm often in a small minority in the group.

 Let me know how I'm doing. daveb at dslprime.com

Dave Burstein, Editor and Publisher
This is the news of the fast net, always looking to get closer to the truth.

Dave Burstein, editor and publisher. daveb (at) dslprime.com

Jennie Bourne, online editor

Contributing Editors: Charles Hall, Danny Burstein.

I've had a lot of fun since I started DSL Prime in 1999, which gradually
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The boom was unbelievable. I reported the limousines three deep in front of
the Plaza, as the Masters of the Internet Universe compared their billions.
I reported a million, then 10 million, then 100 million homes connected.
Video over the net was called "streaming media" and lost billions before
they discovered not many people wanted to watch boring, small, jerky videos
on the net. Then the cost of web delivery fell and we all know what's
happened. Covad, Rhythms, and NorthPoint were worth $20B at the peak, then
bankrupt 18 months later. The U.S. had the lead, and then it switched to
Korea, Japan, China and France. I hate that the U.S. has fallen to an also
ran on the Internet, but delighted with what I'm learning from the French,
Germans, and Koreans as I travel.

A surprising percentage of people in the English-speaking part of the
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I was mostly a curious geek trying to imagine how to be a reporter. There
were no rules for Internet journalism, so we made up the rules as we went
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The biggest favor you can do a journalist is to point out errors.

 The financial side is crucial in this capital-hungry business and is an
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Dividend increases and buybacks have been the way to get stock prices up.
Since stock prices have been going up with dividends, analysts demand more
of same. Companies respond and pull so much cash out of the business
profits will drop a few years later. A few years later doesn't count, until
it does. This cycle will one day reverse, the smartest guys on wall street
believe, but seven years later this is even more true.

Policy is boring but important, so I cover it as best I can. I've been
surprised to make so many friends in policy; they really do prefer to talk
with anyone other than the usual suspects saying the usual things. If you
know what's really going on, they want to hear. Even honest lobbyists
rarely have depth on what their own companies are doing in the field, much
less knowledge of practices worth copying from other nations.

I only succeed with help from readers and the industry. I want to hear from
you. Contact Dave Burstein, the editor. daveb at dslprime.com.

Dave Burstein, Editor, DSL Prime, 420 West 119th St #51, NY NY 10027

Online editor: Jennie Bourne jennie at dslprime.com

Conflict of Interest Note: Since 2015, Adtran, ASSIA, Calix, and Huawei
have covered expenses to their events. Conferences have also paid our way.
ASSIA paid a (modest) fee for attending their Advisory Board.  I freely
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see our advertisers; often, consulting/advisory work is part of the
package. I welcome other consulting. July 2017 There's nothing interesting
to report in 2016 or 2017. Previously, I've done extensive work for ASSIA
and the Marconi Foundation.

Jennie Bourne is the author of Web Video: Making it Great, Getting it
Noticed and co-author of DSL: A Wiley Tech Brief she produces videos for
the web. As a journalist Bourne wrote TV news, edited news film for ABC and
NBC TV, and produced and anchored the Evening News at WBAI-FM. She produced
Ecological Literacy, a documentary as well as many television segments.
Bourne taught at Rutgers and NYU.  She is currently working on a
documentary about Macintosh creator Jef Raskin.

The people who make decisions and buy products read DSL Prime and our new
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Bias: I have a strong consumer bias. It's my job to overcome any bias and
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