http://Home.nyc

Jackson Hts., New York, February 12, 2012 - We  first took note of the commons in 2007 when star intern Matt Cooperrider suggested that we include “the commons” in our musings about New York’s TLD. While our early explorations were less than bold, our engagement was emboldened in 2009 when Elinor Ostrom won the Nobel Prize in Economics for her work on managing common pool resources. (See the Common Pool Resource chapter on our wiki.)

And when commons expert David Bollier suggested during an October 2011 interview that city-TLDs could be the newest commons, serving as “open greenfields for new local governance structures,” our interest spiked and we sought ways to engage a broader public in our evaluation.

That opportunity will arise this coming week through Making Worlds: A Forum on the Commons, a 3 day event, February 16-18, that begins this Thursday in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. We’re proud to report we had a role in organizing this opportunity for all to learn about the possible role a thoughtfully developed commons might play in creating a more livable, just, and sustainable world. While we expect the entire Forum to be illuminating, we’re especially looking forward to participating in a 5-7 PM workshop on Saturday, February 18. Entitled Nurturing the Commons New and Old, the workshop will look at the ways a city-TLD can facilitate “new local governance structures” and how the management and governance lessons provides by the likes of Elinor Ostrom can assist in their realization.

Making Worlds is a working conference with food provided to all participants courtesy of Occupy Wall Street. Join us in a most exciting event. (Commons photo courtesy the CnI Library.) 

Learn more about The Campaign for .nyc on our wiki pages.

Jackson Hts., New York, January 23, 2012 - Wink the Penguin is back. After mysteriously vanishing in January 2009, Wink is back atop the boulder on which he stood for 14 years at the intersection of 75th Street and 37th Road, in the Jackson Hts. neighborhood of New York City - home of our corporate HQ.

A global search and retrieve effort by local residents, civic groups, and the Linux community is credited with the return. However, the entire episode remains a mystery: the perpetrators of the chicknapping, his location during the interregnum, and the time and means of his re-installation remain unknowns.

Locally, the search included officials at the Police, Parks, and Transportation Departments, and then Council Member Helen Sears. (See search results.) Others with local and global connections were brought in to help secure Wink’s return. The Jackson Heights Beautification Group (JHBG), the premier local civic organization, when appraised of the apparent chicknapping, plastered the neighborhood with fliers requesting help.

We initiated outreach to the Linux community, developers of the Linux operating system, with Tux the penguin its mascot, asking that they monitor online channels to help resolve Wink’s whereabouts.

When Wink returned in February 2010, we and the entire Jackson Hts. neighborhood rejoiced and offered thanks to all who helped enable his return.

Recently, in the bitter cold of a snowy January day, a local resident adorned the neighborhood’s beloved Wink in a custom knitted red and white hat and scarf. The photo at right shows Ed Westly, president of the JHGB, with Wink safely back atop his boulder and in his new garb. (Commons photo courtesy the CnI Library. More on Wink.) 

Learn more about The Campaign for .nyc on our wiki pages.

Jackson Hts., New York, January 16, 2012 - When King Charles II and the Duke of York (later to be King James II) granted the land west of the Hudson to two loyal friends, they established the Hudson River as the boundary between New York and New Jersey. This legacy from the colonial era continues to plague our region with infrastructure, environment, and business planning taking place within myopic “state” views. The most recent instance of this, according to the New York Times, arose when New Jersey officials tried to lure the Fresh Direct from Queens to Jersey City with a $100 million package of tax breaks, land, and other subsidies.

Since 1921 the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has administered many common harbor and development interests – bridges, tunnels, rail, water, air, and teleports. But strategic planners declare that if the region is to grow and maintain its role in an increasingly globalized market, it must solve regional integration problems caused by the colonial era action.

A regional TLD provides an opportunity to begin repairing the damage of 1665. Our Regional Consolidation wiki page looks at this, as does the scenario raised in our dotNeighborhoods initiative about handling the hoboken.nyc domain name.

Around the globe, especially in Canada and Europe, cities are far ahead of the U.S. in creating regional entities. Let’s make the most of this digital opportunity. (Commons image of King Charles II, from Wikipedia.) 

Learn more about our overall effort from our Wiki Home Page

Jackson Hts., New York, January 12, 2012 - Urbanflow, a Finish joint effort with Nordkapp, envisions an operating system for cities. The scenario explored in the 5 minute video revolves around situated urban screens and their potential uses (right). Worth a look. It concludes with “It’s going to happen somewhere, let’s make it happen here” with the “here” being Helsinki.

This is something that should be an integral part of a city-TLD’s development process. But few in the traditional registry-registrar industry that controls the ICANN environment have an inkling as to the potentials, with the possible exception of the Swiss registrar CORE. The industry’s business model, more names = more money, skews creative thinking about urban TLDs.

But with the rise of the Internet of Things and growing awareness of the value of trusted TLDs to decision-making machines like IBM”s Watson, some cities are beginning to look into the possibilities of city-TLDs as the platform. Here in New York we have the initiative of Pachube (meeting tonight!) that offers hope for the home team.

Learn more about our overall effort from our Wiki Home Page

Jackson Hts., New York, January 1, 2012 - When I first read the New York Times’ Christmas Day editorial calling for a pilot project in place of ICANN’s current one-size-fits-all new TLD plan, I saw the perfect opportunity to present our proposal for a step-by-step introduction of TLDs: cities first, then corporations, and finally the problematic generic TLDs - .art., .sports, .news etc. Read it here.

Learn more about our overall effort from our Wiki Home Page

Jackson Hts., New York, December 22, 2011 - With 21 days remaining before the ICANN’s filing window opens for new TLDs, authoritative city government sources report the following: the new deputy mayor with responsibility for the TLD’s oversight (Robert K. Steel) is being briefed about the opportunity; “everyone in the loop” is being consulted; the city has not decided what to do with the three proposals it received in December 2009 (we presume these are by Verisign, CORE, and a now merged Minds & Machines and NuStar application); the lead agency has yet to be determined; and the role of the public in the decision making process is unclear.

With mere days remaining for the application’s submission, we can’t fathom completing the comprehensive, ground-setting TLD design, planning, and development process, including public education and engagement, which we’ve advocated. With faith that the Bloomberg Administration can come up with a suitable zeitgeist vision waning, earlier this year we petitioned the city council to, minimally, set aside the neighborhood names as local civic and economic development resources.

But without a long-term vision and a strong commitment to using the TLD as digital infrastructure, we fear that our city’s TLD, and the neighborhood names, will be lost among the hundreds of helter-skelter TLDs ICANN is expected to authorize over the next few years. In the new TLD environment, a standard model city-TLD might be suitable for selling tourist tchotchkes, but without adequate planning, it will not serve as the infrastructure we need to enhance our digital future. 

Having worked and waited over 10 years for this opportunity to arise, we find ourselves compelled and saddened to make the following recommendation: Let’s begin now to undertake a comprehensive review of all that a TLD can do for our city. Let’s observe cities receiving TLDs in this first round and learn from the experience. And let’s prepare for ICANN’s next filing opportunity for city-TLDs, expected in perhaps three years - barely enough time to prepare a thoughtful and comprehensive plan.

Learn more about our overall effort from our Wiki Home Page

New York, December 6, 2011 - How does a city use a Top Level Domain? That question remains largely unanswered as the April 12 deadline for filing applications for new Top Level Domains, or TLDs, approaches. While ICANN, the global entity with responsibility for issuing TLDs, has initiated a new TLD program, it has not consulted with cities or provided any guidelines on their use. Beyond the (not inconsiderable) contributions of Connecting.nyc Inc., no academic study, funded research, or formal explorations of any sort on the effective and efficient use of city-TLDs have been undertaken.

New York’s Internet Society has stepped forward to help fill the expertise and planning gap by creating the Occupy NY wiki. Working in much the same manner as the popular Wikipedia, the Occupy Wiki presents a venue where the public can present their ideas, ask questions, communicate, and explore how this new digital infrastructure, might help address the multitude of social, political, and economic challenges that face our city on a daily basis. How it can help our small businesses and create a more livable city.

In creating the Occupy NY Wiki, New York’s Internet Society, (ISOC-NY), a chapter of the global Internet Society, has initiated an important step in the traditional bottom-up decision-making process upon which the Internet was built. In offering this resource, ISOC-NY hopes the contributions of New York’s residents and organizations will assist with the submission of an application to the ICANN for a city-TLD in early 2012.

We wonder though how the city can possibly discern the effective use of a TLD in the few days remaining before ICANN’s filing deadline. Having advocated for .nyc’s acquisition for over a decade, some might be shocked when we say: We think it prudent that New York’s Internet community begin now preparing for the next filing opportunity, with ISOC-NY’s Occupy Wiki an appropriate first step. Our broader plans for research and public engagement indicate further steps.

Properly preparing for a city-TLD’s arrival is equivalent to preparing a street grid, zoning plan, or subway line - something that takes years, not days. Our friend Constantine Roussos has invested 5 years and millions of dollars planning the .music TLD, one far less complex and with far less impact than a TLD for the world’s premier city.

But we applaud this initiative and responsible action by ISOC-NY on behalf of its home city. We encourage ISOC-NY to continue to advocate for research into the effective use of this critical Internet resource. Long term, city-TLDs offer a significant business opportunity for the city. With the United Nations in our back yard, as we learn then transfer our experiences globally, they promise to become an important new source of employment, providing good jobs for ISOC members and residents with expertise in a variety of fields.

Finally, we encourage our wiki team to visit the Occupy NY Wiki and do elves-work helping new users. (The isoc-ny logo is courtesy of the Internet Society-NY.)

Learn more about our overall effort from our Wiki Home Page

The Atrium, New York City, November 28, 2011 - At the first face to face meeting of Occupy Wall Street’s Campaign for the Commons working group, several suggestions were made. Noting that much of the activity of OWS was supportive of various commons - open source, Internet, civic engagement, and the use of public spaces - there was a suggestion that a broader understanding of the role the commons play in our society would benefit all, and that a teach-in might be an appropriate next step

Additionally, I brought up the prospect that “commonly” organized city-TLDs might serve as a goal of Occupy movements world-wide. 

Another meeting was scheduled for Monday, December 5, 2011, 5:30- 7:30 at the Atrium. See the detailed notice here.

About that “commons” sign in the photo, right: Our first attempt to hold a Commons meeting in the Atrium was met with locked doors, perhaps for fear that the November 17 Day of Action might mar the Public-Private facility. When we returned on the 28th, we were met with new rules posted on the wall, one of which was “no signs.” How were people to find us in the massive Atrium? Luckily I’d just started a new “Commons Man” line of clothing :). The first iteration of the clothing line is shown with the Commons logo on the back of my jacket. Hung on the chair, people found our table. (Commons photo courtesy of the Connecting.nyc Inc. library.)

Learn more about our overall effort from our Wiki Home Page

November 13, 2011 - With the world more topsy-turvy than usual, one must wonder about the proper oversight and standards that should guide a  city-TLD. Recently we were struck by the Occupy Wall Street movement and the growing recognition of the role the commons play in our everyday lives. Today we heard this ballad by a young Hawaiian, Mankana - http://bit.ly/we-are-the-many - and wondered about the world we’re in and the one in which our children and theirs will live.

Learn more about our overall effort from our Wiki Home Page

Jackson Hts., New York, November 11, 2011 - New Yorkers are receiving offers to “pre-register” .nyc and .newyork domain names. At this lucky moment (11.11.11.11.11) we’d like to pass on some advice - scammers are afoot “pre-registering” our domain names (New York’s). Neither the city of New York, Connecting.nyc Inc., nor any other entity has been authorized by ICANN, the global overseer of new TLDs, to engage with so called “pre-registrations.” Those issuing them are not in a position to honor them.

More important, if you think you have identified a game changer domain name, we suggest you keep it for yourself until the official registrations are open. It would be unwise to tell a stranger about it as s/he might register it before you have the opportunity to do so.

If these companies ask for a payment in exchange for this “pre-registration,” you might consider calling the local District Attorney.

Learn more about our overall effort from our Wiki Home Page