ELL: Call for Comments, North American Indigenous TLD

[Eric Brunner]

[ELLers are encouraged to read the attached comment of support. TEB]



You are invited to comment on Position Paper E, which advocates the
creation of a gTLD in the doman name system, at the level of .COM,
.US and .CA to be delegated to and operated by the Indigenous Nations
and Peoples of North America. The comments period opened 17 November,
and closes January 10, 2000.

In brief, Position Paper E provides ICANN with the mechanism to provide
to the National Congress of American Indians and the Assembly of First
Nations as the sponsoring bodies, to in turn provide to the Native DNS
operational community the opportunity to operate a top-level domain.

This is a policy goal which has been pursued by the Native DNS community
since 1992. This will allow improved support for economic, cultural and
social use of the Internet for rural and urban Indigenous communities, as
the attached comment by Loraine Brooks, Library Technician for the Union
of British Columbia Indian Chiefs eloquently states.

To comment simply send email to comments-gtlds at dnso.org, e.g., a subject
line of "I support Position Paper E". In the body of the mail you may add
any comment you like -- Indians have been trying to get a TLD since 1992.

This paper is one of several contained in the Interim Report of Working
Group C of the Domain Names Supporting Organization (DNSO) of the new
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

The text of the Interim Report may be found at:
    http://www.dnso.org/dnso/notes/19991023.NCwgc-report.html

The full archives of the WG-C are on line at:
    http://www.dnso.org/wgroups/wg-c/Archives/maillist.html

The full archives of comments on the Interim Report are on line at:
    http://www.dnso.org/dnso/dnsocomments/comments-gtlds/Archives/index.html

Eric Brunner
Principal Author, Position Paper E

Attachment: Miss Brooks' comment, original at:
http://www.dnso.org/dnso/dnsocomments/comments-gtlds/Archives/msg00191.html

>I am a library technician employed by the Union of British Columbia
>Indian Chiefs in their Vancouver, BC, Canada office.  My duties include
>providing reference and research assistance for the nations of BC, as
>well as to students of the Institute of Indigenous Government, a
>post-secondary college dedicated to decolonization of 'all' minds, as
>well as teaching students the skills needed for community and someday
>national self-government.
>
>For myself, as an information seeker and provider, having DNS for
>Indigenous peoples of North America would make research simpler.  All I
>would have to do is go to sites with the Indigenous peoples DNS. I could
>ignore the false-lead .coms and .orgs.
>
>Also, I would know that when I point a student to an "Indigenous DNS"
>site I am assured they are going to find genuine, approved, factual
>information. It is going to be information which has not been
>misappropriated, e.g. oral stories, songs, spiritual teachings or
>ceremonies recounted without permission, or which should not be public
>knowledge at all. Views and opinions, working models, position papers,
>case studies, statistics, etc. etc. etc. on the legal, economic,
>political, social, cultural issues and concerns of Indigenous peoples
>will be from the people involved. I would know I and my students are
>getting real firsthand facts from the people who are experiencing and
>formulating the knowledge before offering it online.
>
>And yes, having a primary Indigenous server puts the Indigenous
>peoples/nations where they belong--independant and sovereign not
>subordinate to the Colonizer.
>
>An Indigneous peoples DNS is a necessity if the world is to hear the
>"genuine voices" of the Indigenous peoples of North America (and
>worldwide).
>
>        Sincerely
>        Lorraine Brooks
>Original message received: Tribal College Librarians listserv -
>University of Montana)
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