Board Meeting Minutes – 2005/11/16
- Finance
- GRS Pricing and XDI.ORG Administrative Fee
- Legal
- I-Services
- Governance
The meeting was held at the Hotel Bouganviella in San Jose, Costa Rica. It began at 10AM and concluded at 7PM.
Present: Jaco Aizenman (host) Owen Davis Geoffrey Strongin Nat Sakimura
Also attending: Scott Blackmer (General Counsel) Drummond Reed (Secretary)
1. Finance
1.1. OASIS Membership Renewal
Mr. Davis will attend to this as soon as he returns to the U.S.1.2. Webmaster
In the short term, Mr. Sakimura agreed to perform webmaster duties.1.3. Annual Budget
The trustees agreed to set a budget goal of $100K for fiscal year 2006, anticipating the following categories of expenses:-
Legal - $20K - $50K (depending on GRS startup expenses)
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Accounting & Audit - $10K
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D&O Insurance - $2500
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Board Travel - $25K (for 2-4 in-person meetings)
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Hosting - $1000
Mr. Blackmer noted that dispute resolution for GRS registrations is not a cost as XDI.ORG is not involved; the legal costs are born by the parties to the dispute.
2. GRS Pricing and XDI.ORG Administrative Fee
The trustees reviewed potential scenarios for GRS registrations. There was consensus that the XDI.ORG administration fee should be apportioned between @ and = registrations in approximately the same ratio as the registration fees. The exact amount of the fee will be set once Cordance submits its proposed pricing for cost-based services.3. Legal
3.1. I-Broker Agreement
Mr. Blackmer reported on the status of the drafting of this agreement and the remaining issues.3.1.1. Data Collection
Mr. Blackmer reported that this issue had been resolved via language that delegates collection of registration data to the i-broker and specifies only such information as is required to maintain a registration.3.1.2. Data Escrow Requirement Discussion
On this issue of requiring data escrow by i-brokers, the trustees favored transparent disclosure rather than mandated practice.The trustee conclusion was to:
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Specify the disclosure requirements about data backup and escrow by i-brokers.
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Require such disclosure by the i-broker during the registration process so consumers can make an informed choice.
3.2. Trustee Service
On the issue of the requirements for registration trustee service, the XDI.ORG board concluded that the best option would for the GRS to:-
Allow a registrant to appoint any other party who has registered an an XRI with an XDI.ORG-accredited i-broker to serve as a trustee for their registration.
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Enable the GRS trustee service to accept a trustee request for a change in the authorized i-broker by using the authentication i-service.
The advantage of this design is that it does not specify any particular authentication method, but allows all i-brokers to compete on authentication methods and options.
3.3. Personal I-Name Delegation Provision
The trustees discussed a clarification to the Global Personal I-Name and I-Number Registration Policy that would enable organizations to register =names while still conforming to the purpose of this namespace. Following is a draft of the proposed change:Registration of Global Personal I-Names and I-Numbers (under the GCS "=" symbol) MUST be restricted to either: a) individuals registering in their own personal capacity, or b) organizations who agree to honor this same restriction in their delegation capacity.
Mr. Reed and Mr. Blackmer were instructed to draft the proposed language for the Global Terms of Service.
4. I-Services
The board discussed a proposed policy to make it mandatory for all XDI.ORG-accredited i-brokers offer three base i-services: authentication, contact, and local resolution (i-link). The board concluded in favor of this policy for the following reasons:-
Contact service is required because provides a privacy-protected alternative to the WhoIs service to provide a dispute notification mechanism in DNS.
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Authentication service is required for i-name authentication to contact service.
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I-link service is required for non-XRI-aware browsers to follow an XRI to a contact page.
The board discussed a “shared pool” model for offering these three i-services in an ASP model for all XDI.ORG-accredited i-brokers for a flat fee added to all GRS registrations. The board concluded that as long as the requirement of i-brokers to offer these i-services was mandatory, a shared pool model would not be required because an ASP model or other models would fulfill the requirement via market forces.
5. Governance
5.1. Board Elections and Voting Structure
Mr. Blackmer reviewed XDI.ORG’s requirement to be community governed in a way that is reasonably representative of XDI.ORG’s constituents. The board held a long discussion about potential membership and board election models that would fulfill this requirement. Two overall models were discussed:-
Direct election by personal registrants (= registry).
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Proportional election by personal, organizational, and i-broker registrations (=, @, and ! registries).
The relative strengths and weaknesses of both models were discussed at length. In the end the consensus was that a hybrid of the two models was preferable.
In further discussion it was decided that a decision on the next evolutionary step for the XDI.ORG governance model is premature until GRS services are operational and constituents are directly represented in the process. The board concluded to:
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Set a time frame of beginning the process no later than six months after GRS launch, and implementing the result no later than one year after launch.
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Update the XDI.ORG website governance page to explain XDI.ORG’s mandate to be community governed, publish the schedule, and solicit feedback via a survey form.