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MeetingMinutes20060530

2006/05/30 XDI.Org Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes

  1. Attending
    1. Board
    2. Guests
  2. Call To Order
  3. @Name Pricing
  4. Indemnification in GSS Agreements
  5. Return to @Name Pricing
  6. Identity Commons EGS Program (50-Year Names)
  7. Adjournment

1. Attending

1.1. Board

1.2. Guests

2. Call To Order

Mr. Washburn called the meeting to order at 4:07PM PT.

The agenda was reordered to accommodate the limited amount of time Mr. Aizenman and Mr. Neuman could attend.

3. @Name Pricing

As Secretary, Mr. Reed gave some brief background about the origins of this issue in the trustee’s email discussions about @name speculation and building trust in the @name space.

Mr. Aizenman then began by suggesting that the board consider a motion that the @name registry use an auction model. Mr. Washburn suggested there be discussion prior to making a motion about this option.

Mr. Sequira suggested that it would be more productive to: a) make a slight increase in price, and b) putting aside a group of generics in the native languages in reserve. Mr. Caluori said staying with the existing pricing was a third option.

Mr. Strongin asked about the potential release date for the generic reserved names. Mr. Sequeira pointed out that no specific date needed to be chosen in advance. Mr. Reed noted that the original XNS.org registry carried out this same policy, reserving roughly 1500 generic English “dictionary” names.

Mr. Neuman pointed out that the time it would take to figure out all the rules and regulations around an auction. Mr. Washburn asked to confirm that the proposed launch date was still mid-June. Mr. Calouri confirmed this.

Mr. Sakimura made the suggestion that if we are going to reserve some dictionary @names for an auction, we must do that now, prior to opening the @registry.

Mr. Chasen asked about the underlying motivations for this proposed policy. Mr. Washburn noted the following points:

Mr. Seqeuira asked about "fairness". Mr. Sakimura said that “first-come first-served” (FCFS) is not necessarily the most fair system, especially if the “information flow” about @name availability is low. Mr. Strongin shared the view that an auction plan would not necessarily solve this problem without a very long auction period, which requires high marketing investment. Mr. Sakimura said he believed it would be “more fair” than FCFS.

Mr. Caluori described the auction scenario that Cordance and NeuStar had investigated, where the auctions would be held on a public website. There was general agreement that this was the desired scenario if dictionary names were reserved.

At this point Mr. Washburn requested to change the topic due to time constraints.

4. Indemnification in GSS Agreements

Mr. Blackmer explained his proposal for indemification language in the Contact Agent Agreement and Contact Data Custodian Agreement that he thought would address Mr. Neuman’s issues about limitation on scope.

Mr. Strongin voiced a more fundamental concern about XDI.org indemnification, which is the organization’s current lack of assets. Mr. Washburn pointed out that this is limitation of XDI.org’s current position that must be accepted to move forward.

The attendees discussed what kind of limits on indemnification might be necessary or appropriate for these agreements, especially because it makes it much more feasible for XDI.org to purchase liability insurance.

Mr. Neuman felt would be acceptable to have a reasonable liability limit as long as it was sufficient. There was consensus that a $5 to $10M indemnification liability limit policy would be appropriate. Mr. Wiese pointed out that it will take 6-8 weeks to obtain a policy, so XDI.org should start soon

Discussion returned to the exact wording in the GSS agreements. The following action item was assigned.

ACTION: Mr. Neuman will draft language in an email that he will circulate to Mr. Blackmer and Mr. Lewis.

5. Return to @Name Pricing

Discussion returned to generation of a proposed solution. It was agreed that a short term task force would be created consisting of Mr. Sakimura, Mr. Caluori, Mr. Sequeira, Mr. Chasen, Mr. Brown, Mr. Wiese, and Mr. Reed. Mr. Sakimura will chair with Mr. Reed serving as Secretary.

This task force shall prepare a proposal to address the best policy for: a) any potential @name withholding-for-auction policy, incluidng how to handle the auction, b) @name pricing, and c) how any additional funds raised for market development would be spent.

The target is approval one week from today, with a first draft by the end of this week.

6. Identity Commons EGS Program (50-Year Names)

The question of how this issue will be resolve remains. Mr. Davis explained the last two proposals: one from Identity Commons that would provide for 25 years names at a wholesale cost of $55.

Mr. Caluori explained the Cordance proposal to provide 5-year names for a wholesale price for $30.

No other proposal has yet been articulated.

Mr. Strongin and Mr. Washburn proposed the following underlying principles:

  1. Identity Commons has and will continue to provide a valuable service to the community, so it should continue to be supported because it serves the community interest.

  2. At the same time, no one in the community wants to have the pricing for =names allocated to Identity Commons under this program upset the overall market.

Mr. Caluori explained that the original goal of the program was to raise $2M for Identity Commons to invest into the development of open source software and open identity infrastructure. When that contract was extended, it was the understanding that when the GRS opened, the IC =names would have to be in line with market priced. The challenge has thus been to figure out the pricing.

Mr. Sakimura had to be excused from the telecon at 5:30PM Pacific.

Mr. Caluori asked to understand what the shortcomings of the 5-year proposal are. Mr. Davis explained that the proposal as it stands requires Identity Commons to either become an i-broker or develop a special arrangement or one or more i-brokers, which is antithetical to its principles.

Mr. Sequiera asked if the 5-year name proposal would work if it was opened up to all i-brokers. Mr. Davis replied that it would not, as it does not provide enough discount to incent sales.

A long discussion ensured of various options and alternatives. The final consensus was the following action item:

ACTION: Mr. Davis and Mr. Caluori to attempt to develop a mutually acceptable proposal to submit to XDI.org.

7. Adjournment

Mr. Washburn adjourned the meeting by consensus at 6:15PM.

Respectfully submitted,