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MeetingMinutes20060607

2006/06/07 XDI.Org Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes

  1. Attending
    1. Board
    2. Guests
  2. Call to Order
  3. @Name Withholding/Pricing
  4. Identity Commons/Cordance Agreement ("50 Year Names")
  5. GSS V1.0 Specification Approval
  6. Schedule/Coordination of Press Releases/Announcements
  7. Adjournment

1. Attending

1.1. Board

1.2. Guests

2. Call to Order

Mr. Washburn called the meeting to order at 4:00PM PT.

3. @Name Withholding/Pricing

Mr. Strongin moved and Mr. Sakimura seconded the following motion:

BE IT RESOLVED to resume discussion and vote on the motion tabled yesterday.

The motion passed unanimously.

Mr. Sakimura asked to amend the motion and Mr. Strongin as the seconder agreed to:

BE IT RESOLVED: For the purpose of providing equal access to all parties to a portion of the @name space, the XDI.org trustees direct the editors of the GSS specifications to withhold from the @name space: a) all three-character or shorter ASCII names, and b) the 500 most-searched single-string names for each of the languages tracked by Alexa as of one week in advance of the date, with such names to be made available via an auction process developed by XDI.org in conjunction with its Agents as soon as possible following the launch, but no later than September 11, 2006.

Mr. Wiese asked the question about how trademarks would be handled. Mr. Blackmer provided the explanation he gave in yesterday’s meeting regarding the potential risks.

Mr. Strongin pointed out that the board must weigh very carefully the potential issues with trademark holders whose names would be represented on this reserved list.

Mr. Caluori shared the opinion that he believes that there are two potential issues with any type of withholding: a) the perception of “profiteering” in the market, and b) the potential legal issues. He is particularly concerned about the public perception. Mr. Caluori asked, even if withholding was applied, how i-brokers would share in this revenue.

Mr. Chasen pointed out that there is also the risk that trademark holders whose names end out being withheld start actively opposing this new namespace. An example may be large portal companies.

Mr. Davis said that part of the motivation for such a proposal is that there would be equal access to the strings that would be covered.

Mr. Washburn called for a vote.

Mr. Sakimura and Mr. Aizenman voted in favor of the motion. Mr. Strongin and Mr. Davis voted against the motion. Mr. Washburn abstained, therefore the motion did not pass.

4. Identity Commons/Cordance Agreement ("50 Year Names")

Mr. Davis explained that much work has gone into developing a new approach for coming to an agreement. He and Mr. Caluori have shared their principles directly with each other.

Mr. Caluori said that “the devil is in the details” and that he would very much like to get this finished.

Mr. Washburn wanted to thank all of the participants for working forward on all these issues.

Mr. Caluori also expressed not only his deep respect and admiration for the board and its upholding of the principles upon which XDI.org was founded.

Mr. Washburn asked what action could be taken now to move forward.

Mr. Wiese pointed out that the Exhibit B original approved by the GSS had pricing around a 10 year name in addition to a 50-year name.

Mr. Aizenman had to excuse himself from the meeting at this time.

Mr. Sequeira joined the call at this time. He made the following suggestion: to increase the price of a business name by $5 in order to repay the obligation to Identity Commons. Once that obligation is returned, this price increase would remain as a marketing development fund.

There was general discussion about this new option. Mr. Caluori pointed out that this had a key structural advantage in that it worked a solution on the basis of @names, which involves a greater margin.

Mr. Sakimura asked if supporting this new option would be contrary to the previous vote.

Mr. Strongin explained that he did not vote in favor of the earlier motion because it didn’t solve the issue of fairness, not due to pricing issues. By contrast, he believes the concept of adding a $5 "surtax" to repay Identity Commons for previous commitments and then maintaining that fund for ongoing market development activity is an intriguing new option that could solve the problem in an equitable manner for all parties.

Mr. Sequeira had to be excused from the call at this time.

Mr. Davis explained that while he had worked on many ways to try to structure a withholding program, ultimately he too was not convinced that the benefits were worth the risks. However this proposal did not bear any relationship to a name withholding program. He made the suggestion that perhaps $1 of each $5 could be put it immediately into open source software development. Even though that would delay the period that Identity Commons would be repaid, it would provide a positive pubic benefit beginning immediately.

Mr. Strongin made the following motion.

BE IT RESOLVED: That XDI.org directs the drafters of the GSS to remove from Appendix B the 50 year and 10 year pricing line items and to increase the XDI.org administrative fee on @names by USD $5.00 to be set aside in a fund for the purpose of supporting past and future market development activities, including development of open source code, specifications, legal agreements, education, and additional global services for the community benefit.

Mr. Sakimura seconded the motion.

Mr. Caluori reminded everyone that it is still necessary to settle on the amount to be repaid to Identity Commons, and there was consensus that this could be determined separately if there was consensus on this structural mechanism.

Mr. Sakimura asked Mr. Ozburn for his feedback about the price elasticity for @names, and whether it should be any different amount. Mr. Ozburn said that while he could not be definitive, he doesn’t believe that this amount would make any substantial difference in the market. He also shared the view that with this structure, it could be adjusted over time as a reasonable adjustment.

Mr. Washburn asked for a roll-call vote.

Mr. Strongin votes in favor.

Mr. Sakimura votes in favor.

Mr. Washburn votes in favor.

Mr. Davis abstains due to a conflict.

The motion passed.

5. GSS V1.0 Specification Approval

Mr. Strongin made the following motion:

BE IT RESOLVED: That the XDI.org trustees approve the GSS V1.0 and its Appendicies subject to editorial privileges in carrying out the board resolutions of the previous three meetings, and that the XDI.org Secretary is instructed to post the final GSS V1.0 documents on the GSS website.

Mr. Davis seconded the motion.

The motion passed unanimously.

6. Schedule/Coordination of Press Releases/Announcements

The board discussed that the natural person to be involved with those activities would be the Chairman, Mr. Washburn. Mr. Washburn agreed that he can serve in this capacity, however he wants to be sure to seek feedback from the board for any significant issues. He will work with Mr. Ozburn on these activities.

7. Adjournment

Mr. Washburn adjourned the meeting by consensus at 6:35PM.

Respectfully submitted,