Brussels Meeting Results - Dot Eco Stakeholder Council
On June 22 & 23 2010 the .eco Stakeholder Council met in Brussels for two days of deliberation on the fourth draft of a set of proposed .eco policies.
The meeting was a crucial step in a developing consensus around the rules for .eco that the Sustainability Community could submit as part of a Community bid to ICANN when the organisation begins accepting proposals for new domain name endings (like .eco).
Over 2009 the policies were drafted and twice published for public comment. Big Room also gathered feedback on the policies through a series of regional brainstorming sessions.
In Early 2010 Stakeholder Council published an open letter apprising the Sustainability Community of its intention to come to a consensus on the policies in 2010. The Council then broke into sub-groups to make recommendations on key sections of the policies, notably Accountability, Principles, Social Issues, and the Foundation.
This combined feedback was integrated into a fourth draft of the .eco policies, which were again submitted to the Council for feedback prior to Brussels. The resulting discussions were both intense and fruitful.
We encourage any interested groups, particularly those that are members of the Global Sustainability Community, to review the meeting summary and the fifth draft .eco policies (both in PDF).
Since then, we've been working to get feedback from Council members who couldn't make it, and assisting the Council in preparing to debate some of the key outstanding issues.
Here's some background documents from the meeting, including an agenda, the participant list, and v4 of the policies.
As always, we welcome feedback and encourage comment on the policies. We'd like to thank The Hub Brussels for hosting, Afilias for presenting an overview of their work, the Meridian Institute for mediating, and most of all the Council members for volunteering their time and creativity.
Thank you all!
www.e.co Auction - To bid or not to bid?
We've been hearing a lot of buzz about the upcoming charity auction for www.e.co and we're wondering if you have as well.
For starters, we think a charity auction is a great idea! Nice to see some innovative approaches to allocating valuable domain names. Something we've been exploring over at our names policy.
Delicious got a lot of press for their del.icio.us domain hack, but they now own delicious.com. With the supply of domain names increasing, will these 'almost' top-level domains retain their value?
We've always seen .eco as being link a big hunk of marble. It has intrinsic value, but it's mostly potential. Whether it becomes a beautiful sculpture or a heap of rocks really depends on the preparation, inspiration, and skill of the sculptor.
Perhaps e.co will be the same. What do you think?
May 2010 Policy Update
It's been a busy month! Following posting of a third draft of the dot eco policies, we've been working with the Stakeholder Council to get their feedback.
We did a number of one-on-one conversations, getting feedback from Green Belt Movement, Akatu, Development Alternatives and One World Trust. Meridian organised an in-person consultation in Washington DC attended by Conservation International, Terrachoice and Verite.
Finally, we held a series of open feedback calls that any Council member could join (in order to make it easier given people's schedules). WWF, Green Cross, ISEAL and David Suzuki Foundation all gave feedback on those calls.
On May 20, the whole Council met on a conference call for a general update and to review some key areas where progress still needs to be made. Rigorous discussion continues to take place around how to handle some names (e.g. coal.eco). Balancing the costs of audit and accountability mechanisms with the benefits of a strong system is also being discussed, along with creative ways to resolve disputes. We're also working on linking the principles more directly to commitments and actions and reviewing what's relevant to whom.
The fourth draft of the dot eco policies should be out in the next few weeks. As usual, we'll make them publicly available.
Gorbachev and Beckstrom Discuss Dot Eco
On May 12 2009 President Gorbachev and ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom met in Moscow to discuss the potential for new domains like 'dot eco'. It was a historic event and reminds us that ultimately it is courageous and outward looking individuals that build bridges between cultures.
In other words, the Internet is a tool and we are the carpenters. The question is what world will we build? Can we come together to envision a more peaceful, sustainable, and global society?
Meetings like these encourage us to think about what is possible when we really apply ourselves to making positive change.
See photos of the meeting here.
www.bp.eco
According to Two Tomorrow's recently published sustainability ranking, BP is the most sustainable oil and gas company - see the report in Greenbiz.com.
Why We Do What We Do: Space Monkey by WWF
Space Monkey from Leo Burnett on Vimeo.
Created as a collaboration between World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Ben Lee and Leo Burnett, "Space Monkey" carries a message about our planet, and features Ben Lee's track, "Song for the Divine Mother of the Universe".
It's a Great Time to be a Treehugger. Happy 40th Earth Day!
We love being in Vancouver, snuggled between the sea and mountains. Few cities are better at reminding us simply by their setting of the importance of our work.
It's fitting then, that we take a look at the local, global and historical in reviewing some of our favourite Earth Day coverage on the web.
Tags: earth day
Creating an Eco-Internet
Green Groups Launch Global Debate on New Eco Domain
WASHINGTON DC, April 20, 2010 – Over thirty green groups and leaders from around the world have launched a debate on the rules for a new ‘Eco-Internet’ and have released an open letter inviting anyone with an interest to join in.
Gearing up for Dot Eco, Big Room Goes B-Corp.
Big Room Inc., a Canadian company working to create .eco, an eco domain name ending for the Internet, has won B Corp certification. B Corporations are a new kind of company that uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems.