Discuss mailing list

[Richard Lyons <richard AT lyons.nu>]

On Fri, Dec 26, 2014 at 09:43:30 -0700, Brian Koontz wrote:

> I'm not proposing an oversight organization.  Simply a legal presence that
> would give OpenNIC a voice and an entity to manage OpenNIC funds.

I hope this does not come twice.  I sent it 9 hours ago and it seems to
have sunk without trace so I am resending:

Not being an expert in any relevant field, I am usually a silent
observer here, but I would like to commentbecause I feel this can turn
out to be the key existential question for opennnic, and ultimately
for openness in cyberspace.

On Fri, Dec 26, 2014 at 00:14:56 -0500, John Kozlowski (ShofarDomain.com) 
wrote:

[...]
>
> Quality of leadership is a scary thought.
[...]


I, too, find "leadership" a scary thought.  With leadership comes power
and, as we all know, power corrupts. -- Unless we can keep power
dispersed, build a model in which the opennic community continues to be
amorphous, but is the owner of the new incorporated entity, which itself
could be a co-operative, and not-for-profit.  To the outside corporate
world, open-nic-co-op (or foundation) would be an entity with a public 
service remit, but the community would be able to exchange the officers 
of the co-op/foundation freely and to maintian control. I think it is
important that the new entity should be seen to have that public service
ethos.

       _______                         __________
   ___(       )_____                  /          \
  (                 )  --control-->  /   Open     \
 (    Opennic        )              /     Nic      \
  (   Community    )  ---------->  <  Co-operative  >
   (_           __)     people      \     or       /
     (___     _)     <-----------    \ Foundation /
         (___)                        \__________/

A key point is that the Foundation does not replace the existing
community and remains under community control.

The idea of the famously-neutral Sweden being the registered home of the
incorporated part of Opennic seemed at first glance to be good.  But
then I remembered the case of Julian Assange and the evident fact that
Sweden is very much under the orders of the US political establishment.
Is there anyone on this list who can help in setting up the co-operative
(or other incorporated entity) under a more obviously neutral regime?
This might be on the fringes of Europe, maybe Switzerland or
Lichtenstein, but perhaps better would be either a Latin American base,
or a place with an image more easily associated with independence such
as a pacific island.  Niué for example (it needs a boost)...

IMHO, it should be based outside of control by the USA, UK or EU.

Happy new year to all!

richard



-- 
Richard Lyons