Walid Al-Saqaf, Richard Barnes, Gonzalo Camarillo, Olga Cavalli, Hans Peter Dittler, Hiroshi Esaki, Mike Godwin, John Levine, Glenn McKnight, Robert Pepper, Andrew Sullivan, Sean Turner, and Mieke van Heesewijk

These are the names and links to profiles of the Board of Trustees for the Internet Society (as of this date in November 2019).  According to their dot org web page, the Internet Society has a vision that “the Internet is for everyone”.   These people are the Trustees of the Society at the time when the organization has arranged to  sell the rights to the .org registry for an undisclosed sum to a private equity company called Ethos Capital.

Why is this important?  In my opinion if the Internet is truly for everyone there should be a means for everyone to share their thoughts there.  The dot org registry in my mind has always been the domain where organizations; both for and not for profit, could acquire a domain and have an opportunity to spread their views.

I’m disappointed that the Internet Society has chosen to sell the rights to the domain; which includes setting prices and completing sales transactions for all dot org domains.  I believe this has a chilling effect on there actually being an Internet for everyone,

Brian

Update: I’m not alone in this opinion.

Another update:  I’m not always a fan of these organizations but apparently they too think this sale is a bad idea.

Yet another update: It’s starting to look like this sale won’t happen but I’m waiting to hear about potential judicial challenges.