Verisign's public opinion play

Tue Oct 7 17:00:53 UTC 2003

--On Tuesday, October 7, 2003 10:27 AM +0100 Michael.Dillon at radianz.com 
wrote:

>
>> I think this list may be a very good choice of where to construct
>> such a response.
>
> Are you being paid by Verisign?

Absolutely not.  In fact, I would be almost as glad to see Verisign 
disappear
as Micr0$0ft.  Lately, I'm beginning to wonder which of the two is worse.

> A "constructed" response is the worst thing we could
> do. Everyone should write their own responses in their
> own words based on their own experiences or their own
> skills and knowledge. That's the only way to demonstrate
> that Verisign was wrong, wrong, wrong.
>
We have different meanings of that term.  I think that there is value in
everyone writing their own response, too.  However, I do think that if
we could generate a joint statement of position and get that into the
right channels, it would carry some additional weight.  In order to do
that, it would need to explain the issues and the facts in a way that
Joe and Mary household user could understand.  Right now, there is a
fair amount of perception that we are reactionary whiners and that
we're only upset because Verisign makes money off of this.

> A "constructed" response is pure politics and only
> demonstrates that a certain opinion is shared by
> a bunch of people with no basis in fact. We don't
> need to trumpet our opinions; we need to document and
> publish the facts of the matter.
>
A joint position statement is partially politics.  However, right now, this
is a political game with operational ramifications.  Serious operational
ramifications far beyond the effects of the wildcards.  We need to document
and publish the facts and show that those facts justify our opinions.
We need to do it in such a way that others come to share those opinions.

> And this list is definitely not the place to
> discuss writing a letter of protest. If political
> activity is your bag, then try http://www.meetup.com
>
On this we must agree to disagree.  It's not the first time, Michael.
I agree that this list is generally not the place to discuss writing a
letter of protest.  However, I'm not talking about writing a letter of
protest.  While this activity is partly political, it is politics with
operational impact.  I'm not opposed to taking it to another list for
development, but, I think whatever comes out should be brought back here
for review before being launched at the press as a statement of community
position.  I think it should also be taken to other similar lists and
probably reviewed by the relevant working group within IETF.

Owen