False information: CEO of Versign facts are wrong

Fri Oct 17 22:23:56 UTC 2003

> I'm going to play journalist for a while and make some calls.

Ok, first part of my mission is a success.  I spoke with a Jim Hock from
Bite Communications (Verisign's PR firm), very nice conversation, started
out with Verisign's concerns, then we spoke a little bit on the issues
people have brought up here.  He will be comminicating with me over the next
week or so, as well as putting me in touch with some technical people there.
So here is where I need your guys help.

Put together a list of questions, comments, etc that you feel are
appropriate (about the general issues of verisign, its implementation of
sitefinder, its handling of the root servers, and other things of
importance) in an e-mail to me and send it off.  I'll compile a list of
questions and pose them to the people I talk to.  Don't worry, unless you
ask me to, I won't mention who these questions are from.

I'm not siding with Verisign on this issue - not by far.  But one thing that
I discussed with my admins today was the need for better communication
between Verisign and the tech community.  Thus, I'm going to put aside my
misgivings about the past with them and try to hopefully open a worthwhile
dialog between everyone who wants to be heard.   Verisign has admitted they
made mistakes in their handling of the issue, and it sounds like they want
to try to do things right this time.

ICANN has a job to do, and I'm sure they will do the right thing, but there
is a rift forming between the community and Verisign, and thats not going to
help the situation at all.  You all may not like me, or agree with me, but
this is hopefully an oppertunity where you can get some of your voices heard
outside of an official process like the SECSAC, and that might result in a
better understanding on both sides.

I will of course keep everyone who wants to know up on how things are going
and what I talk about with them, and you are all welcome to comment to me
about anything.  The worst that can happen is that we get nowhere with
talking and everyone is still divied with nothing accomplished.  But, heres
to hoping that something good might come out of this.

--------------------------
Brian Bruns
The Summit Open Source Development Group
Open Solutions For A Closed World / Anti-Spam Resources
http://www.sosdg.org
ICQ: 8077511