IDONS Discussion Forums

Greetings. First, I'd like to thank everyone for the outpouring of enthusiasm in reaction to my announcement of Project IDONS: Internet Distributed Open Name System.

The response has been so overwhelming that I have not yet been able to respond to most of you personally, but I've read all of your messages and I'm very grateful for your expressions of interest, specific technical and policy ideas, questions, and comments.

One thing seems pretty clear. Recent events including ICANN's moves toward obscenely expensive Top Level Domain (TLD) expansion, the increasing use of the existing Domain Name System (DNS) for censorship and other centralized control purposes, and a host of other factors, have convinced a vast number of persons that the time has come to start moving toward a new, 21st century approach to Internet naming technology, and for the existing "domain-industrial complex" to begin its ride into the sunset.

As I've previously noted, IDONS will be a very long term project, involving complex technical, policy, and even political aspects.

The number of interested parties is already far too large in my estimation for a non-threaded mailing list for other than limited announcement purposes.

UPDATE: An announcements-only mailing list for IDONS is now available. You can subscribe here. Discussions should still be in the IDONS Forums as described below.

To get the ball really moving, I'd appreciate your participation in the new IDONS Discussion Forums that I've set up under the auspices of GCTIP (Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance).

I know that not everyone is enthusiastic about using discussion forums, but I'd urge you to give this one a try.

Anyone can read discussions on these forums without registering. To post new threads, topics, or replies, a simple initial registration is required, but postings are not pre-moderated. The forums include a very flexible, full-text/html RSS system that works great in Google Reader or other RSS readers, to help you stay on top of new and continuing discussions. You can also go directly to the forums registration page.

At this time, I believe that the IDONS Forums provide the most practical and accessible means to foster wide-ranging discussions across a broad spectrum of associated topic areas for the project.

I hope to see you there. Let's get this show on the road. Thanks again.

--Lauren--