I don't know how others are faring, but I'm only receiving about one message out of every four. Andy Sernovitch said that AIM had changed ISPs and that things should be back to normal, and the new nameservers propagated, by early next week, so I'm trying to be patient. On the other hand, I've gotten a few messages that suggest there are more fundamental problems with this list: people de-subscribed, others who can't subscribe, still others who receive but can't post, etc. It makes one wonder if the IFWP list, at least as administered by AIM, isn't finally kaput. What to do? For myself, I find it very difficult to accept the demise of this list. It has a very special character, different from all the others. It has an identity, bestowed on it by the ideals of the Internet community at the beginning of the White Paper process. With the end of the IFWP list comes the end of those ideals, at least in their collective expression. I think everyone on it will lose, if it ceases to exist, something that cannot be replaced by subscription to another list. There have been suggestions of re-starting the list - perhaps under a different name, perhaps under the same - on another listserve. Unfortunately, those making these suggestions have accompanied them with ideas for modifying the IFWP list - subscription by credit card, the use of signatures, encryption, a moderator, rules of conduct, et cetera - which have detracted from the special nature of this list, have disillusioned many about the possibility of transferring it, and probably pushed further the disintegration we are presently witnessing. I'd like to make a different suggestion. It's based on the prediction, made by Andres Oppenheimer in his recent Miami Herald story "Latins Want Input On Web", that the question of who will rule the Internet, and how, is not going to be resolved in the short term, that it will continue for some years still, and that open forums of diverse interests but with similar ideals will be needed until it is finally resolved, and beyond. The conclusion from that prediction is that the IFWP list, rather than being abandoned, should be formalized and strengthened so that it can serve its unique function when needed. How can we do that? One way, and the one I'd like to advocate here, would be to move it to a large commercial ISP's listserve (I am thinking of PSINet in the U.S., for example, or one of the larger EuroISPA ISPs), and that the fee for maintaining it be paid by the participants as part of their subscription. Such a fee would be very low, certainly, probably on the order of $5 a year. The payment of it would validate each subscriber's use of the list, and provide a central source of minimal contact information about the subscriber. And it would finally give the IFWP a membership identity that could permit it to use one or another of the online voting or decision-making mechanisms that have been discussed here from time to time. I'd like to ask everyone using this list if they really think that another list, some new one begun by the DNSO or the ICANN or anyone else, could replace the IFWP list. I think you'll agree that they probably can't. This list was begun through the spontaneous coming together of the broad community, just as the White Paper called for, and it may be that community, as it exists in this forum, which has the only real chance of ultimately seeing to it that the Internet community is served by this process of privatization. I don't think we can afford to let the IFWP list disappear. Our own interests will be weakened if we do. I suggest that the best way to save it, and at the same time perhaps improve it to make it function as it will surely be called on to function in the near future, is to adopt some such method as I've suggested above. Please give it some thought. __________________________________________________ To receive the digest version instead, send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To SUBSCRIBE forward this message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNSUBSCRIBE, forward this message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Problems/suggestions regarding this list? Email [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___END____________________________________________
