All of the conclusions on page 5 of the SSAC's report on WHOIS and spam are excellent venues for study and should be considered by the ALAC in an overall response.
 
As for my own suggestion: A third party researcher should seek to ascertain consumer awareness of WHOIS and whether/how it is useful to them. Consumers should not be defined as domain registrants, though respondents should include a representative sample of them. Most consumers do not know WHOIS exists or how to use it. I refer to
http://redtape.msnbc.com/2007/09/index.html for possible formulation of a questionnaire.
 
I would be happy to work with anyone on development of the questionnaire, research method, etc., and can offer the possible help of my own organization, Consumer Reports WebWatch.
 
Since this note mentions inclusion of ALSs, individuals and all, I am cc'ing this correspondence to Susan Anthony of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Kristina Rosette of Covington & Burling, and Marilyn Cade of ICT Strategic Consulting and the business constituency, to invite consultation on this or other research topics related to WHOIS and the consumer.
 
Beau Brendler

From: alac-bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org on behalf of Wendy Seltzer
Sent: Wed 10/31/2007 4:30 PM
To: At-Large writ small
Subject: [At-Large] WHOIS Stalemate: more studies, any you'd like?

Colleagues,
The GNSO Council has just concluded the WHOIS PDP by refusing to endorse
the Working Group's Operational Point of Contact recommendations.  They
also, on a closer margin, voted down the negotiation-forcing sunset
proposal.

Instead, the Council called for more studies. While many of us would
have preferred to see action, after five years of WHOIS debate, at-large
can contribute to the definition of these studies.

Are there concrete questions about WHOIS harms, benefits, or
alternatives that you (ALSs, individuals, and all) would like to see
addressed with data-driven research?

According to the draft of the motion passed, "Council shall provide
additional definition regarding the potential data gathering and study
requirements no later than February 15th, 2008."  I'm assuming ALAC
should pass its recommendations to the Council through Alan.

Council will be preparing a Board submission shortly, and I'm happy to
convey ALAC's comments when that is discussed.

Thanks,
--Wendy

--
Wendy Seltzer -- wendy@seltzer.org
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/seltzer.html
http://www.chillingeffects.org/
https://www.torproject.org/

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