Hi, At Doc and David Weinberger's worldofends.com, Requirement #8 is the NEA doctrine: No one owns it. Everyone can use it. Anyone can improve it. A web service must embody all three of them to emulate the virtues of the web, but non-ownership is obviously the hardest Internet virtue for the owner of a web service to implement. To support NewGov.US, we've created a web service ownership vehicle that barely owns anything, and is prohibited from subverting the service's members' interests. Today we're releasing the ISINC Trust under Creative Commoms - The Internet Services Irrevocable Non-Corporeal Trust. It supports our shared view that a mission-critical web service cannot be permitted to be sold or shuttered by its nominal "owners". The ISINC structure may be helpful for other VRM projects, so I'll be distributing it at the VRM conference this month. I believe we should add a clause about members' data portability. Thoughts? Details The trust's corpus is limited to a single American Dollar, plus a contract with an ISP and with a domain name provider. Those services must agree to look only to the service's stakeholders to cover their costs.The salient sections 2 through 5, below, prohibit the trustee(s) from touching the controls. The 7-page trust document is attached, along with a graphic illustrating the relationship of the entities. When this is abstracted for general purposes, I intend to release it into the wild as a way for the creators of significant web services to be estopped from alienating or terminating the service. Philosophically, prohibiting web creators from selling out is inspired by Pascal's insight that all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone. 2. Trust Fund. The Trustees are explicitly prohibited from receiving or accepting donations by way of gift, bequest or devise from Grantor or from any other source in cash or in other property. The trust corpus shall consist of $1.00, the relationship between the trust and the domain name provider and an agreement with an Internet Service Provider. 3. Purposes of Trust. This trust is created and shall be operated exclusively for the following purposes: to promote and support the creation and promulgation of universally available mechanisms for the discussion and collaboration, over the Internet or its successor(s), by any interested party, to propose improvements in how government employees and politicians pass laws and their behaviors in light of those laws. The beneficiaries of the trust are the members of any Internet sites for which the trust has a relationship with a domain name provider and an Internet Service Provider. 4. Payment of Income and Principal of Trust. (a) Payments Directed by Trustees. There shall be no funds held by the trust. The Trustees shall create no mechanisms for the trust to hold tangible assets. 5. Duration of Trust. (a) Irrevocability and Termination. This trust shall be irrevocable, and may not be terminated at the direction of the Trustees. (b) Power to Organize Corporation. The Trustees shall have no power or authority to form and organize a not-for-profit corporation or other appropraite corporate entity limited to the uses and purposes provided for in this trust agreement. _____________________________________ |
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TrustJBR6-30-11.doc
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PastedGraphic-4.pdf
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