Do you have a .CA domain name? Have you voted yet?
17. Sep, 2006 
1 Comment
If you own a .CA domain name, you were sent an email letting you know that CIRA elections are upon us. CIRA (Canadian Internet Registry Authority) is the non-profit body that implements policy and ensures the availability of the top level CA domains. Every .CA domain owner has a right and an obligation to vote, although many of you probably won’t. I want to change that.
CIRA ensures that our .CA top level domains (TLD) are always available. Many people are unaware of 
the importance CIRA plays in their lives. Here’s some perspective: If the CIRA registry servers went offline at the same time, every single .CA domain name would be unreachable. Imagine people looking to book a flight on AIR CANADA, but can’t because http://www.aircanada.ca/ is unreachable. Or something close to home for me: A VoIP provider has a softswitch that people access by a .CA domain name. If the CA servers went offline in this instance, forget about making phone calls. note: my company uses IP addresses to avoid this, but that’s beyond the scope of this post.
Why is it important to vote? Because CIRA’s success depends largely on the involvement of it’s members (YOU) and it’s appointed board of directors. Some of the issues the board tackles might bore my audience, but if you want to read more, you can visit Paul Andersen’s website, my CIRA candidate of choice.
I recognize that many people will probably not vote or have no idea who they should cast their vote for. So I’m asking my friends, colleagues and others within my social network to place their trust in my recommendation, take 5 minutes of your time today to visit the CIRA’s Election Page and cast your vote for Paul Andersen. Voting officially ends Sep 21 at 8pm.
“Trust Me” is never a good reason (as much as I value your opinions), it would have been nice to hear a little more on the rationale behind the vote. I have a whack of domain names, and admit I never vote because there never seem to be any issues that anyone brings up with .ca.
I have a few, (other than registrars being twits and CIRA never responding to complaints of said twits not adhering to CIRA’s rules), but after reading the forums back around elections I got the impression no one really gave a rat’s ass on both sides of the fence. People will rarely vote if they don’t think anything will change/is in it for them (just look at our federal elections ;) ).
If you have reasons to vote for a specific individual, post ‘em (next time)!!! :)