Thanks to Joan Dzenowagis for forwarding this and for her good work on 
     this and other ehealth issues.  
     
     WHO advances an interesting proposition which is deserves very careful 
     consideration. The implications of WHO certification of ".gov" health 
     sites (OR their exclusion) would need to be addressed.  Also, since 
     the implementation might involve assessing some substantive aspects of 
     web sites (though not perhaps as a primary function) it would be 
     helpful to know about models of international certification of content 
     in other domains.  Since the application states that policies would be 
     set by the World Health Assembly itself, which meets once a year,and 
     subject to the processes of WHO, would timeliness be an issue?  It's a 
     pity that there is only about 1 week to frame comments on this 
     important proposal. Perhaps a good course of action is to encourage 
     ICANN to extend the public comment period. 
     
     
     Mary Jo Deering, Ph.D.
     Director, Health Communication and eHealth Team 
     Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion 
     U.S. Department of Health and Human Services  
     
     
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: RE: [MWM-L] FW: Dot-Health: a new top level domain
Author:  "Kun; Luis Dr." <[log in to unmask]> at INTERNET 
Date:    10/27/00 5:00 PM
     
     
     
I am interested in the idea, offer to participate and think we should put a 
position statement.  Regards, Luis
     
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
     
Luis G. Kun, Ph.D., FAIMBE 
Acting Chief Information Technology Officer (CITO) 
National Immunization Program,  OD/NIP/CDC 
1600 Clifton Rd. NE, MS EO5 
Atlanta, GA 30333 
voice: 404-639-8680 
fax: 404-639-8626 
email: [log in to unmask] 
     
     
     
-----Original Message-----
From: Rippen, Helga [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Friday, October 27, 2000 4:40 PM
To: Ieeeusa-Mtp (E-mail)
Subject: FW: [MWM-L] FW: Dot-Health: a new top level domain
     
     
     
What do you think about this?  Do we want to put together a position 
statement?
     
helga
     
-----Original Message-----
From:   Margaret Winker [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
<mailto:[mailto:[log in to unmask]]> 
Sent:   Friday, October 27, 2000 12:07 PM 
To:     [log in to unmask] 
<mailto:[log in to unmask]> 
Subject:        Re: [MWM-L] FW: Dot-Health: a new top level domain
     
This is an interesting proposal but one that raises the same issues many 
organizations have run up against in determining and enforcing quality 
standards on the Internet. How does WHO propose to select sites that would 
be eligible to receive the .health domain? 
        >>> Joan Dzenowagis <[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> 10/27 9:37 AM >>>
Dear Colleagues, This is a key opportunity for those of us in the health 
community to help shape the future of the Internet. Please take a moment to 
support the creation of the dot-health top-level domain by registering your 
comments on the ICANN web site!
     
Dot-Health: a new top level domain
----------------------------------
     
The World Health Organization (WHO) has taken a major initiative to-wards 
improving the quality of health information available on the Internet. It 
has proposed the creation of .health as a new, instantly recognisable 
Internet top-level domain (TLD) designed to enable rapid access to 
trustworthy information on health matters worldwide. If the proposal is 
accepted, WHO, as a specialized agency of the United Na-tions, would be 
uniquely positioned to provide neutral, international support for standards 
of health information on the Internet.
Many national and international groups (such as Health on the Net 
Foundation, Health Internet Ethics, and Internet Healthcare Coali-tion's 
e-Health Ethics Initiative), have been struggling to find a way to ensure 
the quality of health information on the Internet, given its variability and 
uncertain reliability, the problems of sheer volume, plus the undesirability 
and impossibility of regulating Internet content.
As the sponsoring organization of .health, WHO would have the 
respon-sibility to set policy on how the name is distributed and used. By 
managing it as a "restricted" rather than an "unrestricted" TLD, WHO will 
ensure that there are enforceable rules on who may register un-der it, and 
how those registrations can be used. The standards will be enforceable in 
that the TLD can be suspended or cancelled if do-main-name holders violate 
the rules. WHO is committed to working within an international consultation 
process to establish fair and equitable standards and policies for serving 
the .health community.
WHO has officially submitted the proposal to the Internet Corporation for 
Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). This private sector, not-for-profit 
corporation has the authority to prescribe the means by which TLDs are added 
to the domain name system. For the first time since the mid-1980s, new TLDs 
will be introduced as part of a careful proc-ess designed to maintain the 
stability of the Internet while coping with its ever-growing use. ICANN has 
invited and received proposals from many organizations, businesses and 
individuals for new TLDs, in-cluding .health from WHO. These proposals will 
be subject to a tech-nical review and public comment, after which some TLDs 
will be se-lected for more detailed negotiation and implementation.
WHO's intention is that the TLD .health will immediately identify the 
domain-name holder as adhering to known quality and ethical stan-dards, 
instilling confidence in the information provided. This has high value for 
enhancing consumer protection as well as for improving public health and 
medical information, products and services.
The creation of a .health TLD with the World Health Organization as the 
sponsoring organization is a unique opportunity to explore and expand the 
role that an international organization might play in im-proving information 
on the Internet. The .health TLD has the poten-tial to become a reference 
model for how international organizations can support and promote 
transparent, high quality information in their respective fields on the 
Internet.
By registering your support for this initiative, you can help to shape the 
future of the Internet. The ICANN review process is now un-der way, and 
public comments are being taken until 5 November at http://www.icann.org 
<http://www.icann.org> , where the full TLD application is posted.  Please 
visit the ICANN site under Public Comments at the end of .health, to 
register your support for the creation of a new top-level domain with a goal 
of improving health information on the Internet.
Dr Joan Dzenowagis
Scientist
Health Information Management and Dissemination 
World Health Organization
Geneva
mailto:[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> 


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