IQ Test for Rebuilding Iraqi Net
By Brian McWilliams
02:00 AM Apr. 10, 2003 PT
Even before Saddam Hussein's regime started losing its grip, a London ISP began rallying momentum for a plan to bring pervasive and unfettered Internet access to post-war Iraq.
The grassroots proposal seeks to fund the reconstruction of Iraq's Net infrastructure by selling Internet addresses ending in .iq -- the country-code suffix in Iraq's domain name.
Due to trade sanctions and other issues, no dot-iq domains are currently active. But the charity project's sponsors, which include British ISP Onega, say the domains -- with the country-code suffix that connotes high intelligence -- could be auctioned off to worldwide Internet users for a hefty sum.
"We think there's a lot of goodwill toward the Iraqi people and a desire to help them get the benefits of an open Internet," said Ben Fitzgerald-O'Connor, leader of the project known as the Committee for Information Technology Reconstruction in Iraq. "This is one way for the international IT community to help raise the funds to do that."
Under the CITRI plan, dot-iq domains would be available at a reduced price for Internet users in Iraq. But the group estimates it could also raise $10 million through domain auctions to worldwide corporations and individuals. For example, members of Mensa International could snap up addresses ending in @high.iq, according to Fitzgerald-O'Connor.
Most Iraqis have been unable to access the Internet since March 31, when cruise missiles hit servers and satellite dishes at the Information Ministry in Baghdad. Repeated strikes on telephone switching centers have also disabled much of the phone service in the city, rendering dial-up modems -- Iraqis' predominant means of connecting to the Internet -- useless. Additionally, the war has knocked out almost all of the websites operated by the Iraqi government and state-controlled media.
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