RE: [wg-review] Clarifications requested from BoD, Staff, NC,TC,Chair prior to co-Chair elections

["Judith Oppenheimer" <joppenheimer@icbtollfree.com>]

The SBA appears comfortable with NSI's statistics, per

"U.S. SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
WASHINGTON, D.C  20416,
Office of the Chief Counsel for Advocacy,
January 10, 2000

Comments of the Office of Advocacy
U.S. Small Business Administration
On the WG-C Interim Report

Small businesses are a crucial element to the growth of the U.S. economy.
Their dependence on and involvement with the Internet is essential to its
growth.  In 1998, there were 23 million small businesses in the United
States, which represents more than 99 percent of all employers in this
country.  Small businesses employ 52 percent of private workers and employ
38 percent of private workers in high-tech occupations.  Virtually all of
the net new jobs in the United States were created by small businesses.

Small businesses use of the Internet is rapidly expanding.  In the past two
years, the number of small businesses with access to the Internet has
doubled from 21.5 percent to 41.2 percent.  Thirty-five percent of small
businesses maintain a Web site and one in three do business transactions
through their site.  Additionally, according to statistics received from
Network Solutions’ registrar service (“NSI”), more than 80 percent of
registrations through NSI in .com, .net, and .org is by small businesses
with less than 500 employees.  Another 10 percent of NSI’s registrations is
by individuals for personal or business use.  Based upon the number of NSI’
s registrations in December 1999, small businesses have registered more
than 5 million domain names.  Any policy that detrimentally affects the
ability of these small businesses to use the Internet would have a
significant impact on this nation’s economy and limit the effectiveness of
the Internet as a tool of business and commerce.  This impact is recognized
by Vice President Al Gore, who said that one of the primary policy
challenges for the past year has been “the recognition that small and
medium-sized enterprises, and their rapid adoption of e-commerce, are
crucial to our continued economic success.” Towards Digital eQuality, U.S.
Government Working Group on Electronic Commerce, 2nd Ann. Rep. (1999),
Forward, at ii  (Statement of Vice President Al Gore)."
**********

The first paragraph above as well as the second offer compelling reasons
why small business as well as individuals, who comprise both business and
consumer interests, should be an integral if not a weighted force, in
domain name governance.  The regrettable realities of corporate
gamesmanship aside, its a logical proposition.

Judith

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> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-wg-review@dnso.org [mailto:owner-wg-review@dnso.org]On
> Behalf Of Eric Dierker
> Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2001 8:14 PM
> To: Roeland Meyer
> Cc: Judith Oppenheimer; wg-review@dnso.org
> Subject: Re: [wg-review] Clarifications requested from BoD, Staff,
> NC,TC,Chair prior to co-Chair elections
>
>
> Well then, are we proposing a constitiuency which will make
> up only a very small
> percentage of internet users?  Or shall we propose a small
> business & individual
> constitiuency? You should be aware that I am having a real
> hard time not jumping
> all over the issue of the veracity of these numbers, as
> prepared by NSI.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Roeland Meyer wrote:
>
> > > From: Eric Dierker [mailto:ERIC@HI-TEK.COM]
> > > Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2001 3:42 PM
> > > To: Judith Oppenheimer
> > > Cc: wg-review@dnso.org
> > > Subject: Re: [wg-review] Clarifications requested from
> BoD, Staff, NC,
> > > TC,Chair prior to co-Chair elections
> > >
> > >
> > > I apologize for the mistake, although on further review it
> > > may be a combination
> > > of the 75.5% and the 14.2% or 89.9%.  I wonder about this
> > > though, as most 1-4
> > > employee businesses are sole proprietors, and the name would
> > > be held by
> > > individuals anyhow. I speculate that only about 10% of the
> > > names are actually
> > > in use. This is not for argument but just for clarity of
> > > thought, and my
> > > thought is only rough.
> >
> > Not true, in the US. Because of the 1986 Tax Reform Act
> (enacted in Jan87),
> > no computer professional can operate via a
> sole-proprietorship. It gets much
> > more complex than that, but that's the gist. When that code
> passed, 2.5M
> > sole-properietors were put out of business (me, being one
> of them, Computer
> > Linguistics, Huntington Beach, CA). The only way to do Hi-Tech
> > contracting/consulting, in the US, is under corporate
> umbrella, where one is
> > either a principle, or a W-2 employee.
> >
> > Ergo, I'd bet that a relatively small number are
> sole-proprietorships and a
> > somewhat larger number are LLCs or sub-S corps.
> >
> > You may find counter-examples of this, but I'll bet their
> clients don't know
> > what sort of IRS risks they're taking. All contracting
> agents (Hicks, XXCAL,
> > Rennesance, Spherion, etc) require incorporation, liability
> insurance, etc,
> > before letting out direct contracts. Otherwise, you become their W-2
> > employee. There is no option for sole-proprietorships.
>

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