I don't always agree with Lauren (Weinetstein, I mean, not my wife). And I don't agree with the excesses of his conclusions. However, his take is an interesting one worth understanding. I have put forth the premise that the reason for the lack of African and applicant support TLD applications has only a little to do with poor communications. Rather, I suggest that non-speculators have determined they have better uses for $185K (even after an Applicant Support discount is applied) than for a TLD. - Evan ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren@vortex.com> Date: 25 June 2012 05:25 Subject: [ NNSquad ] Casino Owner donates $1M to charity, rather than buying gTLDs To: nnsquad@nnsquad.org Casino Owner donates $1M to charity, rather than buying gTLDs http://j.mp/LUsx5F (Huffington) "An anonymous Las Vegas casino owner has struck again - this time with a $1 million donation to help needy people." - - - The subject line I chose for this posting is purposely somewhat deceptive. There is no direct connection between this charity gift and ICANN. But it is still an *accurate* statement. We have here an example of someone who chose to use a million dollars to help the needy, when he could have used it for anything else -- including buying gTLDs from ICANN. When I saw this story, I couldn't help but be reminded of the 100's of millions of dollars -- approaching half a billion at least, that have been funnelled to ICANN for gTLD submissions, which will mainly serve primarily to enrich the domain-industrial complex -- and lots of affiliated lawyers as well, of course. How else might that vast amount of money have been spent in this time of vast economic want, when so many people don't have basic necessities. Imagine if those funds had been donated to charity, or for other truly community-positive purposes. I don't really blame the corporations that have felt it necessary to participate in the corrupt, conflict of interest ridden, ineptly executed, and ethically vacuous gTLD process. Since the process exists, it could be argued that it would be negligent from a business standpoint not to participate. I do, however, accuse ICANN in its current state of being morally bankrupt to a level that if not criminal, is at the very least bobbling at that threshold. They should be ashamed of themselves. More than that, we should be ashamed of *ourselves* for permitting this gTLD travesty to exist and continue, while so many people need so much real help, and the Internet itself is saddled with so many serious problems relating to control, free speech, censorship, and so much else. We are failing in our stewardship of the Net. Miserably. --Lauren--