Hello everyone, This morning attended the briefing call on the thorny ICANN issue of "vertical integration" (VI), a topic that is being reviewed because of the planned roll-out of new gTLDs. At its simplest state, VI is the discussion of ICANN regulations governing the extent to which registries may own and sell domains through registrars. At one level -- the level taking the most discussion right now -- is "who may own what". Much deeper (IMO, from the At-Large perspective) are closely related issues such as (but not limited to): - Under what circumstances may a registry sell domains direct to the public? - What limits exist on how registries may use domain-search information to set prices or reserve names? - Do registrars serve a necessary (and thus mandatory) purpose, or is their role be that of an optional value-added service provider? - To what extend does ICANN have jurisdiction and/or authority to regulate Internet business models? What are its limits? The current debate IMO only skims the surface of most of these issues, concentrating largely on the ownership issues which are most dear to some of the most vocal participants, the contracted parties directly affected by policy change. In my opinion this is an issue that requires At-Large involvement, but we need not be constrained by the same charter given by the GNSO to its current VI working group<https://st.icann.org/vert-integration-pdp/index.cgi?vertical_integration_pdp>(in which there is ALAC participation). I am quite fine with the issue currently falling under the realm of ALAC's new-gTLD Working Group (which I chair) for short term tactics related to the DAG (as suggested at today's meeting), However, I believe that ultimately the issue is larger than that for just gTLDs or just new ones. We have the ability to frame the issues on our own terms and ask the questions we need answered -- how to provide most benefit and least harm to non-speculator registrants (and would-be registrants). Should we even care "who owns who" if the public is well-served? I invite anyone interested in this issue to join the gTLD WG, which looks ready to be the home of two of ICANN's more ... lively ... issues: "vertical integration" and "morality and public order". This looks to be a lively time of year (unusually lively for those in the northern hemisphere). - Evan PS: In addition to materials on the VI website, I also highly recommend Milton Mueller's analysis of the current diversity of positions<http://blog.internetgovernance.org/blog/_archives/2010/7/20/4582700.html>on VI. PPS: I would point you to the actual home page of At-Large's gTLD working group but it looks like it's been hacked<https://st.icann.org/gnso-liaison/index.cgi?new_gtld_policy>. (I wonder what else has been hit?)