As I've mentioned on recent BC member calls, John Berard and I are on a Working Group looking at definitions and metrics for Consumer Trust, Choice, and Competition in the gTLD expansion.  

I've just circulated the 6th draft of "Advice" on the definitions and measures. (attached)

21-Feb is our last call before ICANN posts this draft advice for community review and comment.  It will also be widely discussed in Costa Rica.  So please send your edit suggestions  to John and I before this weekend.

You'll see changes to Consumer Choice measures, plus a row I added for IDN and non-English choices at Registrars — not just at Registries.

We made multiple changes to measures for Competition, including the controversial step of suggesting targets for "defensive registrations"  and "new entrants".   Let's consider these carefully… 

And I added appendix B to show the note from ICANN legal department on collecting prices.   Below that note, I added this:
Note: While this legal concern is appreciated, the Working Group notes that none of the measures suggested in this draft advice document would require ICANN to issue any recommendations for how registrars and registries price their domain names.

Regards,
Steve

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Steve DelBianco
Executive Director
NetChoice
+1.202.420.7482