Colleagues

I would like to put an idea on the back burner, i.e., not to be discussed or dealt with here. It is getting increasingly difficult not to know that there is considerable discussion around the planned ISOC sale of PIR, the registry for .org, to a private entity. This is not the place for any of that discussion. However, the potential outcomes raise some possibilities that could impact on the Mechanism that gets selected for the new gTLD auction proceeds.

It has long been felt that the gTLD universe needs one or more registry homes that reflect the public interest. The last gTLD round made some accommodations for proposals in that area but none survived the process. Until now the ISOC ownership of PIR, the .org registry, more or less satisfied that interest. Whatever the outcome of the current .org saga, there is likely to be pressure for a non-profit registry handling .org, or an appropriately named new gTLD with a public interest mission.

Within this working group’s dialogue, we have taken the position that any of the three Mechanisms under consideration would have a finite life, terminating once the auction proceeds are exhausted. I have supported that position, in part because the economist in me says that new gTLDs have reached seriously diminishing marginal returns, and because newer social media platforms allow search and discovery without requiring domain names.

However, whatever new gTLD auction proceeds Mechanism materializes, it involves building capacity to administer a grant making process. It is worth noting that if the .org registry needed a new home or especially if a new public interest gTLD were to be created, an option would be to create the registry out of the selected Mechanism, an entity that would have considerable expertise and hit the ground running.

Just food for future thought.  

Sam Lanfranco