Hello Milton,

The upshot of your message, Bruce, is that 4 or 5 multi-year studies need to be done before any new TLD process can be put in place. Isn't that it?

No. The process approved by the ICANN Board requires the reports to be complete by the March meeting in Rome, with the new strategy approved by the Board prior to 30 September 2004. Note the following quote from the Board resolution: "Whereas the Board believes the development of this long-term policy should begin immediately in November 2003, with the timing of the presentation of reports and receipt of various inputs to occur between ICANN's October 2003 meeting in Carthage, and March 2004 meeting in Rome." I would expect that the GNSO should aim to start its process prior to March 2004 to ensure that formal constituency input can be provided prior to March 2004. With respect to the specific reports - these are at the request of the ICANN Board, and we would need to seek clarification from the ICANN President and General Counsel if the requests for these reports are unclear. Regards, Bruce