I personally think At-Large should continue to support retaining and improving the Applicant Support Program. - I share the opinions of Olivier and others in seeing a remote link to end users by way of assembly via an online community under a new gTLD -- we potentially have a (community) applicant which met the ASP requirements -- the not-for-profit DotKids Foundation -- although they haven't gotten to the finish line simply off the back of ASP. - For me, it's more about making a viable opportunity and (even if small) an incentive available for a potential applicant to support underserved regions/communities than shutting down such opportunity for a "lack of demand". "The lack of demand" can be due to many reasons, some of which may not be easily overcome (like infrastructural reasons) but also others which could be overcome with more education and support. - None of the other stakeholders groups are opposed to retaining the ASP but there is pushback on what financial support should be made available to an ASP applicant beyond a subsidy/reduction in application fees. (Other forms of non-financial support exist through the Pro Bono Services for gTLD Startup Registries) If we get to a position of more folks opting to not support ASP going forward, then we should just cease pressing for ASP, but not ask for it to be scraped. Just digressing, if we do get to a point where we choose to not support ASP going forward, then would our "position" be the same with Community Applications? Justine ----- On Wed, 7 Aug 2019 at 11:35, Maureen Hilyard <maureen.hilyard@gmail.com> wrote:
Thanks Holly
I think yes new gtlds will no doubt benefit underserved regions eventually - when they ever get the opportunity to use and experience what the Internet has to offer. But there is no urgency when underserved communities are being targeted for support especially when they do not have the wherewithal to do anything with it. There is a lot more focused outreach by ICANN required before they can even attempt such a venture. Just giving them money to help put a proposal forward is like throwing it into a furnace. Do you know how much donor money goes down the drain on unsuccessful and unfinished development projects?? But governments are in charge there. Successes, usually by passionate and committed individuals, are rare
But that is not saying that there were no groups from underserved regions who did not already attempt, albeit in vain, to get past the portals of acceptance in the last round. We already came across them in an earlier SubPro study. They may try again with a little help if there is a new round, but they will be better armed after their previous harrowing experience. They weren't from the Pacific.
On Tue, 6 Aug 2019, 3:57 PM Holly Raiche, <h.raiche@internode.on.net> wrote:
Thanks Maureen
That clarifies a lot in this debate.
First - noting Evan’s point - are new GTLDs of benefit anyway.
And if the answer is yes, then benefit to whom, and if to end users, then what support (education, finances, etc) would help - or not.
As Olivier said, this is a big debate.
Holly
On Aug 7, 2019, at 11:45 AM, Maureen Hilyard <maureen.hilyard@gmail.com> wrote:
Underserved regions - particularly small islands developing states in the Pacific - are going to be a long-time coming to be truly ready for a new round of gTLDs regardless of how much support they may be offered. At the moment, readiness overall is lacking when the cost of the internet is so expensive, despite competition already on some of the larger island countries. But domain use is not promoted and geonames would not be an issue, because they are currently so unaware of what geonames are.
Expertise in "Registries, Registrars and Registrants 101" is difficult to ascertain in a region such as the Pacific when there are very few active participants in ICANN despite the opportunities offered to them through ICANN Fellowships. Many return home and do what they can in their communities, but they are not the ones with the decision-making influence to make the changes required to insist that there are more people trained to take Internet and domain growth to another level. They are too far behind the eight-ball to even be contemplating new gTLDs.
And at the same time, from the perspective of our regional NGO - PICISOC - and the individual ALSes that are in only a few of the island countries - attempting to do outreach when face to face is too expensive and online training programmes are not going to reach those that really need it. On the ground, many of them are still just trying to get affordable access. For them that is the priority so that privacy and cybersecurity issues that worry the rest of the world today are absolutely meaningless to end-users who don't know what we are talking about.
If governments are pushing for development, there is usually some political gain as the underlying goal. Many see it as a cash cow - lots of people wanting to use the Internet and willing to pay whatever is required, to get access to speedy and quality broadband. But there have been no promises on our island that when we get the cable connected mid-2020 that we will get faster affordable access. However, with the potential of Internet by cable from one company and by satellite from another, this does finally offer some competition - and a major factor in the development of Internet opportunities for those with entrepreneurial know-how. But we still have a long way to go.
On Tue, 6 Aug 2019, 2:06 PM Holly Raiche, <h.raiche@internode.on.net> wrote:
Thanks Olivier
A really good summary of where we got to in what is a difficult issue.
My take: maybe we should think more broadly about what we mean by ‘support’. I think where we got to is that monetary support for the application only is a good thing, but not sufficient. Part of the larger issue was an outreach program - just to inform about what new gTLDs are, etc, and what help - for the application fee - is available. Any perhaps the ‘support' should widen - both in information available, but in a serious look at the applicants - and whether they are equipped to support a new gTLD.
Next question, of course, is where the monetary support would come from, and circumstances in which it would make sense to provide it. (so maybe support could be available but on stringent terms to those most likely to successfully support a new gTLD?
All up for debate
Holly
On Aug 7, 2019, at 7:36 AM, Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond <ocl@gih.com> wrote:
Dear colleagues,
on last week's CPWG call, a particularly vigorous discussion started regarding gTLD subsequent procedures, with a particular focus on applicant support.
The ALAC has been on record in the past round as fully supporting the concept and implementation of an Applicant Support program for applicants that might not otherwise have the funding capability to pay the hefty application fee required when filing an application for a new gTLD.
For your information, please be so kind to find a few Statements from the ALAC about Applicant Support:
Publish Date
1. Title 2. 31 Jul 2014
Report: Supporting the Domain Name Industry in Underserved Regions <https://atlarge.icann.org/advice_statements/6711>
Topic(s): *Contracted Party Agreements <https://atlarge.icann.org/topics/contracted-party-agreements>, Engagement <https://atlarge.icann.org/topics/engagement>, New gTLDs <https://atlarge.icann.org/topics/new-gtlds>, Reviews/Improvements <https://atlarge.icann.org/topics/reviews-improvements>* 3. 10 Jan 2012
New gTLD Applicant Support Program: Financial Assistance <https://atlarge.icann.org/advice_statements/8041>
Topic(s): *Engagement <https://atlarge.icann.org/topics/engagement>, New gTLDs <https://atlarge.icann.org/topics/new-gtlds>, Operations/Finances <https://atlarge.icann.org/topics/operations-finances>* 4. 20 Dec 2011
ALAC Statement on the Preliminary Support Implementation Program <https://atlarge.icann.org/advice_statements/8071>
Topic(s): *Engagement <https://atlarge.icann.org/topics/engagement>, New gTLDs <https://atlarge.icann.org/topics/new-gtlds>, Operations/Finances <https://atlarge.icann.org/topics/operations-finances>* 5. 4 Aug 2011
GAC/ALAC Statement on Applicant Support <https://atlarge.icann.org/advice_statements/8261>
Topic(s): *Engagement <https://atlarge.icann.org/topics/engagement>, New gTLDs <https://atlarge.icann.org/topics/new-gtlds>, Operations/Finances <https://atlarge.icann.org/topics/operations-finances>* 6. 7 Dec 2010
Cartagena Statement of the African ICANN community about the Support for new gTLD applicants <https://atlarge.icann.org/advice_statements/8581>
Topic(s): *Engagement <https://atlarge.icann.org/topics/engagement>, New gTLDs <https://atlarge.icann.org/topics/new-gtlds>* 7. 24 Jun 2010
African ICANN Community Publishes Statement on Support for New gTLD Applicants <https://atlarge.icann.org/advice_statements/8711>
Topic(s): *Engagement <https://atlarge.icann.org/topics/engagement>, New gTLDs <https://atlarge.icann.org/topics/new-gtlds>, Operations/Finances <https://atlarge.icann.org/topics/operations-finances>*
On last week's call -- see https://community.icann.org/x/a7KjBg we heard several calls for changing this long standing ALAC line and whilst some opposed changing the At-Large position, there was also significant support for changing it.
In short, the argument that was developed against Applicant Support was that the financial support proposed to applicants only covered the application fee that was only a small subset of the costs of running a gTLD - so one could argue that applicants risk being set-up to fail. Second, there was concern that there were so few applications for applicant support in the previous ground and thirdly, the guidelines for accepting support applications were so tight to reduce the possibility of gaming, that they were unachievable.
I recommend that you read the appropriate transcript that is linked from the agenda on https://community.icann.org/x/a7KjBg -- but I would urge those who developed their points, in favour of continuing the ALAC view to improve applicant support and those in favour of scrapping Applicant Support, to make their points known here. My paraphrased summary definitely doesn't do justice to all of the points that were put across during the call so I apologise if I have not gotten its interpretation all correct.
The conversation was just too large and too fundamental for the small amount of time we had available on the call.
Kindest regards,
Olivier _______________________________________________ CPWG mailing list CPWG@icann.org https://mm.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/cpwg
_______________________________________________ By submitting your personal data, you consent to the processing of your personal data for purposes of subscribing to this mailing list accordance with the ICANN Privacy Policy (https://www.icann.org/privacy/policy) and the website Terms of Service (https://www.icann.org/privacy/tos). You can visit the Mailman link above to change your membership status or configuration, including unsubscribing, setting digest-style delivery or disabling delivery altogether (e.g., for a vacation), and so on._______________________________________________ registration-issues-wg mailing list registration-issues-wg@atlarge-lists.icann.org https://mm.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/registration-issues-wg
_______________________________________________ By submitting your personal data, you consent to the processing of your personal data for purposes of subscribing to this mailing list accordance with the ICANN Privacy Policy (https://www.icann.org/privacy/policy) and the website Terms of Service (https://www.icann.org/privacy/tos). You can visit the Mailman link above to change your membership status or configuration, including unsubscribing, setting digest-style delivery or disabling delivery altogether (e.g., for a vacation), and so on.
_______________________________________________ CPWG mailing list CPWG@icann.org https://mm.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/cpwg
_______________________________________________ By submitting your personal data, you consent to the processing of your personal data for purposes of subscribing to this mailing list accordance with the ICANN Privacy Policy (https://www.icann.org/privacy/policy) and the website Terms of Service (https://www.icann.org/privacy/tos). You can visit the Mailman link above to change your membership status or configuration, including unsubscribing, setting digest-style delivery or disabling delivery altogether (e.g., for a vacation), and so on.
_______________________________________________ CPWG mailing list CPWG@icann.org https://mm.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/cpwg
_______________________________________________ By submitting your personal data, you consent to the processing of your personal data for purposes of subscribing to this mailing list accordance with the ICANN Privacy Policy (https://www.icann.org/privacy/policy) and the website Terms of Service (https://www.icann.org/privacy/tos). You can visit the Mailman link above to change your membership status or configuration, including unsubscribing, setting digest-style delivery or disabling delivery altogether (e.g., for a vacation), and so on.