As a development economist with a particular
concern for “underserved
regions” I have a question about a possible link between ICANN
funding for
underserved regions and the practice, in the past gTLD round, of
Private
Auctions. In simple terms ICANN hands over a valuable property to
a
pre-screened group to engage in a win-win auction where the winner
wins the
gTLD, at a price, and the losers win by sharing in the proceeds of
the Auction.
ICANN received nothing from the process.
I am most familiar with this process when the
asset in
question is some part of an inheritance, and where the
beneficiaries use this
process to decide who within the family gets the asset and others
share in the
proceeds. It also occurs when an asset is donated to a charity
auction, where
the proceeds are for a good cause. The ICANN private auctions look
an awful lot
like the reverse. A not-for-profit turns over a valuable asset to
a private
auction for private gain. I don’t know about the rules governing
ICANN’s
not-for-profit status but in a public company this would verge on
board failure
of fiduciary responsibility, and there would be hell to pay.
Is there not some way that a new round of gTLD
can re-jig the
private auction process so that it feeds funding to efforts to
support
underserved regions, and be less like an asset hand off that could
raise issues
of fiduciary responsibility? This
should certainly precede a suggestion that ICANN, or others, go
hat-in-hand to other possible funding sources to assist
underserved regions. . Charity (and maybe integrity) begins at
home.
Sam Lanfranco, Policy Committee Chair
NPOC
-- ------------------------------------------------ "It is a disgrace to be rich and honoured in an unjust state" -Confucius ------------------------------------------------ Dr Sam Lanfranco (Prof Emeritus & Senior Scholar) Econ, York U., Toronto, Ontario, CANADA - M3J 1P3 email: Lanfran@Yorku.ca Skype: slanfranco blog: http://samlanfranco.blogspot.com Phone: +1 613-476-0429 cell: +1 416-816-2852