Colleagues, Following Tom Lowenhaupt’s idea of introductions I will introduce myself beyond what is in my ICANN SOI: https://community.icann.org/display/gnsosoi/Sam+Lanfranco+SOI I am a development economist with a third of a century of experience in ICT4D and, as an educator, a particular interest in capturing lessons learned, especially in light of the persistent failure to learn as exhibited by economic development initiatives around the world, and the shortcomings of monitoring and evaluation for many undertakings. Each of us probably has specific aspects of the recent new gTLD round where we see lessons to be learned. Beyond that my focus will be on two parts. The first, drawing on work I did with the UN Development Programme’s effort to capture lessons learned, is to (in my head at least) organize lessons learned into a simple 2x2 matrix consisting of the degree of generalization of lessons (general, specific) and their context applicability (general, specific). That is useful when turning to the use of lessons learned in practice. The second focus is to guard against looking for specific lessons learned as a "Poster Child" for the great successes or failures of the first new gTLD effort. It is more productive to consider this as learning lessons for future use, and not, in the first instance, as an overall assessment of the first gTLD round. While the two activities are related, they are distinct with respect to intent. Sam Lanfranco -- ------------------------------------------------ "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