Michele, The difference between offering "pre-registration" before a registry contract exists, or has been applied for, or the parties involved in making the determination that the new gTLD program shall progress to implementation, and offering "pre-registration" when there is a contract is significant. Another significant difference is between the efforts of applicant projects to communicate ICANN's current plan of record, and their own plan of record, to the communities for which the eventual legal applicant of record will, in their application, if required by the application evaluation process (and so conditional upon the acts of others) claim support and/or offer services to, and communications by other parties not intending to become the eventual legal applicant of record. As you note, personal views color "pre-registration" and "expressions of interest" as useful terms. My point is not only is the example we have of "pre-registration" problematic, but a similar act, carried out by the NCBA or PunctCat in 2000 or 2004, for .coop and .cat, respectively, is also distinguishable, and less inherently problematic, as these were in the process of obtaining a contract right to create .coop and .cat. Eric