Chris and all, Good point, good argument, and your conclusion is of course spot on. But Chris, some of these folks are dreamers. As such they seek the good nature of capitalists to support their rice/begging bowl of demands or desires. That's of course not how raw Capitalism works, and never has been. ICANN is gluten for more money as having more money equates to more power and influence. Remember, as I am sure you do, influence is always for sale, but rarely for free. This ALAC proposal is so weak as to be pitiful. The IPC and BC will see it in a New York second. Only DOC/NTIA can nix the ICANN new gTLD auction implimentation proposal. IMO and the opinion of our members, they should do so. But I doubt that they will. NameCritic wrote:

I like your thoughts about the funds going into an account to assist those that cannot afford the high price ICANN wants for the creation of a new TLD. How would you suggest the playing field be equal in terms of small business owners vs. large corporations? Auctions favor the larger corporation or anyone with more money. That has never been an equitable solution. Do you believe that those who created TLDs in other roots with the intention of being added to the ICANN root should have no preference given to them? With domain names, first come, first serve was always the accepted method. The new ICANN gTLD process ignores those who have already shown their intentions, many for several years, in favor of whoever can pay the most money. You really think this is fair?

Chris McElroy

----- Original Message ----- From: "Alan Greenberg" <alan.greenberg@mcgill.ca> To: <at-large@atlarge-lists.icann.org> Sent: Sunday, August 10, 2008 5:20 PM Subject: Re: [At-Large] Updates to New gTLD Program Implementation and auctioning model.

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Patrick and Hong, I find your comments a strong over-reaction.

The issue that is being discussed is how to handle the situation of multiple people applying for the same TLD, and they cannot come to an agreement amongst themselves. Classic examples are ".web" and ".mail" but there are plenty of other examples.

The paper discusses the various ways of addressing such conflicts, and comes to the conclusion that auctions are probably the preferable path. If you disagree with this, that is fine. The only seeming practical alternative is a subjective analysis of which is the best for the overall good of the Internet or the communities or whatever (the so-called beauty contest). I find that alternative far too fraught with potential problems, but if that is what you favour, it would be interesting to hear how you think it can be done properly.

Using an auction to resolve the conflict does indeed mean that .web will not likely go to a small not-for-profit organization. If that is your concern, then in my mind, you are being somewhat unrealistic.

On the positive side, the possible auctions of these relatively few high-profile TLDs will likely bring in a LOT of money. It has repeatedly been suggested that this wind-fall profit not be simply wrapped into ICANN general funds, or even used to offset the costs of offering new gTLDs. But rather it be used to (with appropriate caution) make it less expensive and less onerous for not-for-profits, cultural communities and developing countries folks to acquire new gTLDs.

Now THAT is something that I think At-Large should make a strong statement about.

Alan

At 09/08/2008 06:03 PM, Hong Xue wrote:

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Thanks for drawing our attention on this paper. Given that the new gTLD process embraces the IDN TLDs, the paper presents a very surprising, or shocking view, on allocation of TLDs. If the paper is primarily on the economic consideration, I wonder if the ICANN has any other consideration, such as protecting cultural diversity and bridging digital divide, on selection of new gTLDs (IDN gTLDs). As a governing body of a critical Internet resources, ICANN should envisage the values that are more important and fundamental than the highest bidding amount. I echo what has been precisely stated by Vittorio:

Another wrong assumption is that monetary value is the only quantity that counts.In fact, personally I think that the "value" of a TLD is mostly connected to other factors. For example, one is how many final users of the Internet will ever use services located inside that TLD; another one is how strongly these people will feel attached to that TLD, i.e. whether the TLD contributes to build any kind of "community identity" for an online group of people that presently does not have it; a third one is whether the new TLD will spawn innovative uses of the DNS or enable innovative services. None of these is directly connected to monetary value, and it is quite disturbing to me that an organization like ICANN, which is meant to steward scarce global public resources in the interest of the entire community of the Internet, still seems to have such a partial and narrow view of where the value of the Internet itself lies. Hong

On Sat, Aug 9, 2008 at 11:14 PM, Patrick Vande Walle <patrick@vande-walle.eu

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wrote:

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http://icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-08aug08-en.htm

ICANN has published a paper from its contractor PowerAuctions LLC, regarding the use of auctions to award new TLD strings in case of contention.

http://icann.org/en/topics/economic-case-auctions-08aug08-en.pdf

I think it would be important that the At Large speaks up. The model proposed in the document is a purely capitalistic one. It is based on the assumption that all gTLDs are created to make as much money as possible. Smaller, community based TLDs seem quite difficult to launch in such context.

The mere possibility of auctions will actually generate contention on some strings. The little guys wishing to establish a not-for-profit TLD will be outplayed by the wealthy ones.

A public forum has been established at http://forum.icann.org/lists/auction-consultation/. Comments to auction-consultation@icann.org before 8 September 2008.

-- Patrick Vande Walle

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