Folks, In the first 30 minutes of the call Kurt called attention to the impact of the business continuity plan had on the budget -- hardware, software and so foth. That set off alarm bells for me. In the {info|biz|name|coop|museum|aero|pro} bidding cycle, ICANN's staff (chiefly Louie) wrote technical expectations into the registry pro forma that were very, very expensive to the winning bidders. In the .org rebid this was repeated. In the current round this is still the case, though the experience with .museum (and quite a few ccTLDs) makes it obvious that a registry can function on a shoe-string. I'm concerned first that ICANN's BCP isn't costed as a line item, that it has been bundled into a bunch of cost centers. To paraphrase Kurt, it is "wicked big, but we don't know how big it is." I'm concerned second that ICANN's gold-plate-with-other-people's-money culture is may be present in this, as it has been over the past four years of registry technical requirements. I imagine that ICANN's BCP should resemble the BCP for any business of a similar size -- get 50 seats operational within some few days, with all 24/7 function (servers) alredy colo'd and replicated as part of a seperate 24/7 operational plan. Does anyone see ICANN as something more complex and recovery time-critical than some lawyers, accountants, sales reps, and a bunch of admins? I don't, so if I'm missing something, please let me know. The expense of the BCP should have, no MUST HAVE, a rational relation to the value of the expected down-time. The IETF is responsible for the IANA function, and I'm writing the current Chair (Haral Alvestrand) to determin if there is a BCP requirement in the contract or side-agreements to manage the IANA function, and if so, the details of the(se) contractual requirement(s), if any. For those of you on yesterday's call, Kurt's musing that the cost of the BCP includes replication of the L.ROOT-SERVERS.NET and the IANA compters is not credible, which is why I cut him off when he started running down an litany of high-profile items. The cost of this activity must be known, and the necessity and utility issues considered in the full light of day. Eric