Re: [wg-c] straw vote -- question one results & call for votes on

[John Charles Broomfield <jbroom@manta.outremer.com>]

> > I do
> > believe that the tender should be re-bid on a periodic period
> > (much like
> > what should happen with com/net/org which was a 5 year
> > contract, despite
> > NSI claiming the contrary).
> 
> I've said it before and I'll keep saying it. There ain't nobody that's
> going to run a business with a five-year guaranteed out-of-business
> limit. I certainly wouldn't trust the outfit that was stupid enough to
> do it and no VC group would be dumb enough to trust them with the real
> CASH it takes to start a registry.

A re-tender is not a 5 year out of business limit. It is just a condition
that says that after X time, we will go shopping AGAIN. The company that
won the initial bid the first time, did so (presumably) because it offered
better conditions than the rest of them. They should not be allowed to get
sloppy (or barely acceptable). That is precisely the protection that
re-tendering offers. A protection that can be had by no other means.

Everybody actually does it all the time... You are "re-tendering" your
telephone long distance calls on a daily basis (if a company offers you a
better price/service tomorrow, you might take it up), You continue to
purchase service from everywhere (haircuts, groceries, cars, whatever) by
doing an evaluation of if the service you are getting is worth it or not,
and if you are pointed towards somewhere better (cheaper, more reliable,
free ice-cream on Sundays, whatever), then you may change...
The fact that the local telco doesn't have a contract to give you services
until the end of time (meaning that you can't get those services from
another telco) leads you to think they are stupid?
As far as CASH that it takes to start a registry... Well, if we're talking
about a back-end database, then it's a low staff, low CPU type operation.
You have a perfect example with nominet.
If you push for a tender under a 3 or 5 year plan, you are taking into
account the possibility that you will not re-win the tender, so generally in
your business plan you will seek to amortize your equipment anyway.
Apart from the fact that anything as far as computers & software that you
put up front TODAY is probably going to be worthless in 5 years time anyway!
It's more the running costs of staffing, connectivity, rent, electricity,
whatever, that will be your heavy burden rather than the infrastructure you
invest at the start, and the running cost will be more than offest by what
you are charging/getting paid for those services (otherwise you'd be running
at a loss).

Yours, John Broomfield.