Re: [wg-c] IMPORTANT: CONSENSUS CALL

["Ross Wm. Rader" <ross@tucows.com>]

On Tue, 14 Dec 1999, Elisabeth Porteneuve wrote:

Elizabeth, 

While I appreciate the sentiment behind your proposal, and in fact would
support the principles behind it, there are a few flaws with it that I
think are important to point out.

> 
> I believe that at the end of such an experiment we may know better,
> every one of us, how a new gTLD may work in today conditions.
> What worries me is that all discussions about new gTLDs reference
> the past -- the beggining of the comercial Internet deployement,
> and it *was* slow in 1993-4 comparing to what we observe today.

Deploying a new gTLD without the intent of throwing it away will well
accomplish the same goals.

> 
> Bottom line - each interested group will be able to mesure the impact
> of such a new gTLD to its interests, and feel safe because this
> prototype will be never used, but will help to understand and
> calibrate the system for the real new gTLDs to come.

With the exception of the registrar constituency who will be bearing the
primary risk in your proposal. We will be able to measure the impact of
this deployment before it happens, and I can unequivocally state that it
will be negative. There is no economic incentive for us to participate,
yet we will be required to make the primary investment required to build
the sales channel, technology and support mechanisms to make it work.
Thanks for the opportunity, but I would rather make the same investment in
marketing .com names and take my chances with the competition.



> As a side effect of the Internet Marathon we may substantially
> increase the participation in the ICANN/DNSO process, and find
> new At-large members.

Which would be the only real positive effect as far as I can see - which
is also definitely outside of the scope of focus of this working group.

There are enough real examples for everyone involved to use as a basis for
projections. We must sooner or later all face the reality that the time
for action is upon us - let's better use our resources and create an
iterative process that will allow us to fine-tune the mechanism of a
real-tld(s) in a real market.


Thanks,

Ross Wm. Rader
Director, Assigned Names Division
TUCOWS.com Inc.
ross@tucows.com
t. (416) 239-9095 x 335
f. (416) 239-8409

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