[wg-c] reposted for Richard S. Campbell

[Jonathan Weinberg <weinberg@mail.msen.com>]

At part of a study on banking at my agency, I have been looking into the
idea that a top level domain could be used for specific and well defined
purposes other than what I usually think of as  a global TLD.  I haven't
seen any mention of  a managed, or restricted, gTLD.  By this in my instance
I mean a gTLD that would have a membership based on an assigned and verified
certification, in my example, that of a bank, where the certification is
provided by a government regulatory agency. A gTLD of .BNK or .BANK would be
an indication that the entity was chartered and/or insured by the
government.  The notion would be to assure the global community that an
entity was actually a bank, that the site was verifiable and had some
backing to it. 

Now, there are a lot of weaknesses in this idea, not the least of which is
the actual definition of bank, and who would define it.  Nevertheless, the
idea I'd like to ask the list is whether a managed or restricted gTLD is
something ICANN can consider in its definitions of gTLDs or not, what the
various considerations might be, and what the list might think would be a
workable idea.  This is an inititiave entirely on my own, and not that of my
sponsoring agency, I might add. 

I appreciate any thoughts on the subject.   I can be reached at either my
24x7 email at RICHSC@USA.NET or my official address of RCampbell@FDIC.GOV. 


Richard Campbell, R&D Section, FDIC
RCampbell@FDIC.GOV
Virginia Square Rm 6069
Work: 703 516-1135 Fax 703 516-1294
NB: if you need a response after hours please CC me at RICHSC@USA.NET