[At-Large] New gTLDs

[Vittorio Bertola]

John L ha scritto:
>> It is my opinion that we need to dedicate some more thought on this matter
>> BEFORE, rather than AFTER introducing new TLDs.
> 
> I'm with you.  Of the new gTLDs, the only ones that have succeeded so far 
> are .BIZ and .INFO, because they're clones of .COM.  Maybe you could call 
> .NAME a success with about 200,000 names.  I think .MOBI is likely to 
> succeed because it's going to be put in front of a whole lot of mobile 
> phone users.  Other than that, they're all gathering dust.  On the other 

It depends on how you measure success. .CAT only has 20'000 names, yet 
it is a success. No doubt - just ask anyone in Barcelona. I think that 
we should stop measuring the success of TLDs in terms of sheer number of 
registrations, as there's much more attached to that. If you like, I'd 
propose - in qualitative terms - the product of the number of 
registrations by how much registrants feel attached to or identify with 
the domain: that'd already be better. Given that you can have at least 
several thousands of TLDs, if you only have a few thousands of 
registrants but that TLD really makes a difference to them in emotional 
or symbolic terms, why not?

In any case, I have started to write down what I would like to see as 
principles and values to guide the introduction of new TLDs. If we all 
do the same, we might come up with a common statement. I already 
solicited a statement from the Committee several times, because the 
issue will certainly come up in Board discussion in the next weeks; so I 
would suggest that someone takes the lead on this, and we start up yet 
another consultation and working group.
-- 
vb.                   Vittorio Bertola - vb [a] bertola.eu   <--------
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