[At-Large] [AfrICANN-discuss] ICANN Establishes Forum on Allocation Methods for Single-letter and Single-digit Domain Names

[John L]

>> This wouldn't be the first auction of high value domains
> What cases?  (genuine question, pretty clueless about this!)

I was thinking of .MOBI auctioning off place names and popular words like 
flowers.mobi.  It's not exactly analogous, but it's pretty close, reserved 
names released into registry auctions.

> Does Verisign own the com namespace?

Given the presumptive renewal language in their contract, in practice, 
yes.

>> The reality, of course, is that no matter what the nominal procedure is,
>> there will be auctions.  The only question is who gets the money.
>
> So why not ICANN / a trust fund.  Once technical criteria were met, ORG was 
> assigned on the basis of promised good works.

I think the .ORG transfer was a one time event that is unlikely to be 
repeated.

In any event, IDNs make this a much more complex issue.  What do we do 
with names that consist of a single accented Latin letter?  Single 
Japanese kana?  Single characters of Arabic, Hindi, etc. etc. etc. ? 
It's a swamp on which I'd much rather just pull the plug since I don't see 
much benefit in trying to trickle them out.

R's,
John