[At-Large] Updates to New gTLD Program Implementation and auctioning model.

[Alan Greenberg]

At 10/08/2008 07:27 PM, Bret Fausett wrote:
>On Aug 10, 2008, at 2:20 PM, Alan Greenberg wrote:
> > Using an auction to resolve the conflict does indeed mean that .web
> > will not likely go to a small not-for-profit organization. If that is
> > your concern, then in my mind, you are being somewhat unrealistic.
>
>I was on the Council when this first came up, and the concern I heard
>from the ALAC then was about regionalism, rather than "non-profits" v.
>"for profits." I don't know that we care which among many U.S.
>corporate entities wins the battle for the next big ASCII TLD gold mine.
>
>The ALAC concern, as I understood it, was about whether a foreign
>registry services provider ought to win the bid for the IDN versions
>of COM/NET/ORG over a competitor in the region in which the language
>is spoken. At bottom, it's a debate about free trade v. regional
>protectionism, a subject on which the nations of the world have
>significantly different positions.
>
>Auctions will produce results that do not account for territories. I
>understand the view that this is a good thing. But, I have to wonder
>whether it is politically tenable for ICANN to award .COM in Arabic
>or .NET in Chinese to a U.S.-based registry?
>
>        -- Bret

And that is indeed a good reason to consider at least a partial 
subjective evaluation (or criteria if we could come up with them). 
The question is whether we could do in a sufficiently transparent, 
fair (whatever that may mean to the various players) and timely manner.

The report does give a token thought to regionalism, in that it 
suggests that it may be possible to uplift bids by some percentage if 
they come from less developed areas. I find it hard to think that 
this would really impact the outcome (other than by perhaps driving 
the cost up a bit).

Alan