[NA-Discuss] Statement on Pre-Registration: Draft for discussion

Thomas Lowenhaupt toml at communisphere.com
Thu Jun 16 04:39:33 UTC 2011


John,

I'm told there are a good number of good things about the .cat TLD. And 
I believe judgment on its success should be on the positive impact it 
has on the Catalonian community, not number of sales. I'd love to know 
more about the impact it is having.  If 1,000 domain names were 
carefully developed and it created an improved culture and economy, I'd 
judge it huge success.

This more is better thinking is one of the key problems with the ICANN 
world. All the money is in sales. Here in New York City "the experts" on 
TLDs are the companies who will run the computers that manage the names. 
>From what I'm told, the prospective  the registry operators are spending 
millions to acquire the right. They sell themselves as capable of making 
sales. With Standard Model thinking, the more sales the more they make.

We ask how many city planners are on the staffs of Verisign and NeuStar?

 >If there were a baby in with the bilge, we'd have seen or more likely 
smelled it by now.

There is a promising baby in the bilge. Please take another look 
(especially at the "Responsibility and Respect for Stakeholders" clause 
in the NTIA's draft statement of work), and think positively.

If city-TLDs are going to work, they need the support of the At Large folks.

Best,

Tom Lowenhaupt


On 6/15/2011 10:42 PM, John R. Levine wrote:
>> You say there's no possible way, no matter how carefully a city-TLD 
>> is developed, that it will assist the residents and organization of a 
>> city. That there are no lessons to be learned from. That all hope is 
>> lost.
>
> I think there are plenty of things one can do to improve the life of a 
> city, but squandering hundreds of thousands of dollars on a vaniity TLD
> is not one of them.
>
>> That's why I'm hear asking for lessons from positive experiences. Are 
>> you saying you can't find a single one. None?
>
> There's .CAT, which has a rather unique set of historic, political, 
> and geographic circumstances that is unlikely to be repeated anywhere 
> else. Even there, it's at best a modest alternative to .es, and has 
> seen considerably less use than .CH or .HK, each of which covers a 
> population similar to Catalonia's.
>
>>> This is the wrong place to look for naifs who are foolish enough to 
>>> imagine that that new TLDs are anything other than a speculative 
>>> money grab.
>>
>> Are you absolutely certain you're not throwing the baby out with the 
>> bath water?
>
> If there were a baby in with the bilge, we'd have seen or more likely 
> smelled it by now.
>
> By the way, is anyone here other than me the registry for an actual 
> existing municipal or county domain?
>
> R's,
> John
>
>
>



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