Susan Crawford is interested in knowing who might be interested in operating a TLD.
She's among the best of ICANN's board members, and I'm glad she asked. Although my own belief is that she asked the wrong question - rather than asking "how many" I think Susan, and ICANN, should be asking why they erected and sustain a system that establishes ICANN as the once-and-final arbiter of who may, and who may not, enter the domain name marketplace.
Here is my response:
In answer to your question: I plan on doing a TLD.
But I'm not going to pay ICANN one damn cent for it.
I have a right to engage in business. ICANN has no right to deny me the opportunity to succeed or fail on my own merits.
There is utter destitution in the idea that ICANN is somehow protecting the technical stability of the internet - the ability of the internet to move packets from IP address to IP address and to resolve domain name queries with dispatch and accuracy.
All ICANN is doing is being a guild that limits its membership to those who will pay ICANN's tithe and limit their imaginations to ICANN's retrospective notions of what the internet is or can become.
Here's my business plan -- The .ewe Business Model - or - It's Just .Ewe and Me, .Kid(s)
ICANN's only legitimate role is to ask whether I'll abide by internet technical standards. And to that I say "yes". But I won't agree to ICANN's social engineering such as mandatory publication of my customer list, such as forcing my customers into the UDRP kangaroo-court ad hoc system of justice-for-just-us that favors trademarks over other rights to use names, or forcing my customers to other arbitrary and technically absurd rules, such as limiting registrations to one to ten year periods in one year increments.
ICANN's idea of reviewing TLDs is like the FAA asking airlines what brand of soda they serve while ignoring the ability of the airline to fly safely.
Posted by karl at March 16, 2006 12:48 AM