[governance] Where are we going?

[Louis Pouzin]

Dear all,

There is no need to quote a specific posting, as all arguments have already been stated repeatedly, and with apparently strong rationale.

AFAIK, in the US, the land of freedom of speech, not every character string is allowed on car plates. Partially for technical reasons, e.g. too long, but also for other non technical reasons. What are the criteria for rejecting some character strings, and how are decisions made ?

Creating a new TLD necessarily requires some filtering, if only because it should not conflict with an existing one. There are already hundreds of non ICANN TLD's, among which EROTIC, EROTICA, FUCK, PORNO, SEX, X. Putting one more in the ICANN space would not be a scoop. Of course, we know that's not the issue.

The issue is a matter of procedure: how is filtering organized ? So far, non ICANN TLD's result seemingly from gentleman agreement, unlikely a long term arrangement. ICANN TLD's result from obscure wranglings within a US controlled body, which claims to apply principles and procedures but doesn't.

As long as ICANN remains what it is, that is a VATICANN, there can't be any procedure acceptable by the non US world. It is nonsense to put under the same authority the management of TLD labels, and root oversight. TLD labels are worldwide unique strings sets like phone numbers, radio stations, airline and airport tags, etc. Root issues pertain to operational systems, for which there is a multiplicity of solutions and management.

TLD labels semantics are a component of their commercial, cultural, or whatever value. So be it.  They could be handled as an instance of international standard. And why not within ISO ? The structure is open to all stakeholders. There are voting procedures, ample time for comments, and, while not necessarily perfect, ISO standards are rarely challenged by pressure groups..

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