I am enraged that - yet again - those who seem closest to ICANN look like creaming off the contracts for the re-delegated .org

As I have explained here
Afilias and ICANN enjoy a close symbiotic relationship which can reasonably be viewed with scepticism, and their track record together includes the farcical .info fiasco

ISOC has long had close connections with various ICANN Directors.

More frustratingly still, the UNITY application - and I should explain that I have no links with them at all - was clearly very strong indeed and would have added much-needed diversity. The strength of their case was clearly identified by the independent assessment of the NCDNHC.

It also saddens me, in an industry rife with rogue registrars and registry cartels who have acted with dubious propriety - that for the .org registry, which deals perhaps more than any other with the non-commercial organisations of the world could have been benevolently governed by UNITY (whose Poptel group was built up on co-operative societies which worked for the community) -

Once again, ICANN has done exactly what most people predicted.

I am amazed at this decision.

Richard Henderson