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Everything you say is correct Richard, and well said. But I can't help feeling a little sad that you are knocking yourself out to do this when nothing will come of it (as nothing has to date). ICANN's new [icannwatch.org] lease on life (which has received surprisingly scant coverage, negative or otherwise) means that they are now even more empowered to stonewall, mislead, and generally act in the abominable fashion we have all come to know and hate. Job One of their new mandate is to: ...implement an objective process for selecting new Top Level Domains... Now they can stretch that out for another three years and at the end of that time come forward with a process. Not new TLDs, mind you, just a process.The call for new TLDs was also a prime reason for the creation of ICANN in the first place. They could not have made more of a mess of that if they had tried (and some suspect that that is exactly what they did). I submit that it is time to look past ICANN, and past the USG which has likewise bungled its self-appointed role of overseer. Even Americans opposed to the ICANN hegemony seem to hold little sway with their government, and I must admit I have seen little evidence that many of them tried very hard, though perhaps I am being unfair. You, I, and others being foreigners are given even shorter shrift. As the saying goes: thing globally, act locally. I urge you to get in touch with your own government, explain your concerns, educate them on the finer nuances if need be. I am attempting to do so here in Canada and it isn't as hard as it might sound. There is a natural aversion to the USG having sole control of the internet's off switch. Additionally at least our two ccTLDs (and many of the other large ones) have not bought into the ICANN groupthink, nor have the RIRs. They know, probably better than we do, what a crooked outfit ICANN is, and sooner or later much of the rest of the world may just let ICANN and the USG take their ball and go home. -g
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