The specific suggestions, and a trust fund

[Brian E Carpenter <brian.e.carpenter@xxxxxxxxx>]

I would like to comment on some of the specific suggestions in Annex A.
I have re-ordered them for better logical flow. My first comment is
actually a proposal for the overall approach.

{Public Interest Projects that have a strong link to ICANN’s core functions.
{Support Public Interest Processes
{Donating funds to charitable organizations

These are too vague to be actionable. However, the notion of an endowed fund
that considers funding requests for projects in the public interest is a good 
one,
whether the pitch is from a charity, an NGO or any other source. This should be
an independent trust fund, legally separated from ICANN,  with its own trustees.
While $60M is not an enormous endowment, if well managed it could fund many 
valuable
projects over many years. Hopefully ICANN, or philanthropists, could inject more
cash later.

{Unsuccessful auctionee compensation for expenses incurred during application
{ICANN Auction Money Should go to a Charity of the Applicants Choice

These are ludicrous suggestions. People bid for commercial reasons; their
costs were a business expense and they said goodbye to their money when they
submitted their bid or when they won an auction.

{Fund open source DNS projects and upgrade DNS libraries

Open source projects of any kind relevant to Internet infrastructure
would be good things to support. They would be public interest projects
so fall under the first point.

{Marketing plan to increase new gTLD registrations
{Allocate Funds to Promote New gTLDs ...

Absolutely not, no way, never. Haven't we learnt from the last few years that we
already have too many gTLDs for our own good?

{Subsidize future rounds of new gTLDs to expand the geographic diversity of the 
DNS
{Funding Projects Addressing Issues related to Universal Acceptance of New 
gTLDs with focus on IDNs

What subsidy is needed? As the very existence of this treasure trove shows, 
creating
a new gTLD is actually cheap, otherwise ICANN wouldn't have $60M to spare. Just 
put in place
a policy that allows internationlised gTLDs to be approved without a 
bloodsucking auction,
and you're done.

{Developing Public Education Programs on the New DNS Landscape

Like, don't use any of the gTLDs that are 99% full of scams?
If people need education, there is something very badly wrong with
their browsers and search engines.

{Allocate Funds to Promote ... Consumer Protection

Yes, although this should be a public interest project funded as above and
executed by an NGO with some understanding of consumer protection issues.

{Reduce the Application Fee in Future Rounds

That doesn't need funding, since the numbers show that the fee is ludicrously
high and can simply be divided by ten.

{Combatting cyber-squatting, lower Rights Protection Mechanisms fees, or other 
RPM related activities.
{Capacity Building and Outreach
{Strengthening the Capacity of the Broad Community to Contribute to the SSR of 
the Internet
[SSR = security, stability, and resiliency]
{“Promote Internet Development Globally” by placing money in a trust (possibly 
overseen by
{NETmundial Initiative) for Internet development efforts.

These are way out of scope for ICANN itself. Again, if it's in the public 
interest,
it should be done by an appropriate NGO, and funded as above. (NETMundial is a
dead duck and should be quietly buried ASAP, of course.)

{Creating a Foundation to Inform the Global Public on Internet Governance

Completely unnecessary and also out of scope for ICANN.

{Strengthening Participation of Stakeholders from Developing Countries

Participation in what? If it means participation in ICANN, that should just
be a normal ICANN budget line. If it means in other aspects of the Internet,
it's yet another possible public interest project.

{Funding the Emergency Back-End Registry or the EBERO System

I don't know much about that technically, but contributing funds to stable DNS
operations at the root and TLD level, including registration, does seem like a 
good
use of ICANN money.

Regards
   Brian Carpenter