Another option for organising the domains

["Carl Dombrowski" <cd12dc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I believe it doesn't make too much sense to try to find one set of rules
that satisfies everyone - it'll lead to too many bad compromises.

Instead, I'd propose to offer several different approaches in parallel:

1) The classic "political" approach were the decisions are made by popular
or governmental criteria, and the tld-provider may get the domain in
something like a bidding process. The rules for these domains should be very
flexible.

2) An economical approach - first, the number of tld's which can be added
per year (later month, week, or even less) is determined. It's probably easy
to figure that out by determining how long it takes to make new tld's and
the rest of the internet work together (the time should come down
automatically over the years). After that, anyone can bid for the right to
have his/her pre-approved domain added - the highest bidders in each time
period win. When the time to establish new tld's gets too low and an
undesired flood of applicants appears, the number of new tld's allowed might
be determined by the combined revenue - if a higher number of new tld's
lowers the price so much that the total revenue gets lower than that of
fewer tld's then it might not be chosen. That would work especially well if
the monthly fees paid by the other (commercial) registrants would be adapted
to the results of this kind of "auction". Price increases should be avoided,
to keep tld-providers from leaving the system.

3) An intermediate approach - certain kinds of names, like geographic names,
could be offered to any entity if they just show that they are governing the
location, as well as willing and (financially) able to pay for the needed
infrastructure (including ICANN and other involved parties). Registered
brand names would probably follow eventually,  maybe in cooperation with
according institutions.

Other ways to get a tld might also be added.

In all cases, necessary minimal criteria have to be fulfilled - no technical
problems, no legal problems, ownership of any international brand names, and
so on.

If a tld-provider stops participating (whatever the reason), the tld (if
still in significant use) might be auctioned off. If no-one is interested
in paying for the upkeep of the tld, the parties still having addresses in
the domain might be made responsible for the upkeep - with the condition
they have to give up using the domain if they don't pay their share. And so
on - the details are probably not important in this discussion.