"Do no damage" - Comment on IDN-ccTLD Fast Track

[Alejandro Pisanty <apisan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

An important, crucial constraint of the IDN-ccTLD fast track process must 
be that careful consideration be made of the effect of starting operations 
of an IDN-ccTLD on the functioning of the existing, corresponding ccTLD 
management.
By and large ccTLD managers have been pioneers of the Internet in their 
countries, especially developing ones; they have steered through 
difficult times, creating a multistakeholder environment "avant la (WSIS) 
lettre", contributed to the expansion of and adherence to Internet 
standards, and assisted in the growth of their national Internet 
economies. Many of them have made it possible for the academic, technical, 
social, and private sectors to guide the management of the ccTLD in a 
proper balance with the government - a delicate balance, in general, which 
could be tragic to upset.
Provisions must be made to avoid the possibility that in some countries, 
the delegation and operation of an IDN-ccTLD, coupled with changes in laws 
and policies made ad-hoc, be used to undermine or otherwise damage the 
ability of an otherwise perfectly acceptable ccTLD manager.
A cycle of consultation withtin the Local Internet Community, conducted 
with extreme care and accompanied by careful due diligence, and without 
interference with national sovereignty principles, seems to be at least 
one crucial component of the process to provide such safeguards. What for 
a large, distant organization may seem opening a can of worms, may be, for 
a local, small entity waking up in a snake pit.
Yours,

Alejandro Pisanty


.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .  .  .  .  .  .
     Dr. Alejandro Pisanty
UNAM, Av. Universidad 3000, 04510 Mexico DF Mexico