COMMENTS -- gTLDs (generic Top level Domain names) for small islands

[Bruce Potter at IRF <bpotter@xxxxxxx>]

Dear ICANN

I am writing on behalf of Island Resources Foundation to express  
concern about the ability of small islands to manage, monitor and  
control the issuance of generic Top Level Domains that might affect  
local and small island national concerns at several levels, if current  
proposals for open issuance of gTLDs are implemented.  Island  
Resources Foundation, founded in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, in  
1972, has a forty-year history of working with small islands in the  
Caribbean and at the global level. As a developer of regional and  
global information sharing tools for the sustainable development of  
small islands, we have a special concern for small island access to  
and use of the internet.
Before approving gTLD changes, Island Resources Foundation requests  
that ICANN prepare a careful study of funding and technical assistance  
models that could be employed to EQUITABLY protect the interests of  
small islands and other small states, and that these results be  
included in the final implementation of gTLD reforms.
The bad model that currently exemplifies our concern is the World  
Trade Organization, in which small islands theoretically participate  
as full equals with larger states, but where the costs of bringing a  
simple action can run to millions of dollars -- in excess of the total  
foreign relations budget for many small island states. In this  
situation, the only time that small island states can bring action  
under the World Trade Organization is when they act as cats paws for  
major corporate -- or rarely environmental -- interests.
The global community of small island developing states (SIDS) includes  
"officially" about 43 countries -- there are, however, several dozen  
other situations involving archepelagic developing states (e.g., The  
Philippines or Indonesia) and other small island developing  
dependencies (territories etc.) of other states who also could be  
affected by this issue. Please give this issue more consideration.
Bruce Potter



President
Island Resources Foundation
39 Years of Planning for Small Island Conservation
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