[soac-newgtldapsup-wg] WG2-Who

[Elaine Pruis <elaine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On the call yesterday Allen talked about an applicant possibly  
morphing from not-for-profit, (or not profitable) to for-profit (or  
commercially viable).  It makes sense that our pool of providers might  
only be a starting point - or stepping stool -  for these applicants.   
Possibly these gTLDs will grow and become profitable. They could also  
morph from non-profit to for profit.  It makes sense to incentivize  
potential registry service providers with the possibility of our  
applicants becoming commercially successful.
A few possible scenarios:
1. A not for profit, non commercial operator needs help with  
infrastructure. They utilize any of the providers willing to provide  
this type of support.  These providers know that supporting this gTLD  
might always be a charitable act.
2. A disadvantaged applicant with a potential commercially viable gTLD  
starts out with one of our providers but as it becomes successful it  
should be able to a) transition to a different registry or  b) stay  
with the initial provider and pay for the services it uses.  I've seen  
this happen several times within the CoCCA framework... a ccTLD  
operator needs EPP/IPV6, so they migrate from their legacy system to  
the very low cost CoCCA infrastructure.  As the TLD grows, the  
operator is able to contribute much more towards the cost of  
operation, and eventually becomes independent.
I don't think our criteria should block for-profit or commercial  
applicants-rather, we can give them a "leg-up".
Elaine