[soac-newgtldapsup-wg] A modest proposal

[Eric Brunner-Williams <ebw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

All,

This is inspired by discussion with Andrew, who seeks to ensure that 
scripts and languages aren't ignored absent applications arising 
organically from the language community ...
... and the ugly reality that the Board is functioning as a kleptocracy.

We have proposed that fees are reduced for reasons of policy. The 
Board has responded that no policy goal is more important than revenue 
maximization.
We have to find non-fee mechanisms.

One is simply to find the money to pay the kleptocracy their $185,000, 
for each application which is qualified.
There are other possible means.

I mentioned that a .africa will need an Arabic Script label, as well 
as a Latin Script label, and to answer to Andrew's concern, a Ge'ez 
Script label, and ...
If there is a round after the current round (which assumes the 
"current round" happens), then regional registry operators can 
incrementally add labels, and therefore scripts and languages, in the 
next round.
To provide a path for any script lacking a current round applicant it 
is sufficient to create a current round "meta-application" capable of 
offering the script for second-level labels*.
For script directionality reasons (really a bug in the Unicode 
bidirectional algorithm which treats "." as punctuation, allowing 
directionality to "leak" across label separators), one 
"meta-application" would have to be in a right-to-left script, and one 
"meta-application" would have to be in a left-to-right script.
We know that the Board will insist on their $185,000, and then some 
when the implied costs are totaled, for both the left-to-right and the 
right-to-left script incubator applications.
Left-to-right labels and recently right-to-left labels are available 
from ccTLD operators, and the GAC is broadly favorable to the 
proposition that linguistic diversity should not be priced out of 
existence or deferred.
However, the coordination of two or more second level domains is 
technically challenging, and the prospect of coordinating an Arabic 
Script ".africa" (shown in Latin Script) label in each of the 22 
ccTLDs which use Arabic Script may pose greater recurring cost than 
the one-time payment of $185,000 to ICANN for a single Arabic Script 
".africa" label.
I propose we ask the GAC if it will reconsider its positions on both 
regional identifiers, and on linguistic and cultural diversity, as if 
regional identifiers are permitted, many otherwise excluded linguistic 
and cultural groups can obtain the goal of their script and language 
being present as a top-level domain as a regional identifier, e.g., 
"africa" as two or more labels in Latin Script and Arabic Script, or 
as a second-level domain under the appropriate directional label for a 
regional identifier.
If the GAC agrees, then they, and we, will have routed around the 
damage imposed by the Board.
If the GAC does not agree, then several arbitrary labels are 
sufficient to meet the needs for all scripts to be used in name 
spaces, at the second level, promoting the use of the script and the 
languages written in each script.
I propose we inform the stakeholders -- the GNSO, the ASO, the CCNSO, 
and the GAC, as well as others -- that a few fully supported 
applications in "the linguistic interest" would be sufficient to help 
all living languages achieve the vital success that .cat has created 
for the Catalan language.
So that's the modest proposal. We propose a couple of applications in 
some kind of public "linguistic" interest so that more languages are 
benefited by the current new gTLD round.
Eric

* Weirdly enough, a few months after Jon Postel proposed using iso3166 
as the means of spreading the zone file editing work across more 
people than just he, he and I met in San Diego and I pointed out that 
there are groups that are "nations" but lack iso3166 code points, and 
that if we added seven regional identifiers to the country codes we 
would eliminate "statelessness" in the DNS.