[soac-newgtldapsup-wg] Some definitions: capability

[Eric Brunner-Williams <ebw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Colleagues,

I propose a set of definitions for discussion.

1. Base Fee Capability
2. Scheduled Fee Capability
3. Facilities Capability
4. Continuity Capability

I propose the following:

Base Fee Capable
An applicant is base fee capable if it can contribute USD $45,000 
towards the ICANN base fee.
Scheduled Fee Capable
An applicant is scheduled fee capable if it can contribute USD $TBD 
towards the ICANN schedule of non-base fees. ("TBD" means "to be 
determined")
Facilities Capable
An applicant is non-fee capable if it can contribute USD $45,000 
towards facilities-based registry costs.
Continuity Capable
An applicant is continuity capable if it can contribute USD $45,000 
towards continuity operations costs.
Rational for types of capabilities:

All applicants need to attempt to be capable of contributing all of 
the ICANN base fee, currently USD $185,000.
Not all applicants need to attempt to be capable of contributing all 
of the ICANN scheduled fees for Extended Evaluation, Objections, etc.
Not all applicants intend to offer a facilities-based registry for the 
performance and functional tests required for transition to 
delegation, and subsequent operation.
Not all applicants intend to offer a facilities-based registry 
continuity instrument.
Rational for thresholds:

The USD $45,000 figure was what applicants paid in 2000 and 2004, and 
while arbitrary, and about one quarter of what ICANN wants now, for a 
variety of reasons few of which are germane to applications which are 
able to meet the criteria we are agreed upon, it is a number which 
ICANN has used in the past, and for which no substantial budget error 
has been claimed.
The estimates I have for scheduled fees are:

Extended Evaluation - USD $50,000

Community Priority Evaluation (was: "Comparative Evaluation") - 
refunded if 14/16 achieved, as of DAGv2
Response to formal objections - USD $1,000 to $5,000 or more

Dispute resolution - $2,000 to $8,000 or more for string confusion 
and/or legal rights objections, $32,000 to $122,000 or more for 
morality and public order and/or community objections
Still, objections and their costs are still "in flux", yet we must be 
able to express this variable, and conditional, cost risk, if only so 
the Board is aware that those likely to give rise to objections also 
have the ability to pay to respond, and not loose by default, but 
those that are unlikely to give rise to objections risk will loose by 
default if incapable of meeting these scheduled fees.
The rational for $45,000 for registry operations is that this is more 
than what .museum (and .cat) started out with, though .museum was 
own-facilities-based and .cat used CORE's registry platform (built out 
for .aero). It is a number. It is sufficient for enough compute power 
and store to suffice, and for some staff, to start operations.
The rational for $45,000 for registry continuity is that no capital 
expense, only minimal operating expenses, are necessary to provide 
services for the three year continuity period. An applicant may elect 
to join a continuity service pool, or to designate a contracted 
continuity provider, as alternate forms of a continuity instrument.
Comments?

Eric