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Username: Anthony 2nd
Date/Time: Sat, November 11, 2000 at 3:37 PM GMT
Browser: Netscape Communicator V4.73 using Windows 95
Score: 5
Subject: Well what did you expect?

Message:
 

 
It was apparant from the lack of comment regarding Ken Stubbs, the alteration of the by laws to exclude the new board members from this vote (when they were not excluded from the last vote) and the failure of three board memebers to disclose their conflicted interest until 1 November that ICANN was not always as open and transparant as their PR dept would have us believe.

It was to be expected that they would support Afilias and not support IOD.

They list five points in favour of IOD and three points against IOD  and two points against .web from the public forum.

ICANN finds fault with the cash balance of $450,000 but doesn't take into account the $6M funding IOD has when it's TLD becomes active. Presumably any company with less then half a million dollars in the bank is open to attack on this front (I notice Core detail a negative balance of over $1M).

They comment that "Despite this new competition, IOD anticipates maintaining its $15 registry price throughout the forecast period."

But they know full well that the price set by IOD will be determined by the market. This point has been raised many times and is mentioned again in this discussion group already.

"The planned management is working at Toyota
San Luis Obispo as the Chief Executive Officer and Business Manager."

This details just how personal the IOD attack really is. I didn't know this - and why should I (I'm actually impressed by it though). It is not for ICANN to fault what the applicants do in their private life, however it does seem a good opportunity for all thouse involved to disclose where they get their money from.

Nevertheless a personal attack of this nature before the TLDs are alocated might be legally interesting afterwards. Are we really to believe that ICANN is conducting a fair review here?

"according to the pro-forma financial statements, IOD will act as the registry and the sole registrar for the entire first year."

As an observer I feel that if I am aware of something then ICANN should also be aware. IOD have said that they will be sole registrar for 30 days. NSI still dominates this position for .com .net .org etc after five (?six) years.

Indeed ICANN list this statement "…they will be the only company allowed to register .web domains for the first 30 days of operation." in their own opposition to the application section.

IOD have publicly stated that they are happy to discuss these points with ICANN.

The finalale is this statement from ICANN  "This dual responsibility could potentially become problematic for the registry operation."

Which brings me on to the Afilias comments:

ICANN found no weaknesses at all with the application.
No comment is made from ICANN about the confilcts surrounding CORE or Ken Stubbs.

They list two points for (one has six sub sections) and seven points against Afilias from the public forum. The sunrise period is taken as a point for.

A further 13 comments are listed in the Substantive comments section all giving negative comments about the Afilias proposal.

ICANN is impressed with Afilias's money (as they are with JVTEam although they do add a note about Melbourne IT pulling out of the .web application).

ICANN is unimpressed that a small company could consider itself good enough to do the job. They disregard the financial backing entirely and openly scoff at the forecast for .web popularity.

Personally I feel that there is more than enough data to suggest that this process is not "open and fair" to bring about an injunction to delay the vote on 16th while there is a review.

By then of course the new members of ICANN will be eligable to vote and although I do not know any of them I for one will have more faith in their decision than what I have seen so far.

By the way - have you seen IOD's site (www.webtld.com) lately? I saw it yesterday and its looking good.

Anthony     
 


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