ICANN really could shoot itself in the foot here.As the internet has grown the
argument has been that the process will take time but will always be fair.
I'm
sure most people are happy to leave this to others to sort out and so ICANn
has rather been alowed to take its time.
If public confidence in ICANN goes though,
then really they can be entirely bypassed.
All of the other players are cooperating
with each other and with ICANN (there isn't an alternative .com for example) but
the cooperation is not reciprocated.
AS far as I can see there are four key points
to consider:
1. If ICANN authorise .biz for any applicant then it will be the first
direct clash between the roots. People will pay for web sites when others have been
using the exact same web address etc for years.
The legal implications of this
are inumerable.
2. If ICANN chooses to entirely disregard public opinion with the
new TLDs and the ones that they choose are more or less mutuly exclusive from the
public choice .kids .sex .xxx .shop and so on seem popular then there could be a
sustained move into other root servers where people can actually get what they want.
3.
If ICANN chooses to produce a vast monopoly in the form of CORE or Afilias then they
will be seen to put their own self interests before those of the billions of internet
users. I can imagine that such a move would be potentially distructive for ICANN.
Again, Afilias might dominate the A root but for competition people would have to
and would be able to move away.
4. If ICANN is not seen to be giving enough away
for example if they only activate a small number of TLDs or if they only activate
those associated with teir board members or Ken Stubbs then the process would seem
too incestuous and I can see people moving away before they have a chance to correct
things with the next roll out.
I think it is good to have control over the net.
It is beneficial for all aspects to be compatible with one another and for the internet
to grow appropriately these process that are taking place must be supported.
If
too many people feel that they have been taken for a ride though then the whole thing
will be up for grabs.
Anthony