Re: Thread 4: Selection of gTLDs

[thomst@netcom.com (Thom Stark)]

I think we need more data.

First off, if Mark Lottor of Network Wizards hasn't been invited to
comment on the 12/19 draft, he should be.  He's perhaps the foremost
Internet registration metrician extant.

Likewise, the folks at the GVU Lab at Georgia Tech ought to be 
consulted.  Their biannual WWW user survey will have been completed in 
mid-November.  It should be a very useful source of information on what
the typical current-day Internet user actually uses the Web for..which
ought to be helpful in determining what the initial set of TLDs should
be, assuming that the number is limited per the 12/19 draft.

Those of you who currently run alternative registries ought also to be
supplying such data as how many actual domains you've registered under
each of the candidate TLDs you currently route.  If you're not 
comfortable about making that data public, at a minimum, you ought to
supply it privately to one or another of the IAHC members (after
obtaining their agreement to confine its dissemination to the IAHC
itself, of course).  If you want to make a strong case for removing
the limit on the initial number of new TLDs, that's one way to begin
building it.

I'd also like to see the IAHC explain the process by which they chose
the magic number 7.  If the logic behind it was compelling enough, it
ought to be persuasive to everybody on this list.  If, on the other
hand, it was just pulled out of thin air, it can (and probably will be)
adjusted upward by the time the final draft is issued.  The question
will then become "How many initial new TLDs should there be?", rather 
than "An intial 7 new TLDs or an unlimited number?"

Regards,

Thom Stark

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