Domain Name Wire has an extremely interesting post on Tim Berners-Lee’s Thoughts on New Top Level Domain Names that clearly shows that the original inventor of the world wide web opposed the introduction of the new TLDs for profiteering by ICANN even before to the approval and release of the .mobi top level domain name
Tim Berners-Lee wrote a paper explaining the dangers of the introduction of new top level domain names.
I particularly agree with his following observation:
The root of the domain name system is a single public resource, by design. Its control must be for and, indirectly, by the people as a whole. To give away a large chunk of this to a private group would be simply a betrayal of the public trust put in ICANN.
I don’t like any of this myself at all.
In fact, I hate this new plan of ICANN so much that I’d have tried going to courts over the “betrayal of the public trust” had I been in the US. Is there no way people outside USA can contribute to pursue ICANN and make this clear to them that this is not a wise move and must not be pursued at all?
Your post provokes three responses:
1. Tim Berners-Lee is a powerful name to drop, but if you are worried about giving “away a large chunk of this to a private group,” the horse is already out of the barn. I mean when ICANN renewed Verisign’s contract to run the .com registry in perpetuity, it also gave it price-setting power. Not a whole lot of power to the people.
2. The Internet was designed as a distributed network that would withstand disaster. As bad a steward as ICANN, it has not been disastrous.
3. It is hard to fathom that someone who promotes a motto of “Three cheers to the power of domain names!” (in your “About” description) would object to the development of new territory.
Stay at it!