Re: what problem are we solving? (was Re: ICANN opens up Pandora's Box of new TLDs)

[Stephane Bortzmeyer <bortzmeyer () nic fr>]

On Fri, Jun 27, 2008 at 10:24:48AM -0700,
 Scott Francis <darkuncle () gmail com> wrote 
 a message of 32 lines which said:

> what problem is ICANN trying to solve with this
> proposal? What about the current system that's broken, does this new
> system fix? 

ICANN is simply responding to demand. Some people want to create a
TLD. The existence of a TLD is not a problem for the other TLDs. If
the new TLD is stupid or useless (like ".aero" or ".pro"), it will
fail. So what? That's the normal life of projects.

Why ICANN should evaluate the new TLD applications, apart from some
simple technical checks? If something is wanted and causes no harm for
the others, then why in hell ICANN should refuse it?

I did not suspect that the idea of central regulation of business,
with a state-like committee examining business ideas and allowing them
or not, was an idea so popular among Nanog members :-)