[ga] VeriSign + ICANN: be afraid, competitive procurement might be coming

[George Kirikos <gkirikos@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi folks,

In light of the NTIA/DOJ letter strongly suggesting how competitive procurement 
should take place, to lower costs for consumers, I am encouraged by today's 
directive by the US government regarding contracting procedures:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090304/ap_on_go_pr_wh/obama_waste

"Those new rules, officials said, would make it more difficult for contractors 
to bilk taxpayers and make some half-trillion dollars in federal contracts each 
year more accessible to independent contractors."

"Obama will say that his administration will stop outsourcing to private 
contractors many services that should be performed by government employees. He 
also pledged to open contracts to small businesses and eliminate "unnecessary" 
no-bid contracts that allow preferred contractors to take assignments even 
though they might not be the least expensive option."

Obviously, the services provided by both VeriSign and ICANN can be performed 
much less expensively by either in-house government employees or by competitive 
tenders. Just like Neustar won the .us contract, VeriSign should have to 
compete to provide .com/net registry services, as should PIR (who have raised 
prices substantially) for .org. 

It's clear that for any new gTLDs that the community agrees should be added to 
the root, that there should be a tender process to see who would perform that 
at the lowest cost. This is the exact opposite of how ICANN wishes to manage 
things, auctioning off the new TLDs to the highest bidder to maximize its own 
benefit (at the expense of consumers). ICANN has demonstrated they are not the 
"least expensive option", as not only is their budget out of control:

http://www.circleid.com/posts/20090105_icann_for_profit_companies_comparables/
http://www.circleid.com/posts/20090203_icann_blows_46_million_stock_market/

but they actively propose to raise business and consumers costs through 
ill-conceived programs like the new gTLDs boondoggle.

Sincerely,

George Kirikos
http://www.leap.com/