[ga] On the topic of "Rounds"

[Danny Younger <dannyyounger@xxxxxxxxx>]

Jeff writes:  "There is no need for "Rounds" for
applying for new
TLD's.  Such a notion again thwarts the free market
system" 

When some group applies for the rights to set up a
radio station or a TV channel they have to go through
a process.  The people  that are charged with managing
the allocations can only process a finite amount of
applications at a time.  Each such set of applications
is handled in a "round".  The system of "rounds" is
workable and doesn't thwart the free market system as
evidenced by the hundreds of TV and radio channels
made available to the public over the course of many
years.

Further, the Internet community has the right to
create policy.  It can choose to manage the process
through policies designed to preference certain
categories of applicants at certain times in response
to what it deems to be substantial need.

For instance, we can decide that if over the next two
years we can only process 50 TLD applications, that we
will set up a round strictly for IDN applications
since the non-English-speaking world has absolutely no
IDNs in the root at this time and deserves their
chance at participation.

Just because we can establish a mechanism that allows
for TLD applications to go into a queue which can be
processed on a first come first serve basis doesn't
mean that we have to do it this way.

The way that we choose to allocate is a policy choice.


Personally, I think that the English-speaking world
has a sufficient number of TLD choices at this time
and I take note of George Kirikos's argument that many
such TLDs are far from being "filled up" at present.  

I'm in favor of giving the rest of the world their
turn.  It's fair.



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