Hello Ted,
I object to framing the issue with the term "gTLDs" as
I see no reason to limit the discussion to this
particular subset of new Top-Level Domains.
ICANN also needs non-gTLD policy development
activities relating to the introduction of Top-Level
Domains with IDN Labels -- for example (new
IDN-ccTLDs).
By way of illustration, the managers of the Gulf
Cooperation Council (GCC) ccTLDs (i.e., ae, bh, kw,
om, qa, sa) agreed in 2004 to initiate a pilot arabic
domain name testbed to be managed under the auspices
of the Arab League.
I see no reason why the fruits of their work-product
should come to be regarded as a generic TLD (and
discussed as if part of the gTLD family of domains)
when the policies for this namespace should be under
the purview of the relevant ccTLD managers rather than
the GNSO constituencies. I don't buy into the
argument that anything that is not a ccTLD is
necessarily a gTLD, and I don't accept a gTLD-centric
approach to the introduction of new TLDs.
Hope this helps...
Danny