[UA-discuss] Domainers

[Ram Mohan]

Completely agree. This is not about any one group. This is about the
collective volunteer effort and the ideals and principles underlying them.

Consumers have a role. We should be thankful that the entire distributed
eco system is working well, and that each stakeholder is playing their
role, instead of being in an arbitrary system run by a confining collective.

Ram

On Nov 23, 2017 9:17 AM, "Rinalia Abdul Rahim" <rinalia.abdulrahim at gmail.com>
wrote:

> “to me the “significant contribution to IDNs” is not done by one or
> another stakeholder like domainers, but by the volunteers who day after day
> in this working group and elsewhere help developing the framework to
> support Universal Acceptance, without which there will be no future for
> IDNs.”
>
> +1 @ Roberto
>
> Rinalia
>
> On Thu, 23 Nov 2017 at 3:08 PM, Roberto Gaetano <
> roberto_gaetano at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi.
>> I basically agree on the fact that domaines do have a role in the
>> ecosystem.
>> Where I disagree is the statement that “IDNs would have been abandoned
>> long ago if it was not for Domainers”.
>> I chair the Board of Public Interest Registry, the manager of 4 IDNs, and
>> please rest assured that we would not change our current position, that is
>> to hold on to our IDNs, whether or not the domainers will keep or drop
>> their IDN portfolio.
>> The reasons are very simple. The first one is that we were aware since
>> the beginning that the IDNs would not have an easy rollout - we had already
>> the experience of the Fast Track a few years ago. However, PIR thought (I
>> was not yet on the Board at that time) that “it was the right thing to do”,
>> even with some losses in the short and medium term. If the IDNs are a
>> substantial investment for domainers, it should not be forgotten that they
>> are a substantial investment for the registries as well, given the ICANN
>> fees, the different hurdles of the ICANN process about associate code
>> tables, and much more. The idea is that, sooner or later, preferably
>> sooner, Universal Acceptance will be a fact, and we can expect at that time
>> deployment of the IDNs to serve currently poorly served communities. I was
>> on the ICANN Board when the basic decisions were made about the IDNs,
>> including opening a “fast track” for IDNs related to a single country, and
>> I do not regret for a single minute having been an advocate for these
>> decisions, in spite of what for the time being looks like a poor result.
>> There is also another simple reason, incidentally. Even if we wanted to
>> walk away from the IDNs (which PIR does not want to do) there will be
>> contractual issues with ICANN. So even those registries who would like to
>> punt the ball in case domainers would not keep their investment - and I do
>> repeat that PIR is not one of those - might have other problems.
>> It is true that only registries who have other (i.e. non-IDN-related)
>> revenues can afford to keep their TLDs, but this does not change the issue
>> about domainers, because I do not think that their relatively modest
>> financial contribution can be the deciding factor.
>> I would also like to make a final comment: to me the “significant
>> contribution to IDNs” is not done by one or another stakeholder like
>> domainers, but by the volunteers who day after day in this working group
>> and elsewhere help developing the framework to support Universal
>> Acceptance, without which there will be no future for IDNs.
>> Cheers,
>> Roberto
>>
>>
>>
>> On 23 Nov 2017, at 16:02, Andre Schappo <A.Schappo at lboro.ac.uk> wrote:
>>
>>
>> Would IDNs even exist today if it was not for Domainers? I suspect that
>> IDNs would have been abandoned long ago if it was not for Domainers.
>>
>> I believe that Domainers are the majority holders of IDNs. The dependency
>> on Domainers is well emphasised in the thread http://www.idnforums.
>> com/forums/35654-number-of-%E3%82%B3%E3%83%A0-registrations-takes-a-
>> nosedive.html
>>
>> I think the international community should be acknowledging and thanking
>> Domainers for their significant contribution to IDNs.
>>
>> André Schappo
>>
>>
>>
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