[Comments-o-com-single-char-10may18] Support for the proposed auction of O.COM as is proposed in the RSEP.

[Garland McCoy]

I was involved in the very early days of ICANN’s existence through my work with others from the business community and see the evolution of ICANN into a more mature international organization, which seeks to be truly accountable to the broad community of Internet stakeholders around the world.  

 I do not attend ICANN meetings, but I do follow some of the key issues through my participation at the IGF-USA and the IGF both of which I have been very involved sponsoring workshops and helping recruit speakers. When possible I have sought out ICANN speakers and many of my workshops directly or indirectly touched on ICANN issues so I have been a keen follower.

 However, several years ago, I was aware of the Working Group on Reserved Names related to single  letters and that they proposed the auction of single letters in the initial gTLDs, like .org; .net and .com.   I saw that single letter auctions moved ahead in some of the initial gTLDs but nothing happened in .com

 Seeing now that at last the single letters in .com are being auctioned is good news, as already there are 5-6 of those single letters in use.  

 I am especially interested in the commitment that the auction funds not go to the auction house, nor the registrar or the registry or ICANN, but go to benefit the broader ICANN community. 

 ICANN can be negatively affected by decisions at many other events, like the ITU or the IGF. So active engagement of different stakeholders is critical to ICANN’s fulfillment of its core mission,

 As an active participant in the global IGF, and in the IGF-USA I want to lend my support to the importance of the use of the auction funds for the trial of O.COM <http://o.com/> to benefit engagement and participation, especially for participants from developing countries – both in ICANN meetings; security and stability training events; and also in the IGF and the national IGFs, where many at the national level, who won’t even attend an ICANN meeting, learn about what ICANN’s core activities and mission are – along side engaging with other of the technical community, but also with civil society, and governmental agencies.

Recently, I have been devoting significant time to the importance that without electricity (both generation and storage) , the Internet cannot advance to the unconnected and underconnected. While ICANN’s remit is not necessarily about bringing power sources to support the connectivity challenges that the developing countries still face, understanding what ICANN does do, and how security and stability at the national level for networks that are part of the Internet can only be a positive. 

I was impressed at the commitment that the auction funds will not benefit the registry, registrar, ICANN but benefit the broader ICANN community.

I support the proposed auction of O.COM <http://o.com/> as is proposed in the RSEP.

 Garland T. McCoy, President 

Technology Education Institute 

 
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