<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div>Besides agreeing wholeheartedly with Jeff, I will just add that this rehashing of old ideas is a good part of the paralysis disease plaguing ICANN (Org + Community) at this point. <div class="">But name collisions has been used in the past to stall this same root zone expansion program, so this is not a new script, just a new episode of the series. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Rubens</div><div class=""><br class=""><div><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On 16 Feb 2022, at 13:25, Jeff Schmidt via NCAP-Discuss <<a href="mailto:ncap-discuss@icann.org" class="">ncap-discuss@icann.org</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><meta charset="UTF-8" class=""><div class="WordSection1" style="page: WordSection1; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: 15.399999618530273px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Team:<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: 15.399999618530273px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><o:p class=""> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: 15.399999618530273px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">TL;DR:<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: 15.399999618530273px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">We should start by recognizing the effectiveness of the 2012 procedures (as codified in the 2014 Name Collision Occurrence Management Framework)[1] and make surgical improvements for predictability as suggested by SubPro. We should not invent new procedures that introduce enormous and unnecessary new costs, risks, and uncertainty in exchange for unclear value. Our recommendations must be supported by a sober cost-benefit analysis.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: 15.399999618530273px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><o:p class=""> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: 15.399999618530273px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Long Version:<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: 15.399999618530273px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">I am responding to the 9 Feb meeting minutes, the “Workflow” slides, and indirectly the recent exchange of letters between the RySG and the ICANN Board. We need to take note of the recent exchange of letters as it speaks to the importance of providing high-quality, succinct, practical, and actionable advice to the Board. Emphasis on practical and actionable.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: 15.399999618530273px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><b class="">Collisions are well understood.</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>We know under what circumstances they occur, and we have real, practical, global-scale operational experience and data after delegating > 1,200 TLDs over the past decade.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: 15.399999618530273px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Study 1 provides an excellent summary of the enormous amount of thought and data that has been assembled over the past 25 years regarding collisions. We must ask ourselves the hard question: what are we really adding at this point? We can create new charts and graphs, but the phenomenon remains the same. It is well understood. There isn’t much to add. I have yet to see evidence to the contrary. We have reached the threshold of analysis paralysis and ambled over it.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: 15.399999618530273px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><i class="">We must be aware of and equipped to encounter another “.corp” but not fall into the sensationalist trap that every new TLD is a disaster waiting to happen. The numbers and the history simply don’t support this FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt).</i><o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: 15.399999618530273px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">I am very concerned that in failing to overtly recognize these realities, perpetuating calls for “more data!” and “more research!” and esoteric academic debate that is accessible and of interest to only a very few, we are at risk of providing unhelpful and/or unimplementable advice to the Board that is indeed “ambiguous, incomplete, or unclear” (reference from Botterman-to-Demetriou).<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: 15.399999618530273px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><b class="">What was done in 2012 worked</b>. I would encourage everyone to look at the Name Collision Reports data and Figure 1 in Study 1 and attempt to convince themselves otherwise.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: 15.399999618530273px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Study 1 summarizes: “The vast majority of new TLDs delegated since July 2014 have not been the subject of any name collision reports to ICANN” and “Of all the reports to ICANN, only one led to action by a registry.” There were no contemporaneous large-scale technical/operational problems, no litigation, and in the decade following widespread use of the 2012 procedures no evidence they caused harm and some evidence they were effective. A decade following the largest changes to the root in the History of the Internet and the attention of more technical experts than you can fit shoulder-to-shoulder in Oklahoma, this is not “absence of evidence” but rather “evidence of absence.” If this isn’t success, then what is? What specific problems are left to solve?<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: 15.399999618530273px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><b class="">We should tweak 2012 procedures.</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I strongly feel that an upfront and deliberate discussion of the null hypothesis (do exactly what was done in 2012) would help better communicate our story and recommendations in a practical and actionable manner to the broad audience. There should be a high bar to recommend changes to procedures that largely worked by any reasonable definition of “worked.” <o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: 15.399999618530273px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">There should be a strong bias to “not break what isn’t broken” and a very high bar to invent new, risky, unproven, and expensive procedures with unclear value. When we are recommending implementation of a new procedure, it should be against a clear and compelling cost-benefit analysis not mere intellectual curiosity.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: 15.399999618530273px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Moreover, we cannot simply ignore the realities of the increasing Balkanization of global privacy frameworks in Europe, Brazil, and in an increasing number of U.S. States to name a few – and their associated expense and risk. Any recommendation we make to the Board must not invite the kind of risk, expense, and frankly embarrassment ICANN was delt while debating WHOIS with the EU. ICANN’s “yes but we have really good wholesome reasons!” arguments largely fell on deaf ears with EU regulators and courts ending badly for ICANN; anything we recommend that invites that risk is impractical and a non-starter. <o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: 15.399999618530273px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">There is no perfect answer to the collisions issue, but with the exception of the predictability issues that plagued the 2012 round, I have yet to see a shred of evidence that would lead a reasonable person to believe that we can materially improve on what was done previously.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i class="">The counter risk is apropos: we can certainly make it much, much worse.</i><o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: 15.399999618530273px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><b class="">“Enhanced Controlled Interruption” is a rebranded Honeypot.</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I don’t understand why we keep celebrating Groundhog Day by rehashing this same tired concept – it’s a terrible idea for all the reasons stated previously. It’s not just me saying this: <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i class="">“Verisign maintains its position that directing requesters to an internal address during the controlled interruption period is preferable to an external honeypot, because as previously stated, it avoids “controlled exfiltration” where sensitive traffic from an installed system – without the advance consent of the user or system administrator – may be drawn outside the local network.” [2]</i><o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: 15.399999618530273px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><b class="">The biggest problem to solve is the one of predictability (or lack thereof).</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>In 2012, the collisions issue was not covered in pre-application procedures/documentation and unfortunately “sprung” on applicants late in the process. This caused applicants to face many delays and unknowns.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: 15.399999618530273px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">As for the “Workflow” slides and the process they suggest, I have major concerns:<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: 15.399999618530273px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">(a) It places the enormous burden of evaluating and mitigating collision risk on the applicant a-priori, something this group discussed and rejected last year as uneven, ripe for abuse and gaming, expensive, burdensome, and fundamentally impossible;<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: 15.399999618530273px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">(b) it uses honeypots rebranded as “enhanced controlled interruption” which is a practical nonstarter adding material (and likely insurmountable) risk and cost for no clear value;<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: 15.399999618530273px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">(c) creates operational risk and costs by performing multiple delegations and re-delegations at the root per applied-for string with no clear value;<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: 15.399999618530273px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">(d) suggests string-wise “mitigation proposals” and “remediation proposals” which are undefined, impossible to evaluate, will be enormously expensive given the liability implications, and unnecessary in nearly all cases;<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: 15.399999618530273px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">(e) suggests a number of steps that simply create more data for which analysis is fundamentally subjective and open-ended and will require enormous resources in terms of both time and cost and add tremendous uncertainty, gamesmanship, and litigation risk; and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: 15.399999618530273px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">(f) kicks the can to “the Board” to make several *per-string* decisions along the way with little in the way of frameworks or guidance - inviting litigation and other (expensive, high risk) conflict that was successfully avoided in 2012 by specifically avoiding all but three string-wise Board decisions.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: 15.399999618530273px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">While many of us (myself included) find collisions intellectually interesting, we must avoid the temptation to “do more stuff” because it’s interesting and instead focus on providing succinct, practical, and implementable guidance to the Board. A decade later, there is no evidence to indicate that material improvements can be made to the 2012 procedures without also introducing material new costs and risks, so we should state that and make surgical improvements. Don’t break what isn’t broken. Don’t trade the tested and familiar – albeit imperfect – for high-risk, unknown, unproven, impractical, and in many cases unimplementable science experiments.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: 15.399999618530273px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Jeff<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: 15.399999618530273px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><o:p class=""> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: 15.399999618530273px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">[1]<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/name-collision-framework-30jul14-en.pdf" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193); text-decoration: underline;" class="">https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/name-collision-framework-30jul14-en.pdf</a><o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: 15.399999618530273px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">[2]<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://itp.cdn.icann.org/en/files/name-collision/report-comments-name-collision-10jun14-en.pdf" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193); text-decoration: underline;" class="">https://itp.cdn.icann.org/en/files/name-collision/report-comments-name-collision-10jun14-en.pdf</a><o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: 15.399999618530273px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><o:p class=""> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: 15.399999618530273px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><o:p class=""> </o:p></p></div><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; 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