what problem are we solving? (was Re: ICANN opens up Pandora's Box of new TLDs)

Fri Jun 27 19:23:53 UTC 2008

>> realistically, I figure there aren't many other ways in which
>> additional opportunities for competition can be created.
> Allowing anyone to register a TLD is one, but I do agree it's not
> necessarily a trivial model.

we have two tools with which to build scale, distribution and hierarchy.
this goes against both, though maybe the latter a bit more than the former.

this is one of those where the short term business/political gain trumps
the long term pain it can cause.  we're not very good at this kind of
trade-off because we discount future pain very very heavily.

and you gotta love the spin that excess pain will be damped by the very
high fee.  i wonder how much of it will go to where the pain is actually
felt, the root servers.

randy