.org Reassignment: Commentary of .Org Foundation on Final Evaluation Report

1 October 2002

Commentary of .Org Foundation on Final Evaluation Report

We have reviewed the final evaluation report posted by the ICANN Staff on September 23, 2002. Naively we had hoped the final report would be accurate and objective but it is now clearly evident that the ICANN Staff recommendation was a preordained conclusion. Accordingly, The .Org Foundation will not waste another 5000 words in this expensive charade. Instead, we would like to make four key points for the ICANN Board to consider.

First, our bid offered the lowest price at $4.95, started that price immediately without requiring a huge number of registrants or demanding a 10-year commitment, provided the highest service levels and introduced innovative features for the .org constituency. The ISOC bid does none of these with the proposed highest price, no real additional services, and Afilias, their chosen service provider, having a very spotty record on .info ramp-up, and no production RRP experience.

Second, our bid would enhance competition at both the registry and registrar level and we provided full contractual details of our agreement with our chosen .Org registry service provider, ICANN accredited eNom, Inc., the sixth largest registrar serving over 1 million registrants. The ISOC bid does nothing for competition with the details of the Afilias agreement secret.

Third, our bid best meets the needs of the .org community since they will elect 100% of The .Org Foundation Board. That’s why we were genuinely supported by organizations like The United Nations and Digital Partners. Few of the supporters of ISOC were anything other than blatant self-promotion.

Fourth, technical dismissals of our bid simply because we utilize Microsoft technology (i.e., they use Windows need we say more) and after having obtained nearly $1M in software and services support from Microsoft, is, in addition to being unfair and incorrect, very short sighted. Deliberately alienating the world’s largest and most successful software company is just plain stupid.

In summary, on the facts, the bid by The .Org Foundation is the best one and we hope the ICANN Board will see this and overrule the Staff recommendation in their selection.

Please contact me with any questions you may have regarding this commentary or for detailed information that substantiates all assertions made in this document.

Respectfully submitted,

Terry Drayton
Executive Director
The .Org Foundation

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