<div dir="ltr">Hello Evan,<div><br></div><div>while, I only agreed with Bill statement and didn't develop further, I am replying to what you said:<div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div class="gmail_quote"><div><br>I continue to be amazed at the speed at which seemingly obvious explanations are so casually dismissed within the ICANN bubble.</div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>I don't think that we are talking about obvious, trivial or evident explanations, stating them as obvious only dismiss any other alternatives but not necessarily providing a rationale.</div>
<div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div class="gmail_quote"><div> To deny such answers merely because of their perceived simplicity may offer comfort to those who need to add "layers of personal interpretation" in order to fit a pre-conceived conclusion, but the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor" target="_blank">onus is on them</a> to disprove the simple explanation.</div>
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<div>I don't think the "layer of personal interpretation" is about the complexity/simplicity of explanations but more about the fact that some may have pre-conceived narratives and shape unintentionally the facts to fit the former (I think that is called "<span class="s1">confirmation bias"</span>). I understand that your opinion about new gTLD program but it is dubious to project it in context like africa without investigation, fact-checking and analysis</div>
<div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div class="gmail_quote"><div> Furthermore, there is an intellectual requirement to separate logical analysis from wishful thinking; the inclination to distort the distinction between the two even has <a href="http://www.wisegeek.com/what-does-woulda-coulda-shoulda-mean.htm" target="_blank">its own meme</a>.<br>
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<p class="p1">I didn't see any kind wishful thinking, we are more questioning the causality relation stated without further proving that few applications from africa is caused by little interest. how can we state about interest when there is no indication about awareness about the program at decent level?</p>
</div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div class="gmail_quote"><div>I have yet to see significant evidence in the developing world of "if we'd only known about the gTLD program we would have applied". </div>
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<p class="p1">well, how you can prove that there was little interest? just because few number of applications? quite vicious circle :)</p></div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div class="gmail_quote"><div>As a counterpoint, anyone who was even casually <a href="http://www.ethiopianreview.com/articles/34306" target="_blank">watching</a> <a href="http://www.techcentral.co.za/get-set-for-the-africa-gold-rush/29833/" target="_blank">the</a> <a href="http://www.domainnews.co.za/2012/03/darkest-africa/" target="_blank">IT</a> <a href="http://www.prlog.org/11329153-kass-international-media-broadcasts-yes2dotafrica-campaign-pregnant-with-africa-said-sophia.html" target="_blank">media</a> in <a href="http://www.biztechafrica.com/article/aftld-takes-africa/527/" target="_blank">Africa</a> could not avoid the protracted political sparring between DCA and Uniforum on who had more entitlement to ".africa" </div>
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<p class="p1">"IT media in africa", are those regionally known? covering big parts of region of 54 countries with its diversity in term of languages and cultures? it is unfortunate to use .africa as kind of redherring, yes it is controversial and it has long history, but it doesn't mean that will define all other existing or possible applications .</p>
</div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div class="gmail_quote"><div>-- and those with an appropriately entrepreneurial bent would have wondered why a TLD was so valuable to those two groups. ICANN can't buy that kind of outreach (though I fully agree that it didn't even try). But lack of ICANN outreach does not mean that those who could have applied (but didn't) were unaware.<br>
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<p class="p1">you are assuming that possible entrepreneurs have to know about .africa and then thinking about applying or not? you can try to check how many in the region in net industry are aware about .africa and .arab projects. </p>
<p class="p1">in fact, ICANN left outreach to insiders ..</p></div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div class="gmail_quote"><div>
<br>Eliminating wishful thinking (for instance, expecting that developing-world entrepreneurs would react to the same stimuli -- in the same way -- as developed-world ones) from the discussion would indeed "take us very far" in really analysing whether the current path of iCANN wrt gTLDs is in the global public good.</div>
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<p class="p2">you are focusing on entrepreneurs,what about communities for example?</p>
<p class="p2">it is not matter of stimuli but prospective opportunities matching the regional context.</p></div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div class="gmail_quote"><div>There are numerous core assumptions behind ICANN policy that, I submit, are simply out-of-whack with the Real World -- and nowhere is evidence of this disjoint more apparent than in developing economies.<br>
<br>Dismissal of such premises -- without disproving them -- does not make the discussion go away. It just forces such debate outside the bubble, to other forums in which you're not a participant. And some of those emerging forums are a direct threat to ICANN and the multi-stakeholder model.</div>
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<p class="p1">not sure about emerging forums that you are mentioning, you mean ITU etc?</p>
<div>in fact, the few number of applications from developing regions is good argument that ITU can sell to show how much ICANN is careless about internationalization and developing countries. </div><div><br></div><div>Rafik</div>
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