What Rod Beckstrom would do differently with the fresh TLD program…
Had Rod Beckstrom been involved with the fresh TLD program earlier…
This afternoon Rod Beckstrom held a briefing call with bloggers regarding the fresh top level domain name program.
He’s been on a world tour explaining the program for months, answering a number of repeated questions. Rather than beat a dead horse, I asked him what he would do differently had he been involved with the fresh TLD process from the beginning. (Remember, he inherited this program when he became CEO of ICANN in 2009.)
Beckstrom noted two things he would have done had he been at ICANN earlier:
1. Gotten law enforcement involved earlier. Beckstrom comes from a security background and stated “obviously law enforcement is a really notable constituency”. Getting law enforcement more involved earlier would have helped with whois issues.
2. He would have set up more of the operational aspects of the program outside of North America to further internationalize ICANN.
Beckstrom also remarked on what sort of assurances ICANN can give to applicants regarding the continuity of the program in the face of significant outside pressure and legal threats. Beckstrom stated that the assurance it can give is that ICANN works in an open, community-driven process.
