I know Andy. He's no stooge of Cade. He probably would end up agreeing more with me on TLD issues than with her. As indeed would any decent economist. That, in fact was my point: not that I should be called in as a witness, but that there are already numerous instances of experts weighing in on these issues, and they have ALL been critical of the "beaty contest" approach, yet in the political hothouse of ICANN we continue to back beauty contests. Name one article by an expert economist or political scientist that supports TLD beauty contests -- none of them do, including the report funded by the DoC and NSF itself! >>> Danny Younger <[log in to unmask]> 9/20/2006 3:13:18 PM >>> Horacio, Allow me to supply some background on the issue of "experts". Per PDP guidelines, the Contractual Conditions Task Force put out a "Call for Experts" in early April: "ICANN and the GNSO are interested in seeking the views of a range of different experts, in addition to hearing from its formal Constituencies and seeking public comments through the ICANN website. We would be grateful if you could submit an expert opinion on any or all of the items set out in the response template below." http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-11apr06.htm No expert comments were submitted. Not surprising, as most "experts" don't spend their time perusing the GNSO website on a daily basis. Three months later, the BC's Marilyn Cade begins asserting that expert commentary is needed from competition and anti-trust authorities. She puts forward a series of names including that of Dr. Andrew Odlyzko, University of Minn., USA. Prior to assuming a position at the University of Minnesota in 2001, Dr. Odlyzko devoted 26 years to research and research management at Bell Telephone Laboratories, AT&T Bell Labs, and AT&T Labs. http://www.dtc.umn.edu/~odlyzko/bio.html This renewed call for experts is nothing more than a thinly disguised attempt to buttress the views of the BC. If the TF accepts commentary from Dr. Odlyzko, then it should certainly equally accept commentary from Milton Mueller. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com