Hi Evan,

there is fact : there was  no real outreach efforts toward africa about new
gTLD program (and that is an euphemism) and about support applicant for
example. it is hard to make causality relation with such fact between
few applications from africa and no interest from region for new gTLD
program.

Best,

Rafik Dammak
@rafik
"fight for the users"



2012/7/5 Evan Leibovitch <[log in to unmask]>

> On 4 July 2012 09:15, Adam Peake <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>
>> Failure of outreach, or just a reflection of economics.
>
>
> There are more answers/excuses than those two. Many more.
>
> ICANN continues to amaze me, in that so many inside its bubble cannot
> comprehend the mere possibility that there may simply be *no demand* for
> new TLDs in wide swaths of the world, especially after factoring out
> defensive motives. Not just Africa. Not everyone believes that that mere
> speculation equates to innovation, or that private ownership/control of
> common words is a Good Idea. And no amount of bovine lipstick is going to
> hide these core assumptions of the TLD expansion program.
>
> After promoting an idea/product to an audience that doesn't take, saying
> that the message was not adequately delivered is a convenient excuse. But
> there's also the distinct possibility -- that *must* be at least
> considered -- that the message was sufficiently delivered and understood,
> but the target market has chosen not to partake based on educated choice.
>
> - Evan
>
>
>