>This was my original approach - to make the criteria so specific that the
>applicant virtually knew whether they would be successful before the
>application went in. Since then, however, there have been several people
>arguing to make the criteria less stringent and more vague and this is
>leaving us at the point where no final version of the criteria can be
>submitted that more than about 50% of the contributors agree on.
>

I have to suggest that ADNA's directors need to urgently resolve this issue
before the public discussion can usefully continue. It is a fundamental
question, this one - whether the criteria for acceptance are purely
'mechanical' (so an applicant does, literally, know if they're acceptable
before they apply, as with the gTLD criteria) or whether 'selection' is
based on guidelines for some sort of review committee in ADNA to use to
guide assessment of the applications based on who has submitted the most
entertaining essay ("What I would do if I were a DNA - by Fred Hopeful Pty
Ltd") - a bit like an english exam. 

I really think we're unable to proceed without ADNA providing closure on
the answer to this one. It is fundamental to framing the (consequent)
discussion about the each specific point to be a part of the selection
criteria document. I suggest that each point in the assessment criteria
must be either a yes/no item or a "submit it and hope" item - but in the
latter case, you'd really better get ready for legal action when you reject
someone - especially if you do wind up with that (probably excessive)
insistence on huge sums of liquid cash - you are, by doing that *and*
keeping fluff in there, guaranteeing that only well funded applications,
who can afford to engage good lawyers, will apply - and will be prepared to
spend money to be in the game.

Personally, I don't think (irrespective of the criteria) that you're going
to get swamped with applicants. Once you step back a little from this
process, you may see that being a DNA is not exactly an exciting activity -
just a necessary one. And rather like cleaning the streets, someone has to
do it, but most people want to leave it to someone else.

Thanks,
Simon
---
Simon Hackett, Technical Director, Internode Systems Pty Ltd
31 York St [PO Box 284, Rundle Mall], Adelaide, SA 5000 Australia
Email: simon§internode.com.au  Web: http://www.on.net
Phone: +61-8-8223-2999          Fax: +61-8-8223-1777