.FR

Several sites and blogs around the world have picked on the public consultation launched by the French government to determine the best way in which .FR should be run and what the upcoming Request For Proposals to run the French registry should focus on.

This process is bound to be fascinating to follow worldwide for people interested in the domain name industry. France has often shown itself to be as modern and innovative as it is set in its ways and hard to decipher.

On this issue, seeing a government asking in a very public way the question – "has our Internet suffix been run right and what could be done to improve it?" – has to appear very positive. Especially when that government puts the position of registry up for grabs after a decade with an existing organisation, AFNIC, who's always seemed as safe as houses.

All well and good, but only if the French government's intent really is to launch a fair RFP in which every candidate has an equal chance. If this turns out to be just a "make-up" exercise to consolidate AFNIC's position as the French registry, then the French authorities will have lost a lot of credibility as far as the worldwide Internet community is concerned.

But let's not draw any hasty conclusions here. The first step in the process, the current consultation, has a June 24 deadline. No date has yet been announced for publication of the answers that will be sent in, but I for one can't wait to read them. Here's hoping some will come from outside France…

Oh, and BTW, a quick wave to the guys at Domainnews.com who ran my previous post on the consultation and to Michele who also mentioned it in an great post about the current "fun and games" in the ccTLD wolrd