Alternate Root Systems

My personal position on alternate roots is pretty clear: They are a Stupid Idea.
The details can be found in RFC 2826, "IAB Technical Comment on the Unique DNS Root".
One pretty damning detail is that the root systems don't agree with each other.
This page contains links to some of them.

Open Root Server Consortium - a club of those who want to cooperate to build an alternate universe
Image Online Design (IOD) - the original "give me the .EARTH, or we'll sue".
New.Net - the original "Alternate root as a VC business opportunity"
AtlanticRoot - the "we were first with .biz" crowd
OnlineLizards - Just another alternate root that spammed me

There are surely more. I don't really want to know about them.
Pretty much, they seem out on a collective binge to prove that despite all the faults of ICANN, the alternatives are still worse.