New TLDs

The Expression Of Interest (EOI) model was up for consideration at the ICANN Board's February 4th meeting, but ended up being pushed back until Nairobi.

ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee was amongst those calling for more time before any decision be taken on the EOI.

The proposed EOI model would make it compulsory for those wishing to apply for a new gTLD in the first round (currently expected to open in 2011). An EOI fee of USD 55,000 would be applied, and deducted from the USD 185,000 applicants would be required to pay in the first round.

During its February 4th meeting, the Board committed to an EOI decision at its next meeting, to be held in Nairobi in March.

Now here's a good idea. This site gives a list of new gTLD initiatives that are known to exist. You get the TLD itself, plus related web Facebook and Twitter pages. Not all the entries in this list are up to date, but in the fast moving world of new TLDs, that's hardly surprising and certainly not a major problem.

During the December 9 Board meeting, ICANN staff presented a revised project plan for completing the implementation of the new gTLD program. This is basically an updated roadmap leading up to the first application round, i.e. the start date when entities all over the world will be able to apply for their own Internet Top Level Domain.

This plan was summarised during yesterday's GNSO Council meeting. These are the major next steps expected by staff:

- A 4th version of the Draft Applicant Guidebook (DAG) will NOT be published in time for the next ICANN meeting (Nairobi, March 2010). However, significant excerpts of the DAGv4 will be, including items on trademark protection, post delegation dispute resolution, malicious conduct and the proposed registry agreement.

- A 4th DAG is expected to be published in time for ICANN's second international meeting of 2010 (Brussels, June). This should be very close to the final version.

- Following community discussion, a final version is expected to be published for the final meeting of next year (December, in Latin America (exact venue not determined yet)).

This means that the first round will likely not open until Q2 2011 at the earliest.

Although this is obviously unwelcome news for all those prospective applicants that have already been waiting for many years for the first round, this cloud does have a silver lining.

It is very likely that there will be some kind of Expression of Interest (EOI) system allowing applicants to "take their place in the queue" pending the full launch of the program with that first application round.

ICANN staff are working on a model already and will suggest that the EOI be made mandatory for all applicants. This means that even though the first round won't happen before 2011, applicants will still have to be ready to submit an EOI some time in 2010. Those that do will have taken an important first step towards their new gTLD.

However, before an EOI system can be implemented, at least two issues will have to be resolved. The first pertains to the 3 character minimum rule, which may be modified in some way. This has to be finalised as applicants need to know what they can apply for before submitting an EOI. There is also the registry/registrar vertical separation issue, as applicants need to know who (i.e. what type of entity) can apply.

The EOI, or Expressions Of Interest in the new gTLD program, took a step closer to reality during the ICANN Board meeting on December 9.

The Board directed staff to present a proposal for an EOI process model. This model is to be presented to the Board during its February 2010 meeting. If approved, the EOI would then be implemented.

Although some see the EOI as a sort of fast-track to applying for a new gTLD, others worry that asking staff to work on such a plan may take crucial resources away from the main work still to be done on the actual new gTLD program. But the Board obviously took the view that the EOI would be a good way of taking the new gTLD program forward.

Staff will no doubt work on the proposals that have already been made by an informal working group, of which I was a member as an observer. These include charging a submission fee of USD 55,000, making participation in the EOI mandatory for all prospective first-round applicants and publishing all the EOI received.

Deputy Mayor of Paris Jean-Louis Missika, sporting the official .PARIS badge, takes a look at the .PARIS support website. Photo INDOM.

Jean-Louis Missika discusses .PARIS with a few of the 1,000 guests attending the City of Paris event in the prestigious Paris town hall. Photo INDOM.

A .PARIS supporter signs the online form using one of the dedicated terminals set-up in the Paris town hall. Photo INDOM.

A special event was held last night in one of the Paris town hall's prestigious rooms to highlight the city's bid for a .PARIS TLD.

Organised as part of the Web09 show, a showcase for innovation on the Internet, the brought together over 1,000 people.

Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoë was in attendance and Deputy Mayor Jean-Louis Missika gave a speech, in English, on the .PARIS initiative.

Attendees were able to use specially set-up computer terminals to surf the dedicated .PARIS website and show their support for the TLD by signing the web form. Nearly 400 people have already signed.

INDOM is assisting the City of Paris on the .PARIS initiative and was one of the event's official partners.

Yesterday, the City of Paris launched a PR and communications campaign to garner community support for .PARIS.

A website (soon to be available in English on www.SupportDotParis.org) has been opened with a call for people to sign and show their support. Over the coming weeks, the site's content will be expanded with explanations of what .PARIS will be and who it will be aimed at.

Facebook and Twitter pages have also been opened to foster participation and discussion around .PARIS, a project for which INDOM is acting as consultant to the City of Paris.

A working group has been formed in response to the Seoul ICANN meeting Board resolution directing staff to "study the potential impact of a call for formal "expressions of interest," and provide a plan for Board consideration at ICANN's next Board meeting, in December 2009. The plan should include possible options and a risk analysis relating to the proposed action."

The group has published a draft charter and set itself an ambitious schedule in order to be able to bring before the Board a complete proposal for the implementation of an Expressions of Interest system and have it adopted by the next ICANN meeting in Seoul.

The draft charter includes a proposed working group timeline and a list of participants.

ICANN's 36th international meeting officially gets underway today (Monday October 26), but the weekend has already involved a lot of work for several members of the ICANN community.

The GNSO Council on which I sit, for example, had two full days of meetings on Saturday and Sunday. And although we've been very involved in our restructuring process and upcoming Chair elections, there seems to be a common thread throughout all the community discussions: new gTLDs.

Walk into the main conference area, and almost all booths are about new gTLDs: consultancy or technical services, new gTLD projects… Open up the bags that are given to each person who registers for the meeting and you'll find a lot of new gTLD oriented sales blurb. Without a doubt, a thriving industry has sprung up around new gTLDs.

But how long will that new industry last if ICANN is unable to give potential applicants a clear timetable for the start of the application process? Latest word is that there will be a 4th version of the Draft Applicant Guidebook (DAG). Kurt Pritz, ICANN's Senior Vice President, Services, told me that although the 3rd version that was published recently is almost complete, there is enough work remaining to warrant another draft before the final version comes out.

That could be in Q1 2010, meaning that the first round of applications could still be launched before the end of 2010.

Well this one's unexpected! ICANN has just announced that it has finally come to some sort of agreement with the UN's Universal Postal Union over .POST. This is the final (if you exclude the still very much in dispute .XXX) suffix that was okayed by ICANN as part of its 2003 limited round of new gTLD applications.

Since .POST was accepted by ICANN, the Internet's watchdog has never seen eye to eye with the UPU on the actual registry contract. Until now it seems.

It's difficult to think of this as pure coincidence. This comes just days before ICANN's last general meeting of the year and at a time when the current new gTLD program is being finalised, will no doubt be used to highlight the fact that previous new gTLD rounds were successful…

ICANN's much anticipated 3rd version of the Draft Applicant Guidebook (DAGv3) for new generic Top Level Domains should be out early this week, perhaps even as soon as Monday October 5th.

Those eagerly waiting to get their hands on it will find those hands to be quite full once the DAGv3 does get published. ICANN Director of Communications and Product Services Karla Valente has revealed that between the guidebook itself, explanatory memoranda and other additional documents, a total of over 30 documents are to be published!

The new gTLD web page on the ICANN website will also be redesigned and launched at the same time as the DAGv3 is published.

This week, people from all over the world and from all types of backgrounds came together to co-sign a letter to ICANN's management asking for new gTLDs to be launched as soon as possible.

The domain industry's major registrars, registries, prospective new gTLD operators, existing TLD operators, academics, business people both from inside and outside the domain industry… all participated in this landmark group action to speak for the innovation, job creation and increased competition that new gTLDs would bring.

The letter boasts a total of 61 signatories, from 16 different countries. INDOM was the only company from France to be asked to co-sign. We gladly agreed and are proud to support this initiative.

The long awaited 3rd version of ICANN's Draft Applicant Guidebook for the new gTLD program should be out at the beginning of next month. Maybe as early as October 1st. ICANN Senior VP Services Kurt Pritz confirmed the DAGv3 anticipated release date during today's GNSO Council teleconference which I attended as the Registrar Stakeholder Group's European representative on the Council.

Included in the DAGv3 should be those IRT recommendations that ICANN staff consider as useful in order to include a suitable level of rights protection in the gTLD program.

The dotHotel initiative isn't new, but surprisingly, it has managed to avoid drawing too much attention to itself. Not intentionally though, as the TLD sports a full and informative website.

The idea is to position .HOTEL as the TLD for the hotel industry, rather than a domain aimed at individuals such as hotel customers. "Domain names available with .HOTEL are precise and create identity for hotels, the hotel business and services," says dotHotel. 

However, it remains to be seen whether dotHotel can get key members of the hotel industry to support their efforts. Without such support, getting a generic TLD as valuable as .HOTEL may prove difficult…

DotHotel is a German initiative co-created by .BERLIN alumni Johannes Lenz-Hawliczek.