The whole process of drafting the final request for proposals have been going on for years. At the same time, potential applicants and their communities are getting nervous that it gives the impression that nothing moves ahead. This may not be true, because there are some very complicated issues that still need to be resolved. At the same time, it poses problems.

For ICANN, the main issue is to quantify the number of proposals that can be expected. If it needs to hire staff and experts to evaluate these proposals, it needs to know how many proposals will be submitted.

For applicants like us, we need to send out clear signals to our communities that we are serious, in order to be able to raise the necessary funding to apply for our TLD later on. We also need to know if there are going to be similar proposals submitted by other groups. This will give us a chance to settle our differences and submit one proposal, rather than several.

This is why we joined a working group that has submitted a proposal to ICANN, asking for them to launch a call for Expression of Interest in applying for a new top level domain. This proposal suggests among others to:

• ask for a deposit, in order to avoid frivolous submissions. The deposit would then be deducted from the application fee later on.

• Only allow applications coming from the groups that have formally expressed their interest. This will force all the potential applicants that have not yet made their interest public to come out of the woods.

• Publish the results of the call, so that groups can form alliances ahead of the application window.

Overall, we think the proposal of this working group is balanced and we hope it will be accepted by the ICANN board at its 20^th December meeting.

The not so good news is that the ICANN staff does not commit to any timeline for the introduction of new top level domains. The previous information saying that applications for new top level domains like .sport could be submitted in Q1 2010 is now obsolete. We  hear there will be a fourth draft of the Applicant’s Guidebook before the final version is published.

There are still major issues that prevent the ICANN staff and board to go ahead with accepting applications. A major one being how the trademarks will be dealt with by the new top level domain operators. The good news is that we notice a willingness from all parties to sort out this issue and resolve differences. We are optimistic that this will finally be out of the way in the near future.

This is not all that bad, actually. Unlike many prospective applicants for new top level domains, we think it is important that ICANN comes up with a request for proposals that has no grey areas.  Some of the things still being discussed could have a real impact on the business model of the new TLDs. For example, some small community-based TLDs could be de facto prevented from going ahead if they see that they will need to hire extra staff to handle trademark disputes.

However, we also understand the concerns of some prospective applicants that have been working within the ICANN community for several years, and are becoming impatient. Many of them have shareholders or communities that are asking for a return for their support. Telling them that the process is once again delayed is not what they want to hear. This is why we welcome the ICANN board’s decision to ask the staff to investigate a proposal made by Mind+Machines. This would allow prospective new TLD applicants to formally submit an “expression of interest” to ICANN, along with a deposit. There are several advantages:

• it allows ICANN to have a feeling of the number of potential applications there will be, allowing them to size their operations accordingly
• it allows prospective applicants to show they are serious, and use this process to gain the support of additional partners.

If this materializes, we should be able to file an expression of interest for .sport in Q1 2010.

On the .sport front, we are happy to see that our project is gaining momentum and interest within the community, and had some very interesting exchanges with potential partners. Obviously, it is too early to tell, but will keep you updated as we go forward.

Unrelated to the above, but a major breakthough in itself, we would like to take this opportunity to congratulate ICANN to have started the process of adding new top level domains in non-latin scripts. These are called IDNs (Internationalized Domain Names) . They are domain names written in scripts like Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese, Cyrillic, Hindi, etc. This will allow millions of people who do not yet use the Internet because of the language barrier to join in. We are looking forward to the next billion Internet users coming online.

This is a huge pile of information that will require several days to digest.  At first sight, the current version does not change a lot with regard to our .sport proposal. There are still concerns in the Internet domain name industry that there might be issues if registrars (domain name retailers) became operators of top level domains.

This new draft also includes provisions which would prevent people and companies who have been involved in the past in cybersquatting and similar activities to submit an application for a new top level domain. We welcome this addition. If we want customers to trust the new top level domains, they need to be assured that registry operators are going to play by the rules.

As we said, this new draft requires careful reading. We will keep you updated on how this will affect our .sport proposal.

The documents are at the following URL: www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/comments-3-en.htm

The DotSport consortium announced today that his founder, Patrick Vande Walle, has been appointed to the Security and Stability Advisory Committee of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

The Security and Stability Advisory Committee advises the ICANN community and Board on matters relating to the security and integrity of the Internet’s naming and address allocation systems. This includes operational matters (e.g., matters pertaining to the correct and reliable operation of the root name system), administrative matters (e.g., matters pertaining to address allocation and Internet number assignment), and registration matters (e.g., matters pertaining to registry and registrar services such as WHOIS). SSAC engages in ongoing threat assessment and risk analysis of the Internet naming and address allocation services to assess where the principal threats to stability and security lie, and advises the ICANN community accordingly.

“I am honoured to be chosen to join this esteemed group of security experts”, commented Patrick Vande Walle. “This is in line with our commitment to make the Internet a safer place both for business and for leisure. On the Internet just like in a sport stadium, you have to play by the rules. And if you don’t, there are referees to stop you.”

ABOUT DOTSPORT

DotSport is a start-up company in Luxembourg, Luxembourg which will submit in a few months a proposal to ICANN to create a .sport top level domain, aiming to build an Internet community for the many groups and individuals interested in sport. More information about .sport can be found at http://www.dotsport.info.

FOR FURTHER DETAILS

Anne Deschuyteneer
Communications Manager
DotSport Consortium
Phone: +352 621 268891
E-mail: anne@dotsport.info

Some issues regarding trademark protection, security and stability have not been addressed yet in this version.

It is anticipated that a final version will be published this summer and that applications could be filed by the end of year 2009. In the meantime, ICANN already accepts comments on this second draft.

Another post in French on Patrick Vande Walle's blog:  
http://patrick.vande-walle.eu/internet/icann/commentaires-nouveaux-tld/

"Since ICANN was founded 10 years ago, one of the foundational principles has been to support competition and consumer choice in generic top-level domains. That competition is meant to promote innovation and enhance user choice and satisfaction" said Dr Paul Twomey, ICANN's President and Chief Executive Officer.
"The Internet has produced great openness and innovation that has led to changes few of us imagined. The effect of opening up the top-level of the domain system will enable more innovation and entrepreneurial applications" he said.
"One huge area of potential innovation will be applications for names that are in non-Roman characters, or Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs). Currently there are only 21 generic top-level names and they are all in characters that look like English. There are 1.5 billion Internet users and many non-English speakers will have the opportunity to express the whole of a domain name in characters that look like their language," Dr Twomey said.

The draft Applicant Guidebook and accompanying material will be made available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish according to ICANN's translation policy. The modules contain information on the evaluation fee, the application process and evaluation criteria, as well as background material.
Designed to accompany the draft Applicant Guidebook is a set of Explanatory Memoranda that are intended to assist understanding of the implementation work for new gTLDs. In addition, two new papers: "Cost Considerations of the new gTLDs Program" and "Summary of Changes to Base Agreement for New gTLDs" are also being released and complete the explanatory memoranda.
Amongst the 6 modules and over 200 pages of the draft Guidebook and Memoranda, some key areas of interest are:

• How contested strings (or names) will be determined;
• How applications for geographic names will be considered;
• Technical requirements for new names that encompass internationalized domain names;
• The rights of intellectual property holders;
• How morality and public order objections can be raised;
• The cost of the evaluation process and how it is constructed.

There will be two comment periods of 45 days each. Every Government in the world is being sent a letter to draw their attention to the draft and the draft Guidebook remains subject to further consultation and revision.
"There has already been robust discussion and consultation regarding many phases of the new gTLD implementation plan, but this is the first opportunity to consider the application and evaluation processes as a whole," Dr Twomey said. "There's been a lot of thought involved in producing the draft Guidebook and we've used best practice and outside experts to assist us in developing the application process. Now is the time for close scrutiny, questions and input that will shape the end result and make it stronger," he said.