For one, the purposely small TLDs, serving limited communities, will be able to sell directly. Registrars are mostly interested in selling TLDs that would significantly contribute to their sales. Small TLDs take up “shelf space”, each having its own set of technical and administrative chores. If the sales are low, small TLDs may not be a wise choice for registrars.

The so-called “Brand TLDs”, i.e. TLDs operated by a company for their sole use, will be able to manage  the entire process in-house. Hence, if a company like IBM applies for “.ibm”, they will not need to involve third parties in the process and will be able to manage the whole chain internally.

For the start-up TLDs, there is often a chicken and egg situation. As explained above, many registrars do not wish to invest too much energy in new TLDs that have no proven high demand.  On the other hand, if the users cannot buy the domain names easily, this could hamper the success of the TLD.
Under the new provisions, start-up registries will thus be able to sell directly. Once they have reached the stage of building a critical mass of registrations, it will be much easier for them to convince registrars to carry the TLD, too.

This also opens up new opportunities of partnerships between registries and registrars. One of the major problems that the new registries are facing right now is to find investors. The domain name market is quite specialized. Generic investors , with no experience in this sector tend to be very conservative. Registrars, on the other end, have a long experience in the sector, and can more easily assert the risks and benefits of associating themselves with new gTLD operators.

What does that bring to sport community, you ask ? A major benefit is that .sport domains will be available from day one.

And what does that bring to DotSport itself ? All of the above, we would say.

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: +352 661.40.13.57
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.

http://www.circleid.com/post/20081216_icann_new_generic_tld_process/

Another post in French on Patrick Vande Walle’s blog:

http://patrick.vande-walle.eu/internet/icann/commentaires-nouveaux-tld/