ICANN has received 1930 applications in total,  much more than the expected 500, for which ICANN had adapted its approval process. This all means that applications will be examined in batches. Those who will be lucky to be in the first batch might be able to start operating in early 2013, if all goes well. At least, that is only two years behind the initial timeline.  For the unfortunate that will be part of the next batches, let us hope they have enough cash-in-the bank to survive until ICANN approves their application.

The applications will be placed in batches based on a lottery type selection which ICANN describes as “kind of like a game of digital archery”. That’s right, you are betting your business and several hundreds of thousands of dollars on an online game. Fortunately, all applications for the same string, e.g. “.sport” will be processed in  the same batch. ICANN says there are 230 strings in contention.

How many applications there are for “.sport” will be reavealed on 13th June. Once the list is revealed, do expect that some applicants for the same string will find synergies and eventually “merge” their applications.We here at DotSport®, will be watching closely.

If you think you have identified a “killer” domain name, we suggest you keep it for yourself until the registrations are open, rather than telling a stranger who would register it before you do. Be especially careful if these companies ask for a payment in exchange for this “pre-registration”.

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.

ICANN launched this process 4 years ago. A whole policy development process then took place inside the Internet community to agree on the terms of the introduction of these new TLDs. There are several issues that need to be addressed:

• Technical issues: We want the Internet to continue working as it did until now. If introducing new TLDs would make the Internet cease to function, that would not be a benefit for anyone. At the same time, we may want to introduce more security in the TLD system, to prevent attacks against it. This all requires careful studies, especially since it is a quite unknown territory.
• Intellectual property issues: Domain names are unique across the Internet. Marks, registered or not are not. “Acme” might be a registered trademark by an American company, using it on the North American market. There might be a local shop somewhere else in the world that uses the same brand to sell to its local community. In  the real world, there would be no confusion. On the Internet,  we need rules to prevent confusion, because of the uniqueness of domain names. Everyone would agree that “nike.sport” would need to be allocated to the sports equipment manufacturer. Both the company and the consumers would benefit from that. But does “nike.music” make sense for the sports equipment manufacturer, especially if there is a rock band using that name ? All this questions required careful examination.
• Malicious Conduct: No-one benefits if someone registers  domain name that can cause confusion to the consumer. If you being offered to buy an iPod from a web site called “apple.music”, you want to be relatively sure you are actually dealing with the real brand owner. If the site is operated by a criminal operation wanting to steal you credit card details, we have a big problem.
• TLD Demand: Some doubt there is a real demand for new TLDs. We don’t. But we have to convince the sceptics that it is worth investing millions of dollars in such a program and that the return on investment will be beneficial for the Internet community as a whole.
• Fairness to smaller communities: Let’s face it. Launching a new TLD is expensive. Of course, some of the costs are related to the expected size of the TLD. There will be big TLDs, like .sport, .music and others.  We are talking about hundred of thousands of registered domain names.  However, small communities  should not be prevented to apply for a TLD. There should be mechanisms put in place to help these small communities to apply and run a TLD, even if it is only for twenty thousand registrations.

Timeline

All the above explains why the policy process takes time. However, hope is in sight. We are optimists here. With the open issues slowly reaching consensus, we think that the “Applicant’s Guidebook” , the RFP, will be finalized by the end of this year.  It will be possible for us to apply for “.sport” during Q2 2011, and effectively start operating in early 2012. This is of course our best guess. ICANN, on its side, does no more commit to a timeline. So, take this guess for what it is: a vision in  a crystal ball.

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 web site is now supporting IPv6 and DNS Decurity Extensions (DNSSEC).

IPv6 is required for the future growth of the Internet. It is expected that in three or four years time, new entrants on the Internet will no more be able to get IPv4 addresses. Some Internet Service Providers in Asia and Europe are now already using IPv6 for their customers. DNSSEC, on the other hand, is a technology that helps fight different sorts of attacks on the Internet, like phishing and domain name attacks, for example. It is anticipated that the deployment of DNSSEC on the whole Internet domain name system will greatly reduce the possibile attacks on the DNS.  While both technologies are not yet deployed widely, they will be in the near future.

Just like the right type of shoes can help an athlete reach new levels of performance, so will these new Internet technologies help .sport domain name holders gain universal connectivity and trust from the users.

This testbed is for now only covering the DotSport web site and related e-mail services. It aims at showing that the DotSport registry is committed in offering the best of breed service to the sport community.

More Information about IPv6 on Wikipedia

More information about DNSSEC on Wikipedia

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