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<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=724161807-07062012><FONT
color=#0000ff>That's going to make fun. I've heard from 6-digit offers ensuring
applicants to get to the 1st batch...</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
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<P><SPAN lang=de><FONT face="Courier New">Best regards</FONT></SPAN> <BR><SPAN
lang=de><FONT face="Courier New">Wolf-Ulrich</FONT></SPAN> </P>
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<FONT face=Tahoma><B>Von:</B> ICANN News Alert
[mailto:communications@icann.org] <BR><B>Gesendet:</B> Donnerstag, 7. Juni
2012 04:36<BR><B>An:</B> Knoben, Wolf-Ulrich<BR><B>Betreff:</B> ICANN News
Alert -- New gTLD Batching Announcement<BR></FONT><BR></DIV>
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<H2>News Alert</H2>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px; FONT-FAMILY: arial; FONT-SIZE: small"><A
href="http://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-06jun12-en.htm">http://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-06jun12-en.htm</A></P>
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<H2 style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; CLEAR: left">New gTLD Batching
Announcement</H2>
<P style="MARGIN: 15px 0px 0px">6 June 2012</P>
<P>Given the large number of new generic top-level domain (gTLD) applications,
we will divide and evaluate them in batches. The batching system is targeted
to open at 00:01 UTC on 8 June 2012, and will close at 23:59 UTC on 28 June
2012. The target date for posting the batching order is 11 July 2012. </P>
<P>The batching process will be used to determine which applications will be
processed in the first batch, the second batch and so on. It will be done by:
assignment of a timestamp, and the formation of batches.</P>
<P><EM>Timestamp assignments</EM> will be done using the TLD Application
System (TAS). All applicants must use their TAS credentials to log in, read
and accept the batching rules, indicate their batching preference, and select
their target date and time. Once these steps are completed applicants should
log back into TAS to hit the target time and generate a secondary timestamp.
Users will have access to a testing feature to gauge the secondary timestamp
system's response time. </P>
<P><EM>Batching formation</EM> considers an applicant's: (1) batching
preference, (2) geographic region and secondary timestamp; and (3) contention
among identical and "similar" applications. </P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>(1) Applicants stating a preference for "opting-out" will be placed
last.</P>
<P>(2) Geographic diversity is important in bringing more competition and
choice into the domain name market. Applicants who opted in will be ranked
within their geographic region (Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin
America/Caribbean and North America) by their secondary timestamp score.
Then applications will be selected from each ICANN region using a "round
robin" approach. This approach selects the best timestamp score from each
region, one region at a time, on a rotating basis. If a region runs out of
opted-in applications, the "round robin" continues across the remaining
regions. This process continues until the batch is formed, with the
opted-out applications last.</P>
<P>(3) ICANN will then make preliminary determinations of contention sets
based upon exact match. All applications in a single contention set are
placed into the batch where the earliest application in the contention set
is placed. Once the string similarity panel establishes complete contention
sets, "similar" strings might be reassigned to an earlier batch. No
applications will be demoted as a result of the promotion of others. This
could result in a batch larger than 500.</P></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>ICANN has taken care to provide a secure and stable platform for the
batching system. Users will connect to the Citrix XenApp high-availability
cluster and will then log into the batching system. Applicants will be
required to agree to a set of Batching Rules, including an agreement that
"ICANN reserves the right to delay an application to the last batch or to
reject an application entirely if ICANN reasonably determines that the
applicant abused the batching system or intentionally interfered with the
performance of the system or any other applicant's use of the system."</P>
<P>Along with this announcement ICANN is posting several additional resources
to inform applicants about the batching process. These include a: set of
frequently asked questions (FAQs), video demonstration, user guide, batching
details and rules, and a batching basics fact sheet, which all can be found on
the Batching information webpage at <A
href="http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/applicants/tas/batching/">http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/applicants/tas/batching/</A>.
Information on security, infrastructure, and operations is also available in
these materials.</P></DIV></DIV><BR><BR>
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