[council] Public comment period on Initial Report on new gTLDs.

[GNSO.SECRETARIAT@GNSO.ICANN.ORG]

[To: ga[at]gnso.icann.org]
[To: announce[at]gnso.icann.org;regional-liaisons at icann.org]
[To: liaison6c[at]gnso.icann.org; council[at]gnso.icann.org]

Please note that a  public comment period is now open until Friday 18 
August 2006 on the Initial Report on new gTLDs.
http://gnso.icann.org/drafts/newgtlds-issues-report-01-28jul06.htm

From: http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement1-28jul06.htm

The GNSO Council's Committee on the introduction of new top level 
domains has released its Initial Report
(http://gnso.icann.org/drafts/newgtlds-issues-report-01-28jul06.htm )
as part of ICANN's policy development process. This Report is the 
product of a long series of consultations and meetings about the Terms 
of Reference
http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-06dec05.htm#TOR.

The GNSO Council's new TLD Committee will meet again in Amsterdam 
between 29 & 31 August 2006 to consider any further public comments and 
inputs from ICANN's Advisory Committees and Supporting Organisations 
before preparing a Final Report for submission to the ICANN Board prior 
to the Sao Paolo meeting in early December 2006.

A public comment period is now open until Friday 18 August 2006 and 
members of the community are asked to respond specifically to the 
following questions upon which further discussion is needed.

1. After reading the Initial Report, are there any other selection 
criteria which may be helpful for a new top level domain application round?

2. Thinking about the issue of application fees for any new top level 
domain application, is there merit in graduated application fees to 
assist applicants?

3. Taking into account the experiences from the 2000 and 2004 round of 
new top level domains, do you have further comments to make about 
streamlining the application process?

4. Thinking about ICANN's responsibility to ensure competition in 
registry services operation, do you have any additional comments about 
how to encourage applications which would serve needs which are not met 
by the existing top level domains?

5. Looking closely at the technical selection criteria section of the 
Report, are there any further comments which would assist with 
identifying appropriate base line technical criteria for new applications?

6. Do you have any further comment to make on the use of the first come 
first served system for processing applications and then whether 
auctions or lotteries are appropriate ways of resolving competition 
between applications?

7. Do you have any further views on the kinds of new TLDs that might be 
encouraged? Specifically, do members of the community expect the 
existing differentiation between sponsored, generic, chartered and open 
TLDs to remain?

Comments can be submitted via a web from soon to be posted, or by 
sending email to newgtlds-comments at icann.org. Comments will be viewable 
at http://forum.icann.org/lists/newgtlds-comments.

Further questions about any aspect of the /Initial Report /or the policy 
development process can be addressed to Dr Liz Williams, Senior Policy 
Counselor, liz.williams at icann.org .

-- 
Glen de Saint Géry
GNSO Secretariat - ICANN
gnso.secretariat[at]gnso.icann.org
http://gnso.icann.org