[council] ICANN extending comment period on single-letter and single-digit domain names until 15 December 2007

[GNSO.SECRETARIAT@GNSO.ICANN.ORG]

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

http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-16oct07.htm


ICANN Establishes Forum on Allocation Methods for Single-Letter and 
Single-Digit Domain Names

16 October 2007 (Comment period extended 7 November 2007).

As recommended by the GNSO Council, ICANN is commencing a forum on 
potential allocation methods for single-letter and single-digit domain 
names at the second level in gTLD registries. Examples include a.com, 
i.info, 4.mobi, 8.org. Since revenue will result from this allocation, 
comments regarding the potential uses for this revenue are also requested.

ICANN intends to synthesize responses to the forum and present proposed 
methods for allocation of single-letter and single-digit domain names at 
the second level for community consideration.

To be considered by ICANN, ideas on potential allocation methods should 
be submitted to allocationmethods at icann.org. Comments may be viewed at 
http://forum.icann.org/lists/allocationmethods/. **ICANN is extending 
the comment period until 23:59 UTC 15 December 2007 on the forum for 
potential allocation methods for single-letter and single-digit domain 
names at the second level in gTLD registries. There has been interest in 
providing additional time so that members of the Internet community that 
have not previously commented on ICANN topics may do so. 17 comments 
have been provided to date.

The GNSO Council asked ICANN to initiate a forum on this issue after 
considering a report of the Council's Reserved Names Working Group 
(RN-WG), which recommended that “single letters and digits be released 
at the second level in future gTLDs, and that those currently reserved 
in existing gTLDs should be released. This release should be contingent 
upon the use of appropriate allocation frameworks. More work may be 
needed. In future gTLDs we recommend that single letters and single 
digits be available at the second (and third level if applicable).” The 
GNSO is one of ICANN's primary stakeholder-populated policy making 
bodies. The recommendations of the RN-WG can be found at 
http://gnso.icann.org/issues/new-gtlds/final-report-rn-wg-23may07.pdf 
[PDF, 713K].
-- 
Glen de Saint Géry
GNSO Secretariat - ICANN
gnso.secretariat[at]gnso.icann.org
http://gnso.icann.org