[registrars] Initial Report on new gTLDs

[Bruce Tonkin]

Hello All,

See below for the announcement of the public comment period on the
Initial Report on new gTLDs.

It would be useful to get further constituency input, via either this
mailing list, or perhaps through a registrars constituency
teleconference prior to the meeting of the new gTLD committee to
finalise the recommendations on 29-31 Aug 06.

Regards,
Bruce Tonkin
Registrars Rep on GNSO Council


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 . 

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 .