Author: Edward Conlon

Edward Conlon works as freelance journalist in London, having left Managing Intellectual Property magazine after nine months as a reporter. At Managing IP he was responsible for the Internet IP channel, writing domain-related news and analysis for legal practitioners and industry specialists.

After graduating from university, Edward completed a six-month NCTJ journalism course in Essex, learning about news-writing, shorthand and other important skills for journalists. He has worked at the Sunday Telegraph and Sunday Mirror, both British national newspapers.

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Transcript
26 March 2012
Ethics and Conflicts of Interest

CHERINE CHALABY: Good afternoon, everyone.

This next session, we would like to bring the community up‐to‐date with
the work we're doing on conflict of interest and ethics.
With me here, we have two board members, and they are members of
the BGC as well, Bill Graham and Ray Plzak, and as well as our General
Counsel, J.J., otherwise known as John Jeffrey.

Okay. What's the agenda for this afternoon? Basically we want to
review our plans and make you familiar with them. We want to update
you on the work we are doing, specifically with outside reviews as well
as our internal work. And then we want to pause and take questions
from all of you.

Okay. So the first starting point goes back to where we were in Dakar.
J.J., can you move the slide?

We talked about conflicts and the work we were doing in Dakar, and we
said we would like to enhance our conflict or interest policy to more
clearly address the hard cases, and not only those that relate to actual
conflict but also those related to perception of conflicts. And I think the
most important thing here is to raise the bar to the highest possible
standard so that there's no perception of conflict at all.
Story
23 March 2012
Why nobody likes new gTLD batching

ICANN’s decision to create batches of gTLD applications by using a target time variance system has left policy-makers both shocked and concerned.


Process for breaking up applications into groups will be crucial for many

If the number of applied-for strings “significantly” exceeds 500 – the maximum number that can be evaluated at once – ICANN must fairly organise batches. For some applicants, particularly those running open registries that focus on maximising sales, being in that first batch is crucial.

Under the proposal, applicants who opt-in will pick a “target time” – a date and time in the near future. They have to visit ICANN’s website on that date and click a “submit” button as close to the time as possible. The closer they are to the time, the higher they will rank.

Story
7 March 2012
Show me the money: gTLD consultants talk finances

A financial report released by Top Level Domain (TLD) Holdings has shed light on the challenges facing gTLD consultants in a fiercely competitive market.

In the fifteen months to 31 January 2012, the company that owns consultants Minds + Machines made a $2.25 million operating loss. And according to chairman Peter Dengate Thrush, the company’s $117,000 revenue in that time did not come from any gTLD consultancy work.


Dengate Thrush: Pay as you go

Dengate-Thrush told .Nxt that Minds + Machines has only begun receiving gTLD-related revenue since 12 January 2012 – when ICANN opened the application stage. He said until this year, the company has relied on other “independent” revenue streams.

He said that Minds + Machines, whose full package costs $100,000, allows clients to operate on a “pay as you go” model. This means that clients requiring services related to back-end registry and sunrise periods – those that won’t be needed until applications are successful – will not be charged until around 2013.