Author: Maria Farrell

Maria Farrell is a writer and independent consultant specializing in Internet policy development, communications and community-building.

Maria was a policy officer and then director of information coordination at ICANN serving in three of the organization’s offices in Brussels, Los Angeles and Washington DC. Before that, she acted as e-business policy manager at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Paris, in the policy executive for electronic law at the Law Society of England and Wales, and as a policy adviser on e-business for the Confederation of British Industry in London. She currently works in a policy and communications role at the World Bank.

Maria Farrell is an Irish national and studied History and Politics at University College Dublin. She has an MA in Interactive Media from the Dublin Institute of Technology in 1999; an MSc in Government from the London School of Economics; and an MBA at the Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School in Belgium.

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19 January 2012
Top Ten tips for applying for a new Internet extension

Maria Farrell was a policy officer, then director of communications at ICANN, before joining the World Bank in both a comms and policy role.

Here she outlines her Top Ten tips for anyone applying for a new Internet extension, built on her experience as a key member and analyst on the team that will apply for dot-London.

So you want to apply for a new gTLD (generic Top Level Domain)?

There are several different kinds of application, so all the points below may not apply to you. But even so, they may help you to understand the process and at least some of the pitfalls.

1. Think hard about your name. Then think again.

This is entry-level stuff, but you must think very hard about the name, read ICANN's Applicant Guidebook through, and think again. Focus on the sections on ‘strings’, i.e. names, and on objections and contested names. Now ask yourself these questions:

  • Is it a country or territory name or does it have just two characters? If so, give up and start again. These aren’t allowed.