Domains (generic) -- gTLDs

Whaddaya take for this old dot-nag?

Seven of the 1,930 applications for new Internet extensions have been withdrawn so far, leaving each applicant with a bill of $55,000.

Six of the withdrawals have been made public, including three brands and three seemingly generic names that are reserved for country-only use. Details of the seventh withdrawal will be made public when ICANN has refunded $130,000 of the $185,000 application fee.

The three brands are: Rogers Communications' Chatr budget mobile service; Eli Lily's Cialis impotence drug; and pump manufacturer KSB, applying for its own name. So far, none of the company have offered an explanation for why they withdrew.

ICANN COO explains the new new gTLD batching system

A break-through, a fudge, or the best of a bad job? We spoke to ICANN's Chief Operating Officer Akram Atallah about the new proposal to hold a special draw sometime in December to decide which new gTLD applications will go first.

The proposal, revealed just a few days before ICANN's meeting in Toronto, will see applicants buy a $100 ticket in order to be entered into a draw. Each applicant will then get its own number and be ranked accordingly. The lower the number, the faster your application will be processed.

The draw is likely to be held in Los Angeles - but Atallah told us that ICANN has applied for licenses in a number of different jurisdictions just in case - and you don't have to turn up in person (you can pay a law firm to represent you).

Stéphane Van Gelder: Thank you very much. Welcome everyone to this Council call on July the 20, 2012. And we have apologies from Wolf. He will be absent on this call.

Jeff Neuman will only be able to be with us for the first 30 minutes. So and that’s why we’re trying to start as soon as we can.

And Mason Cole will not have Internet access. So Mason if you’re on the line and you need to ask questions please just speak up so that I know that you need to be counted in the queue.

[Roll call]

Stéphane Van Gelder: Thanks Glen. And just for the record I will note that I am also present. And come to any statement of interest updates?

Hearing no updates, any calls to review or amend the agenda please?

Thomas Rickert: Would it make sense to discuss the defensive registration subject and the IOC debate while Jeff is on the call? This is (Thomas) sorry. Jeff would you like that?

Jeff Neuman: This is Jeff. That’s fine. I mean I can listen to the recording but if you guys want to do that that’d be great.

Should generic top-level domains be under sole control of one company?

Controversy is brewing over some companies plans to make generic gTLDs private online spaces

In November 1999, in one of its first actions, ICANN came good on its mandate to introduce competition within the Internet's infrastructure and signed an agreement with Network Solutions that required it to allow other companies to sell registrations under the dot-com registry.

It was the beginning of a rule that no Internet registry can sell domain names under its own name, and it should give ready access to other companies that wish to. The result was an explosion of competition, and a drop in domain prices from $50 to $6 a year.

After years of playing the coy .virgin, waiting for the right moment to say yes, the excitement of ICANN's potential suitors is writ large in their .love letters posted in that most unreliable of matchmakers, the TLD Application System (Is that an 18-letter long string in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me working again?)

Not all suitors will be rewarded, and none will get their $185,000 engagement rings back, so it's only fair to award applicants for efforts to stand out in a very crowded room.

In London within a few weeks there's a big sporting event whose name cannot be mentioned in the context of gTLDs. So, taking inspiration from the only successful thing Greece currently can claim credit for (and they need plenty of credit), here are...

The Definitely Not The Oly*pics gTLD Awards

Purely a demonstration sport, so no medals, but a tie between:

.americanexpress (15 characters)

.allfinanzberater (16 characters)

How digital archery threatens to become the organization's Battle of Hastings

Harold's demise as captured in the Bayeux Tapestry: is ICANN about to make the same mistake as the last Anglo-Saxon king of England?

Harold Godwin's army was already tired. The same day word arrived that Duke William II had landed on the English coast seeking the throne, the king's men had fought at the Battle of Stamford Bridge.

Determined to show he was in charge, Harold raced down to the village of Hastings, ignoring advice to let his men rest and to spend a day gathering reinforcements. Just a few hours later, he was dead, famously struck in the eye by an arrow; an event forever recorded in the Bayeux Tapestry.

Chairman of Estonia's registry operator, Marek-Andres Kauts, resigned following accusations of mismanagement and overspending. Kauts was the focus of a newspaper article claiming he had caused several key staff members of the Estonian Internet Foundation to leave and that it had spent unnecessary funds on equipment and resources. The broader Estonian Internet community is reportedly angry that dot-ee domains cost 17 euros wholesale. Kauts rejected the criticism. He will leave the organization at the end of July.

ICANN's failure to deal with a flaw in its computer software speaks to a bigger problem with the organization itself

It was supposed to be ICANN's swansong. A program more successful than anyone had dared to expect. An expansion of the Internet that would put the organization at the heart of a revolution; where anyone could apply for any Internet extension they wished.

Even considering its size and scope, the new gTLD project had not been an easy ride. Delays measured in years rather than months. Heated policy debates. High-level politics. And then, just weeks before it was due to go live, a Washington broadside that saw no less than three national newspapers, two Congressional hearings and one highly critical FTC report, all say the same thing: hold off, you're not ready. Despite the pressure, and even admitting that the program was unfinished, ICANN threw itself into the hands of fate and launched on 12 January.