Domains (generic) -- gTLDs

Nashville-based Far Further has confirmed it will definitely be applying for the Internet extension dot-music and that it expects to see competing bids including one from dotMusic which is applying for a community domain.

Far Further President and COO John Styll told .Nxt that he is aware of a number of different groups that have given presentations to the music industry, but that dotMusic US is the only other visible applicant at the moment.

Styll: Expects competition

CEO of dotMusic US, Constantine Roussos, told us he wants to wait until the applications are in to talk about his plans for the domain. But he has already gone public with what will the crucial differentiator in his bid - that it will be a "community application".

The DotGreen Registry has confirmed it has registered with ICANN and is in the process of making a community application for dot-green.

Tim Switzer, COO/CFO of the California-based group, says he's unaware of any competing bids and would be surprised if other groups were applying for the same gTLD.

Switzer: Feeling positive

"Our CEO Annalisa Roger has been very open about the application as far back as the ICANN Paris meeting in 2008," he says. "She has been involved in both the ICANN and the green community and we've all invested a huge amount of time, energy and passion into the application."

For this reason Switzer says he would be surprised to see any competing applications, particularly since he hasn't heard about any other interested parties in his discussions with the green community.

Applicants for the new gTLDs have welcomed the news that ICANN will officially start reviewing bids in June, making final decisions by 12 November.

ICANN has also said that it may approve some TLDs before this date meaning some registries could be up and running far earlier than previously thought.

Most applicants are anxious to get their applications approved saying "the sooner the better" and are pleased about the November date. The news has intensified pressure, and anticipation among applicants as well as their communities and supporters.

Tim Switzer, COO/CFO of the DotGreen Registry, says his group has already communicated the new dates to supporters via their website as well as using social media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs). "Given we've been laying the groundwork for dot-green over several years, we've learned to be flexible and always ready for timeline announcements," he says. "We're positive about the current timeline and will continue to closely monitor further ICANN updates."

The MLS Domains Association will file an application for dot-mls at the end of March but believes there could be two other applications for the gTLD.

The non-profit association of real estate multiple listing services (MLS) will be making a community application to obtain, manage and promote the dot-mls top-level domain and is still in talks with other real estate companies who are interested in supporting the bid.

Brian Larson, secretary of the MLS Domains Association which is based in Minneapolis, says the technical partner has been selected but won't be announced until the association has finished talking to the community.

He believes there could be some competition for the domain, which is why his team are taking their time to prepare for any concerns about IP rights and other objections.

Community rules

Big Room Inc, a Vancouver-based certified B-Corporation, has confirmed it will be filing a community application for gTLD dot-eco on 12 April.

The corporation is working with global organizations including WWF, Greenpeace and Conservation International, and co-founders Trevor Bowden and Jacob Malthouse say they will still be updating their application until the last day to ensure they gather as much support as possible.

They believe the biggest challenge has been ensuring they're demonstrating the extent of their community support to ICANN. "That's our theme, more so than the technical nuts and bolts of running the domain," says Trevor. "When you have someone like Afilias as your back-end supplier that's less of an issue."

Malthouse: Bringing eco community up to speed has been big challenge.

It's official: ICANN has lost the US media over its flagship new gTLD program, with USA Today joining the New York Times and the Washington Post in publishing a damning editorial.

The second largest newspaper in the United States, read daily by almost two million people, warned earlier this week that the program to create potentially thousands of new gTLDs will be confusing, expensive and a boon for criminals.

It also called out the organization for its policy failings, particular over the Whois database. And worse than that, it made a broader criticism of ICANN as an organization: "ICANN essentially says 'trust us,' we're fixing it, and just unveiled a plan for doing so. But its track record doesn't inspire confidence.”

The following editorial by ICANN was published alongside a counterpoint article by the USA Today editorial board on the new gTLD process on 1 February 2012. Read on the USA Today website.

We're improving Internet domain space

If Internet users understand only one thing about the new domain-name program, it should be this: It will create space on the Internet that is more secure than what exists today.

A broad cross-section of technical, legal and business experts have spent more than six years planning how to protect Internet users. Operators of these new "generic top-level domains" must complete the most rigorous application process the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has ever required.

Applicants will undergo criminal background checks, financial evaluations and challenging technical assessments. More than 300 pages of rules govern the application process.

The following editorial was published alongside a counterpoint article by ICANN on the new gTLD process in USA Today on 1 February 2012. Read on the USA Today website.

ICANN expanding websites to 1,000 dot-anythings

Internet users are familiar with the handful of helpful names — the dot-coms, the dot-orgs and dot-govs — that proclaim a website's general category. There are just 22 such "generic top-level domain names," as the suffixes to the right of the dot are known, and it took two decades to carefully develop them.

Now ICANN— the powerful and little-known Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers — wants to expand that number to as many as 1,000 as a way to promote innovation and relieve dot-com crowding. Last month, ICANN began taking applications from those seeking to buy the rights to operate this new generation of domain names.