Domains (generic) -- gTLDs

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.

In the second of this two-part review of the extraordinary year facing the Internet and its governance, professor for Internet Policy and Regulation at the University of Aarhus, Wolfgang Kleinwächter looks at the effort to develop an Internet version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the opportunities and risks presented by ICANN's new gTLD program, and the raft of over 50 "very important meetings" that will define 2012 as one of the most significant the Internet has ever faced.

If you missed part one, looking forwarding from some of the events of last year, including the eG8, India’s CIRP proposal for greater UN control, changes to the IGF, the London cybersecurity conference, Russia and the ITU, and other key events, then you can read it here.

So where is the good news?

We’ve reviewed some of the threats and fears surrounding Internet governance in 2012, but where are the options for a constructive dialogue?

In 2011, two regional inter-governmental bodies created frameworks that may provide guidance for the future of the Internet. The OECD with its 34 member states worked on a set of principles for Internet Policy Making. And The Council of Europe, with 47 member states, adopted a Declaration on Internet Governance Principles.

Both documents offer a source of inspiration for how to move toward something like a “Universal Declaration on Principles to Govern the Internet”, similar to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, developed in 1948. Both the OECD and Council of Europe documents cover more or less the same issues, propose rather similar principles but have also some interesting differences.

For a program that sought to throw off the hackles of a bygone era, to break from dot-com tyranny and let loose the collective spirits and imaginations of the world of Internet users on its most precious possession, the new gTLD program was never going to be an easy process.

But today, it has finally been born, years later than expected, years sooner than some wanted. It is not complete. It’s not yet fully conscious. But the Internet’s new dawn is here. No longer will we be artificially constrained within the semantic borders devised by those well-meaning but conservative custodians of the old order.

'Google' is a damn silly word. But if we see it appear at the end of our web addresses next year, we will all know that something remarkable will occur there.

We live, for better or worse, in the brand era. The Internet has always had its one big brand – dot-com – but now it is time for the virtual world of Internet engineers to merge with the real world of marketers and give those brands their own space, their own lives online.

Remarks by Lawrence E. Strickling, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information

Principles of Internet Governance: An Agenda for Economic Growth and Innovation

Brookings Institution, Washington, DC

January 11, 2012

I want to thank Darrell West and the Brookings Institution for hosting today’s session on the Principles of Internet Governance and inviting me to participate. As you have just heard from Ambassador Kornbluh, the adoption of the Internet Policymaking Principles in June by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and their subsequent transformation into an OECD Recommendation were major achievements in 2011. We all owe a debt of gratitude to the Ambassador for her leadership and commitment to this important effort, which was a key Obama Administration priority for 2011.

Tomorrow, the new gTLD program will launch. And not before time.

Amid the celebrations from an industry that has waited years for this moment, and a Board and management team congratulating itself on having resisted fierce pressure to scale back its flagship program, it is likely that a two-page letter will go unnoticed.

If history is anything to go by, the letter will never make it past the organization's general counsel. It won't appear on ICANN's website, and its message will fall on deaf ears, disregarded as so many criticisms of the organization are by a staff that wallows in its lack of accountability.

And yet the letter, from the Chairman of the .JOBS Charter Compliance Coalition John Bell, brings with it a difficult and unpleasant truth that, unnoticed, could bring the organization down in just a few short years.

Letter sent earlier today to ICANN outlining the latest issues in the sorry saga of dot-jobs

Let’s forget for a second about the unpleasant tactics used by some to get their way in the long, drawn-out process to open up the top-level of the Internet.

And put to one side, the flurry of letters, Congressional hearings and all the other noisiness of the past months. Let’s also allow the past seven years of argument and debate to wash over us, as though it were a lifetime ago, with the end results now seemingly a foregone conclusion.

Now have a look at what there is, on paper, for the new gTLD program. It is due to open in just a few days. Is it ready to launch?

The answer is a resounding No, not by any sane person’s measure.

A series of six papers published at the weekend were specifically written by ICANN’s staff to assure their Board that everyone was fine, on schedule, up-to-date and ready-to-roll.

The reality is that each paper demonstrates the opposite: that there is far too much work still to be done; that ICANN has failed to do enough to pull in the agreed adjustments to the existing patchwork of rules and procedures; and that the organization is running headlong into yet another crisis of its own making.

ICANN’s management has announced it is prepared for the launch next week of its program to open up the top level of the Internet.

In a series of six papers, produced for a Board meeting late last week and detailed individually below, the organization outlines the latest information on a number of outstanding issues.

Much of that information remains incomplete just days before launch, and it appears that a revised version of the “Applicant Guidebook” will be published literally the day before launch.

However, according to a blog post from CEO Rod Beckstrom, any outstanding issues will be settled before the three-month application window closes and he argues it is not “essential” for them to be completed before the launch.

The following message was sent by ICANN's Chair to its Board, staff and the chairs of the organization's Supporting Organizations and Advisory Committees at the start of 2012.

I write to bring you a brief greeting going into 2012. I won't attempt to cover the full set of accomplishments for the past year nor the full set of challenges and goals for this new year, but I do want to note just a few.