Thursday, November 29, 2012

Answer received from the French GAC regarding .VIN

This answer follows my previous post entitled "French GAC Early Warning for the .VIN new gTLD" dated 27 of November.

A question was asked to the French GAC on the reason why .VIN received an Early Warning and .WINE did not?

With the approval for publication of Camille Angue, Diplomate - Ministère français des affaires étrangères - Numérique & Gouvernance d'internet, here is the answer I received:

"Pour votre information, les early warning n'ont pas été déclenchés par le MAE (1) ou Bercy (2), mais font toujours suite à une demande émanant du ministère technique en charge du dossier concerné (ici, l'agriculture)".

and:

"...la liste finale a été arrêtée lors d'une réunion interministérielle à Matignon (3)".

Translation

The .VIN GAC Early Warning was submitted by the Ministry of Agriculture after ministries met with the Prime minister during a meeting. Apparently a list of new gTLD applications was drafted and a selection was made for Early Warnings. At least this is how I understand it but I cannot tell if .WINE was on that list.

I was invited to discuss this...


A few definitions (since you are supposed to know all acronyms above):
  1. "MAE", pick-up one here (but I suggest "Ministry of Foreign Affairs");
  2. "Bercy", pick-up one here (but I suggest "Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industry");
  3. "Matignon", pick-ip one here (but I suggest "the office of our Prime Minister").

Milestone is reached: 1000 members (LinkedIn)

Today, the "New generic Top-Level Domains" group welcomes its member n° 1000.

This discussion group is open and you are welcome to join.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

L'Icann peine à se mettre au français

26 octobre 2012 : Grande nouvelle!

Le site officiel de l’Independent Objector (Objecteur Indépendant) de l’ICANN est en ligne… annoncée depuis plusieurs semaines, la version française du site se fait attendre...

La suite de cet article dans le JDN.
La version anglaise sur CircleID.

ICANN: in English only?

"Objection, Your Honour!"

26 October 2012: Big news! The official website of the ICANN Independent Objector is now online. Another piece of good news announced at the same time is that the site will also offer a French version, which was under construction at the time. More than a month later, the French version is still under construction

Read the end of this article "in english" on CircleID. French version is available on the JDN.

French GAC Early Warning for the .VIN new gTLD

I keep wondering why the French Governments submitted an early warning for the .VIN new gTLD and not for .WINE.

I just wrote to the two French GAC Representatives with the following question:

"Je souhaite connaître la raison de la publication de l'Early Warning concernant le .VIN alors que le .WINE n'en a pas reçu du gouvernement Français."

Translation: "I would like to know the reason why an Early Warning was submitted for the .VIN new gTLD and not for .WINE".

The French GAC representatives are:

Laurent Ferrali
Chargé de mission Gouvernance de l'Internet et satellites
DGCIS -- Service des Technologies de l'Information et de la communication
and

Camille Angué
Ministère des affaires étrangères et Européennes
Direction générale de la mondialisation, du développement et des partenariats
Sous-direction de l'audiovisuel extérieur et des technologies de communication
Gouvernance de l'Internet

With their approval, and if they answer me, I will come back with an answer.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

2 GAC Early Warnings for the .VIN new gTLD

The "GAC" is part of the ICANN new gTLD validation process. As defined on its web site: "The GAC's key role is to provide advice to ICANN on issues of public policy, and especially where there may be an interaction between ICANN's activities or policies and national laws or international agreements."

The GAC filed 242 objections and these were published today. There are 2 warnings for the .VIN new generic Top Level Domain. I was filed by France, the other one by the Luxembourg.

I can't help it witting this but...there is one new gTLD applicant for .VIN and there are 3 for .WINE but there are no Early Warnings for any of the 3 other .WINE applications! This shows, once again, the lack of understanding by Governments. I love to read in one of the reason/rationale for the warning of .VIN:
  • "Any product that does not comply with these rules cannot be marketed under the denomination “wine” or “vin” in French".
  • "Hence, for the award of the tld .vin it is important to have strict rules verifying a close relation with the wine."
The results of these warnings could seriously endanger Registrants (those who would be interested in registering a .vin domain name) to ever be able to register a .vin domain name. These Early Warnings for the .VIN new gTLD only open the way to have different domain name registration rules for .vin and .wine domain names. There is a long discussion about this issue on LinkedIn.

Should Governments have written these objections for one string only and not its translation in English? Certainly not because it is just a non sense to do it for one and not the other. By doing so it is possible the applicant for .VIN just follows a "Possible Remediation" suggested by the French Government: the simple withdrawal of the application.

In one word: would the applicant for .VIN withdraw its application, the English language, once again, could thank the French Government for offering the wine industry an online identity in English only: the .wine domain names.

I wonder what is going to happen now for the .VIN new gTLD but solutions exist.

What to read now:
  1. The list of GAC Early Warnings is available here;
  2. GAC Early Warning by the French government is here;
  3. GAC Early Warning by the Luxembourg is here.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

New TLDs made simple

Friday, November 16, 2012

The new gTLD Pioneer Program

My latest (and small) article entitled "Fashion of the Moment: The "Pioneer Program" is available on CircleID.

I strongly encourage applicants wondering about their launching and future Communication to read it. Are concerned applicants with the intention to sell domain name and whose application is not in competition with a similar one.

More on CircleId.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Update: slides of the latest ICANN new gTLD webinar

Agenda of tonight's new gTLD Webinar (14 November 2012):
  1. Application statistics
  2. Evaluation progress
  3. Clarifying questions
  4. Prioritization draw
Download the PDF presentation (slides) for the update.

Recent new gTLD application statistics


What to read about new gTLDs at the moment

A few articles I recommend the reading:
  1. ICANN's agenda by FAIRWINDS PARTNERS, click here;
  2. Applicant auction for Top-Level-Domains:
 resolving contention fairly, efficiently & transparently, click here (a must-read);
  3. .WINE et .VIN pourraient poser problème (you probably noticed it is written in French), click here;
  4. .BIM new gTLD story, click here for the lawsuit (1) and here for some more info (2);
  5. The Digital Marketing & gTLD Strategy Congress (March 11 & 12, 2013 in New York City);
  6. Selling your new gTLD application is possible, click here;
  7. ICANN CEO to announced expanded partnership initiatives, click here;
You will need to be logged in LinkedIn.

Saturday, November 10, 2012

"I'm the new ICANN president and I'm new"

Remarks by Fadi Chehadé at the Opening Ceremony of the 7th Annual Meeting of the Internet Governance Forum in Baku, Azerbaijan – 06 November 2012

We should give a big hand to the people who have been sitting here through all these speeches; so Under Secretary Wu and Dr. Ali, thank you. I am last, so I have to be quick because I stand between you and a fabulous lunch.

First, my big thanks to the people of Azerbaijan. If there are people from Azerbaijan here, you should know we feel very welcome. This is a great place to be, very warm hospitality. Thank you for that. Thank you for all the work you have put to make us comfortable.

Okay, so I'm the new ICANN president and I'm new and so it's a new beginning and a new season at ICANN. I say it's a new season because one of the things we are committed to do at ICANN is to open ICANN to the world and to bring ICANN to the world. So the first things we are doing are to demonstrate our commitment that ICANN is not an organisation that is limited by its geography. On a practical level, we are getting out of Los Angeles and we're going to the world, we're going to be opening offices around the world, sending our people around the world and reducing our focus from our internal operations to focussing on engagement.

So we brought on board Sally Costerton who is based in Europe and Dr. Tarek Kamel who will soon be based also in the Asian region so we can bring what we do and who we are closer to you, our stakeholders, the people we're supposed to serve and we're committed to do that.

The second thing we're going to do is to stop being a fortress. ICANN should be an oasis that people find as a great place to get their business done, to get their work done. We are going to remove the walls, we are going to make it easier to engage. One of the ministers here asked me, "How do we work with ICANN? Tell me how. We want to engage." We're going to make that possible by engaging, by inviting, by facilitating, by making our structures easier to understand so that all of you can be part of this great mission that we were entrusted with.

On that point, I want to be clear, I am now clear after having spent a couple of months on this: our mission is a limited mission. It is an important mission but it is a limited mission. We belong to an ecosystem of organisations that have roles in the internet. We do our part, they do their part. You saw as a beginning of this new season today when Secretary General Toure brought up how we will work together in this new season. His work at the ITU, the work that our friends at ISOC do, the work that our friends at the IETF do, the work that happens in all the organisations that co-ordinate together to make this possible is important.

My commitment as ICANN is to make sure we're open and we remove the walls and we're truly an oasis of partnerships of real work, of committed work. Finally, I just want to remind us why we're all doing this, why we're all doing this. We're doing this for two reasons: (1) I'm an internet entrepreneur and for 25 years

I've built internet-based companies and I've benefited from the internet. We should make sure that this opportunity that I had is available to all the children and all the youth on the planet who have the possibility to build their dreams on the internet today. This is why I am here because I want to allow others to benefit in the same way I was lucky to benefit from this great enterprise.

The second reason we're here is best embodied in the little girl Malala. Malala, at the age of 11, decided to write a blog and because of it today she lies in a hospital bed trying to live. It is for her that we need to keep this open, we need to work with all the organisations with a deep commitment that young people like Malala can continue voicing what is on their mind, what is in their heart and what they believe and together with all the organisations that I mentioned (the ISOC, the ITU, the W3C, the IETF), all the organisations of goodwill, we are going to make this happen. Thank you.

Remarks by Fadi Chehadé | Opening Ceremony | ICANN

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Digital Marketing & gTLD Strategy Congress

Thursday November 8, 2012. New York: The Digital Marketing & gTLD Strategy Congress today announced the keynote, speakers, initial sponsors, partners and dates for the inaugural event taking place March 11 & 12, 2013 in New York City.

By mid-2013, the current top level domains (TLDs) such as .com, .net and .org will be joined by several hundred new generic TLDs (gTLDs). These include branded additions such as .Walmart, .Amazon and .Google as well as generic category TLDs like .shop, .money and .app.
The Digital Marketing & gTLD Strategy Congress has been created to bring together digital marketing & branding leadership from the world’s most iconic brands, the creative minds from many of the leading branding agencies as well as the domain and registry community for two days of learning and networking in advance of the release of the first tranche of these new top level domains.

“More than 1900 applications for new TLDs have been received by ICANN, the internet’s governing body, many from leading brands who are looking to dominate or protect their own corner of the web” remarked Christine Hess, event director. ''Today's digital brands need to work fast to ensure that they have a strategy in place for a future with more than 1000 new top level domains.”

The congress is supported by The Advertising Club of New York, Afilias, Domain Diction, Domain Incite, CircleID, WIPR, The Domains, Domain Name Wire and Jovenet and features senior speakers from Afilias, Neustar, Landor, Donuts, Citibank, Dot.Org (The Public Interest Registry), Dot.Ski, Columbia Business School, and Deloitte.
Roland LaPlante, CMO and Senior Vice President of Afilias commented. “ICANN’s new gTLD program will forever change the way brands leverage the Internet. Brand Managers and Agencies that figure this out early will gain first mover advantages and a real boost versus competition.”

With ICANN presently expected to make their initial approvals by June 2013, this essential event is perfectly timed and located to provide applicant brands with the information and support they will need prior to launch - as well as give non applicant, and prospective applicant brands the information and guidance they need to navigate the new Internet landscape.
Conference keynote, Louis Cohen, SVP, Citibank, North America Marketing, Head of Search & Affiliate Marketing remarked “Whether your organization has applied for a Top Level Domain or not, any digital marketer or brand manager that is not already working on their strategy will be at a marked disadvantage once the new gTLD’s come onstream in 2013.”

To review the agenda outline and to inquire about the few remaining speaking opportunities please visit www.gtldworldcongress.com . For more information on speaking, sponsoring, partnering or attending, please contact Christine Hess at christine@convenecom.com.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

.WINE et .VIN pourraient poser problème

Dans son organisation lourde et complexe, l'ICANN propose de participer à la méthode de l'ordre dans lequel seront traitées les candidatures.

Comme vous le savez, il y a 3 candidatures pour une extension .WINE et une seule pour le .VIN

Bien que je souhaiterais que ces extensions voient le jour le plus rapidement possible, l'ordre dans lequel 2 candidatures pour une extension traduite dans 2 langues différentes entre dans son processus de validation pose problème: non seulement si elles ne sont pas traitées en même temps mais aussi si les 2 candidatures ne proposent pas les mêmes conditions d'éligibilités.

Imaginez un instant vous voir refuser l'enregistrement à marque.wine alors que vous êtes le titulaire de marque.vin (...)

Il est difficile d'imaginer qu'un candidat souhaitant enregistrer son "domaine.wine" ne puisse pas prétendre au même "domaine.vin". De même, il me semble tout à fait inconcevable qu'un risque puisse exister de ne pas pouvoir accéder au même nom de domaine sous le prétexte que les conditions d'enregistrement diffèrent d'une extension à l'autre, pire: qu'un candidat puisse rater l'enregistrement de son second nom de domaine (dans l'autre extension) car les dates de lancement des deux extensions sont décalées de plusieurs mois. N'oublions pas que plus le délais entre le lancement de 2 extensions en langues différentes est important, plus celui-ci donne de temps aux cybersquatteurs et spéculateurs potentiels de s'organiser pour faire leur marché. 

Si aucun mécanisme n'est prévu pour contrer les exemples cités ci-dessus, le lancement des extensions du vin  pourrait causer bien des dégâts chez les intéressés.

Ces questions ne sont pas soulevées, ni dans le processus de traitement des candidatures, ni dans la méthodologie générale proposées par l'ICANN ("Applicant Guidebook") et viennent s'ajouter à celle de la protection des Indications Géographiques et autres appellations.

J'ai donc participé au processus ICANN en écrivant une brève publication dont je recommande la lecture: http://forum.icann.org/lists/drawing-prioritization/msg00018.html

.BRAND new gTLD Reports are updated once a month: CLICK HERE !