Friday, June 29, 2012

2 good ideas to fasten the new gTLD process

I read Twitts and many blogs, a lot of press, forums, and all source of information I can find related to new gTLDs and I found the 2 following ideas quite good to stop wasting more time entering the ICANN validation process:

  • In a Twitt, Rob Hall (from Momentous, Pool.com) wrote: " ICANN‬ should start putting new ‪gTLDs‬ in the root today. Put in 2 per day. Start testing stability. The rest is just about who owns it". Good idea but it would require the back-end registry provider to be selected;
  • Michael Berkens, President of Worldwide Media, Inc. wrote an article in CircleID entitled: "What if new gTLD applicants held private auctions where losing applicants, not ICANN gets the money?" This article introduces a very good idea: a benefit to private auctions over ICANN auctions is that: "parties can hold private auctions at anytime, rather than waiting for whenever ICANN is ready to hold them, thereby giving clarity on many strings which are in contention to all applicants".
I recommend reading this article on CircleId.

Prague Public Forum

The ICANN Public Forum is a conference where Stakeholders can listen to up-dates and express themselves regarding issues. It defines itself as: "The public forum is the Community's opportunity to make comments and ask questions on the main topics at each meeting directly to the Board and in front of the rest of the community". It is possible to follow the Public Forum watching a live video.

It usually happens at the end of all ICANN meetings. Yesterday was Prague's Public Forum meeting and new gTLDs were discussed in the end of it.

I will remember a few things from this forum:
  • The ICANN wants more stakeholders to participate.
    I am myself a member of one of these groups but I admit it, vocabulary used is the ICANN one (a difficult one to understand) and it is not in my native language so I do not participate so much. The basis of these exchanges is done through emails and sometimes through conference calls. You can also meet the groups but you must travel to do so (and pay your plane ticket).
  • Far too complex for the Internet Community to follow and understand.
    Internet users, in the case if new generic Top-Level Domains, are not the Registries who will launch soon to sell domain names but :
    • Brands who will use their domain name extension for themselves and;
    • "Registrants": those who are going to buy domain names to Registries through the network of Accredited Registrars. It is these people - brands and individuals - who are concerned and unfortunately, they are not the one to talk.
      It is these people who represent, probably 99% of the stakeholders who will buy these new domain names.
      It is these people whom are concerned by new gTLDs because they are the one who are going to face what comes next...
  • This 14 years old Asian kid who came to talk to the micro to expressed himself about the .KIDS new gTLD: on of the rare person concerned by the launching of new gTLDs.
  • Most of the people who expressed themselves have a financial interest in the launching of new gTLDs.
  • I wish I was not involved in these new gTLDs because I would have asked the right questions: those no one would dare asking.
  • I was happy to be able to follow the conference from my office here in Paris.
More details about the Public Forum can be found here: http://prague44.icann.org/node/31829

I shall soon (probably) submit comments here or provide feed-backs.

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