Just updated (again): the .FORUM new gTLD

The ICANN just updated its sunrise details webpage for the .FORUM Top-Level Domain:

1. Sunrise Period: 16 November 2020 to 16 December 2020;
2. Trademark Claims Period: 02 March 2021 to 31 May 2021;
3. Limited Registration Period: Sunrise 2 - 11 Jan 2021 to 28 Feb 2021.

Olé !

The .FORUM new gTLD is here

The ICANN just announced the Sunrise Period for the .FORUM new gTLD.

WHEN

• Starts: 15 November 2020
• Ends: 15 December 2020

WHAT THE APPLICATION SAYS

Fegistryʹs mission for .forum is to create a recognizable, viable, and profitable extension to bring together individuals and companies who are passionate about self-identifying with forum.

There are thousands of forums on the Internet and a registrant can create a website that identifies itself directly in the TLD. It seems fitting, as ICANN opens up an unprecedented and innovative program to expand how we use and identify with the Internet, that use cases like .forum should be allowed as well. 

We are creating the opportunity for internet users to identify websites that operate as forums by looking just at the TLD. By owning a domain in the .forum community it creates a win-win for most companies because they don’t need to identify to the left of the dot they are a forum.

It is our goal to be a financially successful company, solvent throughout our launch and profitable within our first year of operations. We believe this is an eventual reality and that our projections and financial analysis included in this application demonstrate this.

We hope to grow at a rate that allows us to continually improve our registry offerings, and increase benefits for both our customers and employees.

Our commitments and projections at this time are focused on conservative estimates of our revenue in order to best prepare for a TLD market with the possibility of 100,000+ TLDs in the next decade.

We don’t expect the demand for domains under our TLD to be big. Perhaps up to 10,000 registrations by the end of year 3, however we do have investors and a technical team that will stand behind the company if projections are higher than we anticipate.

For more, check the details here.

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.