[ga] Staff Issues Report on Whether to Introduce new TLDs

[Danny Younger <dannyyounger@xxxxxxxxx>]

see
http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/council/msg01508.html

Document prepared by ICANN's Olof Nordling 
Manager, Policy Development Coordination 

B.	Whether to introduce new top level domains

1.	The work of the DNSO (later to evolve into GNSO and
ccNSO) preceding the two-step ?proof of concept?
introduction of gTLDs produced a policy supporting the
introduction of new gTLDs in a measured and
responsible manner. Although this was a policy
established for a temporary purpose, there is implicit
recognition that additional gTLDs would be introduced,
subject to evaluation of initial introductions. The
evaluation has been made, but not completely, and a
conclusion needs to be firmly drawn as to whether new
TLDs shall continue to be introduced.

2.	As stated above, the GNSO Council has determined
that finalizing the evaluation is not seen as a
prerequisite for starting working on the other
elements of the GNSO Council resolution of 22
September 2005. Accordingly, work can proceed in
parallel on these two fronts. Constituencies and other
members of the ICANN community will be invited to
review the submissions that they made to the original
new gTLD policy development process in 1999 and 2000
and thereafter, and consider whether the limited
introduction of new gTLDs has changed their views in
any significant way.

3.	A short recapitulation of the emergence of top
level domains is provided in the following sections.
Prior to ICANN?s establishment, Dr. Jon Postel
introduced the first generic top level domains,
implying a semantic structuring of the DNS with .COM
intended for business users, .ORG for non-profit
organizations, .NET intended for network users etc.
During the early and mid-1990s, as country code TLDs
were being delegated, the root zone was expanding by
10-20 TLDs or more per year for nearly a decade. From
1994 to 1996, 40 or more TLDs were added each year.

4.	ICANN was established in November 1998. At the
time, the .COM, .NET and .ORG gTLDs were commonly
available for registration, while .INT, .EDU, .MIL and
.GOV were available for registration by specific
communities only. In addition, approximately 246
country code top level domains were available for
countries and territories to enable registrations of
local domain names. A full list of all current TLDs,
maintained by IANA, can be found at
http://data.iana.org/TLD/tlds-alpha-by-domain.txt.

5.	Since 1998 the industry has gone through an
unprecedented development. The Internet is available
across the globe and the number of users is
approaching 1 billion. Internet access and use is now
seen as mission critical for many users. ICANN itself
has also changed substantially with an increase in the
complexity and volume of its work and adaptation of
its staffing, organization and working methods.

6.	With respect to gTLDs, there are at present nine
additional top level domains. The registry agreements
can all be found at
http://www.icann.ORG/registries/agreements.htm and a
full listing of all the registries can be found at
http://www.icann.ORG/registries/listing.html. A
further set of gTLDs will be added as new sponsored
top level domain agreements are signed during the
course of 2005.

7.	The market for domain names shows continued signs
of growth.  Domain name market data can be found in a
variety of sources, for example in VeriSign?s latest
report, found at: 
http://www.verisign.com/stellent/groups/public/documents/newsletter/030725.pdf.

8.	An article in DNJournal.com, at
http://dnjournal.com/columns/50million.htm, foresees
that if the 30% growth rate experienced in the year
2005 continues, the number of gTLD domain name
registrations would double to 100 million in less than
3 years. Usage patterns are developing and studies
from both the OECD and the NRC show that proven demand
for new top level domains is inconclusive, with
contentions about advantages claimed by some in stark
contrast to the drawbacks purported by others. The NRC
report elaborates at some length on the advantages and
drawbacks.  The NRC Report also states that, from a
security and stability perspective, the introduction
of ?tens? of new TLDs per year could be done without
risks.  The report calls for predictability in the
introduction of new top level domains by publishing
time schedules as well as applying measures to
follow-up and stop the process if need be.

CONSIDERATIONS

9.	The decision whether to introduce new top level
domains is informed by reviewing previous constituency
statements (see the full list of reports in the
Reference List); examining external studies and
reports and taking account of developments in Internet
use and the domain name registration industry. Some
additional considerations are outlined below.

10.	Introduction of new gTLDs remains a matter of
controversy in the Internet community. Additional TLDs
are requested by many that see a business opportunity
in running a new TLD.  Whether there is true market
demand for new TLDs from end-users is another matter
and is likely to be conditional on multiple factors.
There are also negative aspects associated with the
introduction of new gTLDs such as the risk of
marketplace confusion and additional costs for trade
mark protection for intellectual property right
holders.

11.	While there seems to be a reasonable consensus
within the Internet community that a measured
introduction of additional TLDs can be undertaken with
negligible risks for the security and stability of the
Internet, assessments of suitable addition rates do
vary. It should be noted in this context that the
processes associated with TLD
management/administration may set stricter limits than
plain security/stability/technical considerations
regarding how many TLDs can be added within a given
time frame or how many can be maintained after their
creation.

12.	Additional information can be found in IETF
documents, inter alia from RFC 3071 , which provides a
different typology of domain names and domain use, and
from RFC 3467, which elaborates on the uses of the
domain name system.
  
13.	Regardless of the chosen approach, the possibility
of measuring the success or failure of the approach
should be considered.  Accordingly, there is a need to
foresee methods to evaluate, correct and possibly halt
the process as appropriate.
 

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