[ga] New gTLD discussions in Amsterdam: update

[Danny Younger <dannyyounger@xxxxxxxxx>]

>From the ISPCP discussion list:

"A few major points from the PDP05 meeting in
Amsterdam. 

On the first half day there was a long discussion over
the issue of grants for applicants who may be
prohibited from applying for a gTLD due to the cost
barrier. Overall there was a view that ICANN should
cover the initial costs of applying for those parties
with potential less ability to pay.  

It was noted that some applications that come from
areas of the Internet community with potential less
ability to pay, may also be more expensive to evaluate
due to different legal environments.

Whilst I acknowledge the need to recognise this, to my
mind we are also building in some major problems; 

-          who will decide the validity of each
application that applies for bid support?

-          even though this is gTLD space, won't
governments feel they should be involved/influence any
decisions on this , particularly as ICANN is openly
talking about bringing developing countries on stream?

-          How do we stop the big boys forming shell
companies and playing the system etc

-          Who will decide on the level of funding
available and how it's allocated?

In addition

-          what about the cost of evaluation if the
applications aren't submitted in English (and I assume
a large number of these subsidised
applications may be).

This requires a lot more thought before implementation

We also had discussions over applications that could
be considered to mimic other parts of the name space
e.g. .labour and .jobs, or .comm and .com. There was
support for the view that a TLD string should not be
confusingly similar to an existing TLD string, but
views on the interpretation and control of this varied
widely. There was a discussion over ICANN attempting
to establish a list of similar names for each awarded
registry contract to limit challenges, which seemed a
dreadful and unworkable idea to me, particularly as we
move towards IDNs!

Where there are string conflicts two approaches were
discussed the first was where you could use a lottery
or auction, the second was via some form of evaluation
process.  Random selection was also discussed, the
difference when compared with a lottery is that those
unsuccessful wouldn't pay anything. It's also unclear
whether a lottery approach has legal aspects that
haven't been exposed or clearly understood.

The intention is to complete the string conflict issue
early on in the process. Chuck Gomes was offering
support for an approach that gave
additional weighting for applicants where there was
'community support', which of course lends itself
towards the sponsored TLD approach which is against
the earlier Registry position. Although this would
only apply where there was a conflict. The idea was
also raised that an arbitration/mediation process
could be introduced that allow those applicants in
contention to resolve the issue via a dialogue between
them/ICANN. If one chose a different string as part of
that process, that application would still be part of
that round of bids. For sponsored TLDs their was
clearly movement away from lottery's and auctions, but
that still leaves other types of gTLDs which some
Constituencies are arguing for.

Public policy issues remain a major concern, but few
ideas on how to tackle this were forthcoming, so the
issues will be thrown to the GAC with the starting
question, "how do you plan to tackle this?"

A short discussion took place on the possible
introduction of single letter domains at both the
first and second levels. The need for a technical
evaluation at the first level was recognised, as well
as any potential impact on IDNs. Their was support to
consider insertion at the top level as a separate part
of the process.

Comments welcome.

Lots more work to do."

http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/ispcp/msg00272.html


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