Entries tagged with “Seoul” from Domains / Internet Technology News - DNS News

Again on the subject of new TLDs ....

One of the "issues" that concerned a number of people is the concept of "vertical separation".

The basic idea is that registries and registrars should be kept separate.

While that is a wonderful Utopian ideal, the reality is that in the real world companies own other companies, people trade in stocks and shares etc., etc. So it's far from being a simple "cut and dried" situation.

It's also a situation that I personally think has been blown out of all proportion. And of course the people who are pushing it hard are the current registry operators. Can you say "monopoly"?
Or how about "fear"?

Be that as it may, the debate has been going on for months. During the Seoul meeting there was a public debate where both sides of the argument were able to "have it out", but while that may have helped clarify things for some people it didn't resolve it.

Fast forward to January 2010.

The GNSO council has now voted that the only way to resolve this issue once and for all is via  a PDP - which is ICANN speak for a quite drawn out policy development process:

A set of formal steps, as defined in the ICANN bylaws, to guide the initiation, internal and external review, timing and approval of policies needed to coordinate the global Internet's system of unique identifiers.

In many cases a PDP can take years to go through the full process, though there have been some exceptions in the recent past (think "tasting").

The motion that the GNSO council approved sets very clear limits on the PDP, but whether or not it will be possible for a policy debate as contentious (for some people) as this to be resolved in the 16 weeks mentioned or not is a different matter.

During the ICANN meeting in Seoul it became very clear that new TLDs were not going to progress on schedule (which schedule doesn't matter).

It also became clear that:

• ICANN still wants them to go ahead
• ICANN wants to make everyone happy

There's an obvious flaw there.

You cannot appease all interest groups AND move forward with new TLDs.

The "overarching issues" need to be addressed before the "community" can move towards a workable solution.

For a lot of new TLD applicants the delays with new TLDs are a source of worry, concern and possibly financial strain. While a big corporate may have ample funds to "wait out" the process, this probably wouldn't be the case with some of the smaller TLD projects.

During the week in Seoul some of the applicants tried to come up with a workable "halfway house" style solution.

The concept of garnering information on "interest levels" was put forward in various forms. While the idea has been welcomed in some quarters there are others who are not as comfortable with it.

The logic behind it is quite simple.

At present ICANN does not know how many applicants there will be for new TLDs, nor does it know how many contenders there will be for the same strings. A lot of the "problems" and "issues" are based on guesswork and wild assumptions.

While there may indeed be a basis for concerns it would be significantly easier to address an issue that is clearly presented and identified than by simply "imagining' or "guessing" about its existence.

The Board made reference to this community driven concept during their meeting in Seoul and referenced their experience with planning for the introduction of IDN ccTLDs.

Of course waiting for ICANN to "make a move" can be a frustrating experience, so it's hardly surprising that a group of new TLD applicants got together to form their own, informal, working group to push things forward.

It's also hardly surprising that this move has been met with some criticism from within ICANN circles (drawing parallels with the IRT).

And now ICANN has launched its own initiative to cover the same ground. (Or will the two be working to the same goal? Sorry - I'm getting quite confused by all the back and forth)

Meanwhile the RAA is coming under review again and there's a silly number of other working groups trying to deal with other aspects of ICANN policy...

Oh the fun and games!

ICANN staff informed the Registrar Stakeholder Group at the meeting in Seoul, Korea, that 638 registrars have either signed the new RAA or are in the process of signing it.

While it may prove difficult to encourage all registrars to signup voluntarily ie. prior to contract expiry it's encouraging to see that the bulk of domain registrations are now covered by the new contract.

What is unfortunate, however, is that the registrant rights and obligations document still has not been drafted. Work on this document has begun, but it could be several months before the final document is made public and incorporated into registrar agreements.

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• ICANN Has Seoul (blacknight.com)