ICANN Releases Initial Evaluation Results for New gTLD Applications - ICANN has released Initial Evaluation results for the first set of New gTLD applications. Results for applications with priority numbers 1 through 30 have been posted, all of which are Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs). Of these 30 applications, 27 have passed Initial Evaluation and three are still being evaluated. ICANN plans to continue releasing results in priority order, with the rate of 30 per week increasing to 100 per week. The first Registry Agreements could be executed as soon as April 23.

Picks To Click

• ICANN's Independent Objector has filed objections against 24 new gTLD applications. The Independent Objector is limited to filing objections on the grounds of Limited Public Interest and Community. The deadline for filing objections was March 13.
• "Here's how new TLD objections work", by Andrew Allemann.
• auDA, the Australian domain name administrator, is holding an Extraordinary General Meeting to consider amendments to auDA's Constitution concerning numbers, term length, amd term limits on directors, and other changes.
• The full schedule for ICANN's Beijing meetings has been published. Nominally the meetings take place from Sunday, April 7 through Thursday, April 11, but some meetings are being held as early as Thursday, April 4.

Timeline

• Mon, Mar 25: CIRA member networking event in Vancouver
• Sun, Apr 7 - Thu, Apr 11: ICANN meetings in Beijing
• Mon, Jul 1: .org registry fee increases
• Sun, Sep 1: .biz, .info registry fees increase

ICANN Seeks New Registry, Registrar Agreements - Approximately one month after posting a proposed new gTLD registry agreement, ICANN has posted a proposed new registrar agreement. Both proposed agreements have encountered criticism, notably from within the registry and registrar communities stakeholder groups. The negotiation processes have been similar in that ICANN has proposed significant changes on short notice, and is seeking the ability for the ICANN Board to make amendments with community support but without approval from the registrars or registries. The registry stakeholder group response to its proposed agreement is available here, and the registar stakeholder group response is available here. There is concern that impasses in contract negotiations could delay the rollout of new gTLDs.

Google Comments on Closed Generic Domains - Google has submitted a thoughtful comment on the topic of closed generic domains, arguing that there is a need for innovation in the TLD space and that different business models lead to diversified user choice. Nevertheless, Google has undertaken to consider amending the terms of four of its closed generic TLD applications: .app, .blog, .cloud, and .search. Google believes that "for each of these terms [Google] can create a strong set of user experiences and expectations without restricting the string to use with Google products."

Timeline

• Wed, Mar 13: Objection period for new gTLD strings closes
• Mon, Mar 25: CIRA member networking event in Vancouver
• Sun, Apr 7 - Thu, Apr 11: ICANN meetings in Beijing
• Mon, Jul 1: .org registry fee increases
• Sun, Sep 1: .biz, .info registry fees increase

ICANN Publishes New gTLD Program Contention Sets - ICANN has completed the contention sets for the New gTLD Program. A contention set is a group of two or more gTLD applications containing identical or visually similar gTLD strings. In addition to 230 exact match contention sets, ICANN has published two non-exact match contention sets in ASCII: .hotels and .hoteis, and .unicorn and .unicom. It has also identified two IDN contention sets: 盛贸饭店 and 盛貿飯店, and 点看 and 點看.

CIRA To Hold Member Event in Vancouver - The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) will hold an event for CIRA Members from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT on March 25 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Vancouver. The event will be an opportunity to meet other Members, to engage with CIRA Board members and staff, and to discuss Internet issues and upcoming CIRA initiatives.

Nominet Decides Not To Proceed With "Direct.uk" - Nominet, registry for the .uk domain, has decided not to proceed with a proposal to accept second-level .uk domain registrations, e.g. direct.uk. Among other things, many respondents to a consultation felt "that the release mechanism did not give enough weighting to existing registrants, and could lead to confusion if they could not obtain the corresponding domain." Nominet will consider revising the proposal.

Picks To Click

• Michael Berkens comments on a number of similar and possibly confusing new gTLD strings which were not put into contention sets by ICANN.
• Neustar has given notice that the registry fee for .biz domains will increase to USD $8.63 on September 1. Also, Afilias has given notice that the registry fee for .info domains will increase to USD $8.16 on the same date.
• The Public Interest Registry has published its bi-annual report The Dashboard outlining the growth of the .org domain during the second half of 2012.

Timeline

• Wed, Mar 13: Objection period for new gTLD strings closes
• Sun, Apr 7 - Thu, Apr 11: ICANN meetings in Beijing
• Mon, Jul 1: .org registry fee increases
• Sun, Sep 1: .biz, .info registry fees increase

ICANN Sets April 23 Target For First New gTLD Recommendation - ICANN is "targetting to be able to recommend for delegation the first New gTLD as early as the 23rd of April," according to ICANN President and CEO Fadi Chehadé in a recent interview. He went on to indicate that events beyond their control could cause a slippage of days or weeks, but not months. He also indicated that "not all actions that get gTLDs to be functional and ready for the market are within our [ICANN's] control."

Picks To Click

• "Governments to reveal new gTLD objection shortlist next week", by Kevin Murphy on DomainIncite.
• The Retail Council of Canada has filed a comment opposing the delegation of closed generic gTLDs.

Timeline

• Thu, Feb 28: Canadian Internet Forum, hosted by CIRA, in Ottawa
• Sun, Apr 7 - Thu, Apr 11: ICANN meetings in Beijing

Canadian Internet Forum Agenda and Speakers Announced - CIRA has announced the agenda and speakers for its third annual Canadian Internet Forum (CIF) to be held in Ottawa on Thursday, February 28. This year, the forum will explore digital literacy, cyber-security, and Internet governance. Speakers and panelists include Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart, Steve Anderson from Openmedia.ca, Karen Mulberry from the Internet Society, Tim Denton from the CRTC, Matthew Johnson from MediaSmarts, and journalist Shane Schick. There is no cost for in-person participation; the event will also be webcast.

ICANN Seeks Comments on "Closed Generic" gTLD Applications - Responding to correspondence from the community concerning applications for "closed generic" TLDs, ICANN is seeking public comments on the topic. A "closed generic" TLD is one which has a generic name and which is proposed to be operated by an applicant exclusively for its own benefit. Comments are being solicited until March 7.

Picks To Click

• A U.S. district court has dismissed a lawsuit against ICANN by Image Online Design over their 2000 application for the .web top-level domain.
• CIRA's Byron Holland describes the upcoming Canadian Internet Forum.
• CIRA's Jacques Latour describes the completion of a major milestone in implementing DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC) in .CA.

Timeline

• Thu, Feb 28: Canadian Internet Forum, hosted by CIRA, in Ottawa
• Sun, Apr 7 - Thu, Apr 11: ICANN meetings in Beijing

Call For CIRA Nomination Committee Candidates Closes This Week - The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) has issued a call for new members for its Nomination Committee. The committee's role is to solicit and select qualified candidates for the Nomination Committee slate of CIRA's annual Board of Directors election. Applications to become a member of the committee will be accepted until 6:00 p.m. ET on Thursday, January 31.

ICANN Trademark Clearinghouse Fee Structure Published - The fee structure (PDF) for proposed Trademark Clearinghouse services under ICANN's New gTLD Program has been published. Registration of a trademark in the centralized repository will fulfull the basic condition for being able to register the corresponding domain name during the "sunrise" registration period of multiple forthcoming gTLD launches. Also, trademark holders may choose to be immediately notified when someone registers a matching domain name in any of the new gTLDs.

Picks To Click

• CIRA has released the 2013 .CA Factbook, an extensive collection of facts and figures on the Internet and Canada's place in it.
• Comments are being solicited until February 5 on proposed changes to the Trademark Clearinghouse.
• ICANN's New GTLD Program has an Independent Objector who "will object to gTLD applications that would be contrary to the public and community interests."
• Nominet, registry for the .uk domain, is taking legal action against That Internet Limited and its owner, alleging untrue and defamatory content.

Timeline

• Thu, Feb 28: Canadian Internet Forum, hosted by CIRA, in Ottawa
• Sun, Apr 7 - Thu, Apr 11: ICANN meetings in Beijing

French Characters Now Supported In .CA Domain Names - It is now possible to register .ca domain names containing accented French characters. Registry upgrades made on January 13 represent the culmination of an extensive process of Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) consultation and implementation.

Picks To Click

• The first .ca domain name, upei.ca, was registered 25 years ago on January 12, 1988.
• "Canada's First Domain Name: Twenty-five Years of upei.ca", by Peter Rukavina.
• The next CIRA Member Event will be held on January 15 in Montreal.
• PIR, the .org registry operator, has given notice that as of July 1 the registry (wholesale) fee for .org names will increase to US$8.25 per year.
• Telecompaper reports that the board of Portugal's Foundation for National Scientific Computing (FCCN) has resigned over being integrated into the Ministry of Education. FCCN manages Portugal's .pt domain and its national scientific research network.

Timeline

• Thu, Feb 28: Canadian Internet Forum, hosted by CIRA, in Ottawa
• Sun, Apr 7 - Thu, Apr 11: ICANN meetings in Beijing
• Mon, Jul 1: .org registry fee increases

Domain Name Registrations Surpass 246 Million Worldwide - According to VeriSign's Domain Name Industry Brief [pdf], the third quarter of 2012 ended with more than 246 million domain name registrations worldwide, a year-over-year growth of 26.4 million or 12%. The annual growth as reported three months ago was 25.5 million or 11.9%. Total ccTLD registrations were 104.9 million, a 20.7% year-over-year increase. The ten largest domains are: .com, .de (Germany), .net, .tk (Tokelau), .uk (United Kingdom), .org, .info, .cn (China), .nl (Netherlands), and .ru (Russian Federation). The .cn domain moved up two rankings since the second quarter.

Picks To Click

• Following a system upgrade to the .ca registry on January 13, French language characters will be allowed in .ca domain names.
• ICANN has announced that its 2013 meetings will be held in Beijing, Durban, and Buenos Aires, and its 2014 meetings will be held in Singapore, London, and a to-be-determined North American city.

Timeline

• Sat, Jan 12: 25th anniversary of the first .ca domain registration, upei.ca
• Sun, Jan 13: Registration available for .ca domain names with French characters
• Thu, Feb 28: Canadian Internet Forum, hosted by CIRA, in Ottawa
• Sun, Apr 7 - Thu, Apr 11: ICANN meetings in Beijing

Brand Reinforcement

• .APP
• .BLOG
• .ECO
• .HOTEL
• .INC
• .SHOP
• .MAP
• .MOBILE
• .SITE
• .WEB
  

Go to http://www.webnames.ca/pre-registration to see a full list of new domain name extensions you can pre-register today. 

Geographical gTLD Extensions

New gTLD strings will also come in the form of geographic gTLDs. These represent cities or other geographical areas. Some of the new geographic gTLDs are:

• .PARIS
• .QUEBEC
• .BERLIN
• .OSAKA

Go to http://www.webnames.ca/pre-registration to see a full list of new geographical domain name extensions you can pre-register today.

Release Date

As of today, ICANN has not announced a confirmed date when the new gTLD strings will be released. However, ICANN has indicated that it would take 11-12 months for a single batch of gTLD strings to be processed and expects the first of the new strings to be released during the third quarter of 2013.

Which new gTLDs will Webnames.ca offer?

Right now, we can't say for sure because we still don't know which applications will be approved or which ones will be available for the general public. However, we want YOU to tell us which gTLDs you would be interested in by Pre-Registering for the domains that interest you. Pre-registering gives you priority in obtaining key information of launch dates, pricing and rules as they are made available by ICANN and the respective registries for the domains you are interested in registering.

The Benefits of Pre-Registering

• Pre-registration is free
  
• There is no obligation to register in the future
  
• You'll be the first to know when the new extensions are released and about any rules that give trademark owners or certain registrants priority for specific domains you pre-register for
  

WCIT Fails To Achieve Consensus - The World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) ended last week in a failure to reach consensus. The conference was held in Dubai under the auspices of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), a United Nations agency, with the purpose of reviewing and revising a treaty known as the International Telecommunications Regulations (ITRs), last revised in 1988. Difficulties arose over proposed provisions to the treaty that were viewed by some as leading toward states having control over aspects of the Internet including content and governance. A significant number of countries indicated they would not sign, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. A list and a map of signatories and non-signatories may be found here.

New gTLD Priortization Draw Takes Place - A priortization draw has been taking place all day Monday, December 17 in Los Angeles. The purpose is to assign each new gTLD application a randomly-drawn priority number, in order to determine the order in which initial evaluation results are released. Preliminary draw results [PDF] are being posted.

Picks To Click

• CIRA will host the third annual Canadian Internet Forum on February 28 in Ottawa.
• "The highlights and low points of WCIT", by .Nxt.
• ICANN and its accredited registrars have not agreed upon proposed revisions to the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA), originally scheduled to be done by the end of 2012. Progress has been made on validation and verification requirements on Whois data; however, a "fundamental area of difference" remains on this topic. A number of other recommendations have not yet been negotiated.
• Planned root zone scaling measurements at the L-Root server have been announced.
• Internet New Zealand has launched a one-time Community Investment Funding Round.

Timeline

• Sun, Jan 13: Registration available for .ca domain names with French characters
• Thu, Feb 28: Canadian Internet Forum, hosted by CIRA, in Ottawa
• Sun, Apr 7 - Thu, Apr 11: ICANN meetings in Beijing

• To provide the opportunity to Registrants to register domains correctly in French, one of Canada's two Official Languages;
• To continue to develop the .CA domain space as a key public resource for the social and economic development for all Canadians;
• For the IDN launch policies and procedures to reflect current world wide best practices;
• To ensure the policies and procedures be as consistent as possible with existing policies and procedures;
• For the policies and process not to be unduly complex;
• To reduce the potential for phishing and user confusion.

IDN Registration Rules

To make sure that the launch of the French IDNs in Canada was as polished as possible, CIRA held two public consultation periods. Through these consultations, CIRA implemented a bundling, pricing and single registrar policy. Now what exactly do these policies mean?

The Bundling Policy

During the initial stages of IDN policy development, a lot of .CA holders were concerned about phishing issues and user confusion. Initially, CIRA had a Sunrise period where .CA holders have 12 weeks to register their IDN variants. Another 12 weeks, called the Landrush period, would follow where any interested party can register any unregistered and available domains. After the Landrush period is over, registration of IDNs would be on a first come, first served basis. Due to feedback received by CIRA, the Sunrise & Landrush periods were removed in favour of the Bundling policy.

With Bundling, .CA holders would have exclusive rights to all variants of their domain name. The bundling policy has helped alleviate concerns about phishing and user confusion.

Pricing Policy

To make sure that concerns about pricing were quickly answered, the wholesale cost of registering a bundle of IDNs will be the same as wholesale ASCII domain pricing.

Another thing to take note of is .CA domain holders are not required to register all variants of their domain. It is totally up to the discretion of the current .CA domain holder to determine whether having a French domain would be beneficial for them and their clients. Regardless of their decision, the variants of their .CA domains will still be reserved for their exclusive use.

Single Registrant & Registrar

To make things practical from a technical and policy perspective, CIRA determined that a domain and its variations can only be registered to a single Registrant and a single Registrar. This means that all domains will have a single organization/individual as the main contact for the domains and all the domains will be registered with a single Registrar. Moving a domain to another Registrar would mean that the entire bundle must also be moved. 

IDN Registration Process

The process of registering a French .CA domain remains the same as before. Registrants will have to search for an available domain name and use a CIRA-certified Registrar, such as Webnames.ca. When registrants start using a French character on their domain name and registers it, all its French variants are automatically bundled up. This reserves all variations and becomes unavailable to anyone except the current Registrant. 

Each variant in the bundle will then have to be registered individually and each variant will have their own life cycles. All variants of the domain name will also have to be registered with a single Registrar. 

Benefits of IDNs

The first benefit of registering for a French IDN is being able to protect your brand, company name and trademarks. In the past, companies with a French name had to conform to the standard ASCII domain name when registering for a domain. Through the planned launch of IDNs by CIRA, companies with a French name will now be able to match their domain name to the name of their company which can greatly increase brand recognition and image.

The second benefit of the introduction of French IDNs is that it allows companies to protect themselves and the security of their clients. Through the Bundling scheme, the variants of company domain names will automatically be reserved for pre-IDN domains. For example, a variant of webnames.ca will be wébnames.ca. Other variations of webnames.ca can only be registered by Webnames. This applies for all other .CA domains.

Register Early

Webnames.ca encourages all individuals and businesses to register the English version of their desired .CA domain ASAP. As mentioned, this automatically reserves the right to use all variants of the .CA domain you registered.

More Information

To learn more about Internationalized Domain Names, visit the CIRA IDN roadmap or the CIRA IDN Consultation page.

World Conference on International Communications Commences - The World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) is taking place until December 14 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The meetings are being held under the auspices of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), a United Nations agency. The conference's formal purpose is to review a treaty known as the International Telecommunications Regulations (ITRs), last revised in 1988. However, controversy has arisen over the possbility of trying to place some aspects of Internet governance under the ITU's control.

New .COM Contract Approved: Registry Price Increases Restricted - VeriSign has announced that the U.S. Department of Commerce has approved the renewal of VeriSign's contract with ICANN to operate the .com domain registry through Nov. 30, 2018. The current registry-level pricing of USD 7.85 per domain registration will continue, with VeriSign no longer having the right to four price increases of up to 7% each over the contract's six year term. However, price increases may be allowed, e.g. due to security or stability threats, with the Commerce Department's prior approval.

GAC Files Early Warnings on New gTLD Applications - ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) has published 242 Early Warnings on individual new gTLD applications. The warnings were filed on November 20. According to the GAC, "Early Warnings mainly consist of requests for information, or requests for clarity on certain aspects of an application."

Picks To Click

• Canada's .ca domain has surpassed 2 million registrations.
• The Czech Republic's .cz domain has reached 1 million registrations.
• auDA, the Australian domain name administrator, is reviewing the .au Dispute Resolution Policy.
• WCIT-12: An Opinionated Primer and Hysteria-Debunker, by Jack Goldsmith.
• 'Father of the internet': Why we must fight for its freedom, by Vinton Cerf.

Timeline

• Sun, Jan 13: Registration available for .ca domain names with French characters
• Sun, Apr 7 - Thu, Apr 11: ICANN meetings in Beijing

Root Zone Partners Ready for New gTLD Deployment - The organizations responsible for managing the Root Zone have issued a statement on their readiness to deploy new gTLDs into the root, indicating that they "are able to process at least 100 new TLDs per week and will commit the necessary resources to meet all root zone management volume increases associated with the new gTLD program." The Root Zone Partners are: ICANN, the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), and VeriSign, Inc.

Picks To Click

• CIRA is introducing the registration of .ca domain names with French characters as of January 13, 2013.
• ICANN's Nominating Committee is inviting Statements of Interest and recommendations for positions on the ICANN Board, the At Large Advisory Committee (ALAC), the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) council, and the Country-Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO) council.
• CIRA Board members Paul Andersen and Bill Sandiford have been re-elected to the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) Board of Trustees and to its Advisory Council, respectively.

Timeline

• Sun, Jan 13: Registration available for .ca domain names with French characters
• Sun, Apr 7 - Thu, Apr 11: ICANN meetings in Beijing

CIRA Reports On 2012 Canadian Internet Forum - CIRA has announced the findings of its 2012 Canadian Internet Forum (CIF). According to the CIF report entitled Challenges and Opportunities for the Internet in Canada [PDF], the greatest concerns Canadians have about the Internet are security, access, cost, and digital literacy.

Picks To Click

• The annual meeting of the Internet Governance Forum is taking place this week in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Timeline

• Sun, Apr 7 - Thu, Apr 11: ICANN meetings in Beijing

ICANN Completes Toronto Meeting - The 45th ICANN meeting was held last week in Toronto. The opening ceremony keynote was delivered by the Honourable Tony Clement, MP and President of the Treasury Board. Mr. Clement expressed strong support for the multi-stakeholder model of Internet governance.

Incremental progress was made on a number of fronts including the new gTLD program and a revised contractual agreement between ICANN and its accredited registrars.

ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) met as usual during the week. In its communiqué [PDF], it indicated that it will forward "early warnings" about new gTLD applications on November 20, and will finalize new gTLD advice following the ICANN meeting in April, 2013.

One of the most notable outcomes of the meeting was the positive impact being provided by the new ICANN President, Fadi Chehadé. He and his new team were warmly received by the community, and the more responsive approach already being adopted by the organization could have longlasting benefits.

Picks To Click

• ICANN President Fadi Chehadé introduced a beta version of the myICANN.org portal which will provide tailored information about ICANN to all.
• ICANN President Fadi Chehadé and ICANN Board Chair Steve Crocker were interviewed at the close of the Toronto meeting.
• The site for the 46th ICANN meeting in Beijing is operational.

Timeline

• Sun, Apr 7 - Thu, Apr 11: ICANN meetings in Beijing