ICANN Meets This Week In Los Angeles - ICANN is holding meetings in Los Angeles until Friday, November 2. A website provides updated information, and many events are being webcast. Among the topics to be addressed are:

• new gTLDs
• an open meeting of the Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) including a presentation on "domain name front running" which considers "the opportunity for a party with some form of insider information to anticipate an Internet user's preference for registering a domain name and preemptively register that name."
• a tribute to outgoing Board chair Vint Cerf
• frameworks for ICANN's accountability and transparency
• improvements to the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO)
• the 2008-2011 strategic plan

Single-Letter And Single-Digit Domain Names Being Considered - ICANN has begun a forum on "potential allocation methods for single-letter and single-digit domain names at the second level in gTLD registries. Examples include a.com, i.info, 4.mobi, 8.org. Since revenue will result from this allocation, comments regarding the potential uses for this revenue are also requested." Such domain names are currently reserved, although six single-character names (q.com, x.com, z.com, i.net, q.net and x.org) had previously been registered.

NeuStar To Continue Operating The .US Registry - The National Telelecommunications and Information Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, has renewed NeuStar's contract to manage the .US domain registry. The renewal is a three-year agreement with two one-year options. A joint venture backed by GoDaddy and Afilias had also competed for the contract.

Picks To Click

• The Gowlings Domain Name Law Portal--A Review of Domain Name and Trademark Law.
• The minutes of the September 6, 2007 meeting of the CIRA Board of Directors.
• ICANN publishes a fact sheet on IPv6.

Timeline

• Tue, Oct 9 - Tue, Oct 30: .asia registry sunrise for registered marks
• Mon, Oct 29 - Fri, Nov 2: ICANN meetings in Los Angeles
• Wed, Oct 31: last day for responses to second Nominet governance consultation
• Mon, Nov 12: last day for submissions to .nz domain policy review
• Tue, Nov 13 - Tue, Jan 15: .asia registry sunrise for marks, extended marks, entity names
• Thu, Nov 15: last day for submissions on single character domain names
• Mon, Nov 19: last day for submissions on the ICANN gTLD registry failover plan
• Wed, Dec 19: last day for submissions to .nz IDN consultation
• Sun, Feb 10 - Fri, Feb 15: ICANN meetings in Delhi
• Sun, Jun 22 - Fri, Jun 27: ICANN meetings in Paris

ICANN Launches Internationalized Top-Level Domain Evaluation - ICANN is launching an evaluation of Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) as top-level domain names. The root zone is being augmented with 11 versions of the TLD name .test, and as of October 15 wiki pages will be available with the domain name example.test in Arabic, Persian, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Russian, Hindi, Greek, Korean, Yiddish, Japanese and Tamil.

.MOBI Auction Raises $850,000 - DotMobi, the registry operator for the .mobi domain, has reported that its auction of 100 .mobi domain names yielded more than $850,000. Top individual domain prices were: hosting.mobi ($101,000), bank.mobi ($51,501), download.mobi ($51,500), currency.mobi ($47,000) and insurance.mobi ($42,005).

New Zealand IDN Consultation Under Way - InternetNZ has established a working group "to consider the implementation of IDNs into the .nz domain name space. The initial focus of the IDN implementation will be on the 5 macronised vowels required to correctly spell Māori words in domain names." Comments are being sought, with a closing date of December 19.

Picks To Click

• "A Script for Every Surfer" by Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post.
• "The problems of viewing IDNs" by Kim Davies in the ICANN Blog.
• The .au registry is releasing several hundred geographic names for registration.

Timeline

• Tue, Oct 9 - Tue, Oct 30: .asia registry sunrise for registered marks
• Fri, Oct 19: last day for submissions on draft .au recommendations
• Mon, Oct 29 - Fri, Nov 2: ICANN meetings in Los Angeles
• Wed, Oct 31: last day for responses to second Nominet governance consultation
• Mon, Nov 12: last day for submissions to .nz domain policy review
• Tue, Nov 13 - Tue, Jan 15: .asia registry sunrise for marks, extended marks, entity names
• Wed, Dec 19: last day for submissions to .nz IDN consultation
• Sun, Feb 10 - Fri, Feb 15: ICANN meetings in Delhi
• Sun, Jun 22 - Fri, Jun 27: ICANN meetings in Paris

Fast-Tracking of Internationalized ccTLD Names To Be Explored - ICANN's Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO) is soliciting input from ccTLD managers on the topic of fast-tracking the implementation of some ccTLD Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs). According to the document: "It became clear that the development of the required policy for IDN ccTLDs to resolve the issues raised was likely to take a minimum of 2 years. It also became clear that such a time frame was a major concern for a number of ccTLD managers who have expressed there is a pressing need for an IDN ccTLD in their territory."

Picks To Click

• An article on Internet pioneer and incoming ICANN Board member Dennis Jennings.
• An interview with Vint Cerf.
• Maps of the world showing country codes, by Byte Level Research.
• The U.S. Department of Commerce has granted a one-year extension of its contract with ICANN to operate the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).
• ABELSoft Corporation wins a dispute over abelmed.ca and abeldent.ca.
• The agenda of the October 12, 2007 meeting of the CIRA Board of Directors.

Timeline

• Tue, Oct 9: .asia registry sunrise period begins
• Fri, Oct 12: last day for comments on the ICANN Strategic Plan issues paper
• Fri, Oct 12: CIRA Board of Directors meeting in Ottawa
• Fri, Oct 19: last day for submissions on draft .au recommendations
• Mon, Oct 29 - Fri, Nov 2: ICANN meetings in Los Angeles
• Wed, Oct 31: last day for responses to second Nominet governance consultation
• Mon, Nov 12: last day for submissions to .nz domain policy review
• Sun, Feb 10 - Fri, Feb 15: ICANN meetings in Delhi
• Sun, Jun 22 - Fri, Jun 27: ICANN meetings in Paris

ICANN Nominating Committee Announces Selections - ICANN's Nominating Committee has announced its selection of new members of the ICANN Board of Directors, the GNSO Council, the At-Large Advisory Committee, and the ccNSO Council. Appointed to the Board were Harald Tveit Alvestrand, Dennis Jennings, and Jean-Jacques Subrenat.

Picks To Click

• Criticism and defence of the .name registry's charging for access to detailed registration information.
• ICANN publishes a guide to its flow of work between the ICANN meeting last June and the upcoming meeting in Los Angeles.
• New Zealand's .nz domain reaches 300,000 registrations.
• September 26 marks the first anniversary of the .mobi domain.

Timeline

• Wed, Sep 26 - Wed, Oct 3: .mobi auction of 100 premium domains
• Tue, Oct 9: .asia registry sunrise period begins
• Fri, Oct 12: last day for comments on the ICANN Strategic Plan issues paper
• Fri, Oct 19: last day for submissions on draft .au recommendations
• Mon, Oct 29 - Fri, Nov 2: ICANN meetings in Los Angeles
• Wed, Oct 31: last day for responses to second Nominet governance consultation
• Mon, Nov 12: last day for submissions to .nz domain policy review
• Sun, Feb 10 - Fri, Feb 15: ICANN meetings in Delhi
• Sun, Jun 22 - Fri, Jun 27: ICANN meetings in Paris