John Demco
New gTLD Differences Summarized – The ICANN Board Chairman has sent an email summarizing the Board’s response to the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) scorecard of issues concerning the new gTLD program. Each item is noted with one of these designations: 1A – Board position and GAC advice are consistent, 1B – positions are consistent in principle with some revisions to be made, and 2 – the Board position and GAC advice are not consistent. According to Board Chairman Peter Dengate Thrush: “Our breakdown of the Scorecard shows a total of 80 subparts, including a total of 25 – 1As; 28 – 1Bs; 23 – 2s; 4 – TBDs. In terms of the 12 sections identified by the GAC, we have 2s in five of them – sections 2, 4, 5, 6 and 8. We do not have any 2s in sections 1, 3, 7, 9, 10, 11 and 12, although in section 10 we have three TBDs.” Dengate Thrush proposes focusing on the 2s during consultations at the upcoming ICANN San Francisco meetings, and indicates that the Board “looks forward to continuing to collaborate with the GAC in order to conclude the consultation process on the new gTLD program during the Silicon Valley/San Francisco Meeting.”
Domain Name Registrations Top 205 Million Worldwide – At the end of 2010 there were 205.3 million domain name registrations worldwide, according to the latest Domain Name Industry Brief published by VeriSign. This represents a growth of 12.1 million or 6.3% annually. The annual growth as reported three months ago was 13.3 million or 7%. Registrations from the ccTLDs stood at 80.1 million, a 0.3% annual increase. The ten largest domains are: .com, .de, .net, .org, .uk, .info, .cn, .nl, .eu and .ru.
ICANN Meets in San Francisco Next Week – ICANN meetings will take place on March 13-18 in San Francisco. Some of the main topics are: the new gTLD program including a consultation with the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), the .xxx domain application, and the 2011-2014 strategic plan.
Picks To Click
- “What happened in Brussels? A Wreck.” by Milton Mueller.
Timeline
- Sun, Mar 13 – Fri, Mar 18: ICANN meetings in San Francisco, USA
- Fri, Apr 1: .org and .biz registry fees increase
- Sun, Jun 19 – Fri, Jun 24: ICANN meetings in Singapore
- Fri, Jul 1: .info registry fee increases