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Community gTLD applicants flunk on “nexus”

Kevin Murphy, March 19, 2014, 21:31:20 (UTC), Domain Policy

The first four Community Priority Evaluation results are in, and all four applicants flunked by failing to prove a “nexus” between the new gTLD string and the community they purport to represent.
No applicant score more than 11 points of the 14 necessary to pass. A total of 16 points are available.
Winning a CPE automatically wins a contention set — all the other applicants for the same new gTLD must withdraw — so it’s a deliberately difficult test.
The scoring mechanism has been debated for years. Scoring 14 points unless the gTLD string exactly matches the name of your organization has always struck me as an almost impossible task.
The first four results appear to substantiate this view. Nobody scored more than 0 on the “nexus” requirement, for which 4 points are available.
The four CPE applicants were: Starting Dot (.immo), Taxi Pay (.taxi), Tennis Australia (.tennis) and the Canadian Real Estate Association (.mls). All four were told:

The string does not identify or match the name of the community, nor is it a well-known short-form or abbreviation of the community.

In some cases, the evaluation panel used evidence from the applicant’s own applicant to show that the string “over-reaches” the community the applicant purported to represent.

The application for .Taxi defines a core community of taxi companies and drivers, as well as peripheral industries and entities.
…
While the string identifies the name of the core community members (i.e. taxis), it does not match or identify the peripheral industries and entities that are included in the definition of the community

In other cases, the panel just used basic common sense. For example, Tennis Australia was told:

Tennis refers to the sport and the global community of people/groups associated with it, and therefore does not refer specifically to the Tennis Australia community.

Starting Dot (.immo) and Taxi Pay (.taxi) both also scored 0 on the “Community Establishment” criteria where, again, 4 points were available.
In that part of the CPE, the applicants have to show that their community is clearly delineated, organized, and long-standing.
In both cases, the panel found that the communities were too eclectic, too disorganized and too young — neither existed before the new gTLD program kicked off in September 2007.
It’s not looking promising for any of the 14 CPE applicants listed by ICANN here. I’ll give $50 to a charity of the applicant’s choosing if any of them scores more than 14 points.

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Comments (5)

  1. Rubens Kuhl says:
    March 19, 2014 at 11:46 pm

    You could lose the bet on .OSAKA, because there is a clear nexus between OSAKA and the City of Osaka, which endorsed both applications. The City of Osaka is almost as old as Japan itself, predating the new gTLD program, the Internet, electronic computers and mechanical computers.

    Reply
  2. zack says:
    March 19, 2014 at 11:54 pm

    osaka would win
    give it to Care

    Reply
  3. Tony Dag says:
    March 21, 2014 at 5:49 pm

    Good job CPE panel. I love it when common sense wins the day!!

    Reply
    • Rubens Kuhl says:
      March 21, 2014 at 9:42 pm

      That the majority should and will be denied community preference is a no brainer. The question is whether the few good ones will survive or not.

      Reply

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