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dotShabaka Diary — Day 5

Kevin Murphy, August 20, 2013, 13:23:52 (UTC), Domain Registries

Today, the fifth installment of dotShabaka Registry’s journal, charting its progress towards becoming one of the first new gTLDs to go live, written by general manager Yasmin Omer.

Tuesday 20 August 2013
We thought it would be timely to offer a recap of our Pre-Delegation Testing (PDT) experience to date.
Prior to PDT
We entered the PDT process with confidence due to our positive experience during beta testing. While we had lots of questions and concerns before entering the PDT beta program, particularly with documentation and test cases, we remained positive because there was constant communication between ourselves and the PDT Service Provider (IIS).
Prior to entering the first production PDT, we found all issues were resolved efficiently. We were also able to speak with ICANN to clarify some of the more vexing issues we’d faced during the PDT Beta program. We were also thankful that Patrik Hildingsson, the Production Manager for PDT (at IIS), even reached out personally to warn us of some documentation issues they’d not yet had time to resolve.
Our experience with the PDT Helpdesk had improved significantly through the process, which is a credit to all those involved.
During PDT
When we finally entered the PDT testing window two weeks ago, there was a noticeable drop in dialogue between ourselves and the PDT Service Provider. This was not necessarily a concern as everything appeared to be going fine, although our technical logs were not showing a great deal of activity. We assume that no news is good news. However, one suggested area for improvement would be an increase in communication during the testing phase, even if it’s an email to say everything is fine and we have no concerns. The lack of communication had our technical team biting their nails everyday while they nervously watched the logs.
By the Wednesday of the second week, we sent an email to ask if there were any problems and if the third week of PDT (described by ICANN as the remedy period) would be required. The response was a little vague, but we think we’re in the clear and the testing is complete. While the system status has not changed, there has been no activity in our logs since last week, suggesting the third week is not required. Fingers crossed.
Overall, we are happy with the process and wish other applicants the best of luck with their PDT. One small tip we can offer is that the data submission window closes at 11:59 UTC on the Friday before your PDT appointment. Don’t mistake this as 23:59 UTC, or you’ll miss out. We uploaded our documents well in advance, but some of our staff almost got caught out when discussing when to hit the “submit” button. Luckily there were keen observers on our internal mailing list and no mistake was made.
Good luck!

Read previous and future diary entries here.

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