dotShabaka Diary — Day 13, Questions, Questions

The thirteenth 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.

Friday 20 September 2013
The new gTLD webinar on 19 September was very well attended with over 200 people on the call. Due to time constraints ICANN did not answer questions previously submitted by email so we thought it would be useful to share them with you here:

• 1. What issues do ICANN need to resolve before the delegation processes will commence for those TLDs that have completed PDT?
  a) What are the processes and schedules for resolution of these issues?
  b) Will this information be made available to Applicants to assist with launch planning?
• 2. The number of Trademark records in the Arabic script in the TMCH is very low – the last information that Deloitte/IBM/ICANN published in early July was that there were 13 trademarks records in the Arabic script in the TMCH. No update on IDN trademark records in the TMCH has been provided since.
  a. Why is this information not publically available to assist registry operators with launch planning?
  b. What is the plan to improve TMCH IDN numbers and what are the forecasts?
• 3. Only 26 Registrars have signed the 2013 RAA. To expedite the on-boarding process and enable a global network of Registrars for the TLD launch, can ICANN remove the requirement that a registrar have executed the 2013 RAA in order to obtain a registration token for the TMDB? This will allow Registrar testing to proceed whilst the 2013 RAA is being executed/negotiated.
• 4. Can you please provide a specific date for distribution of the PR kit for new gTLD registries who are planning launch activities as mentioned by Christine Willett in her recent video interview?
• 5. When will ICANN update its website with the list of registrars that have completed TMCH Integration Testing as promised in section 1.5 of the 6 August RPM Requirements Document?
• 6. When will the Registry Reporting Interface required as per Specification 3 be in production rather than OT&E?
• 7. ICANN staff mentioned that there may be a call to discuss finalising the URS Technical Requirements Document
  a. When will this call occur?
  b. When will the URS Technical Requirements Document be finalised?
  c. Must the URS Technical Requirements Document be finalised prior to the delegation or sunrise of the first new gTLDs?
• 8. Is the CZDA operational and ready for the first new gTLDs which will be delegated in the next month?
• 9. Can IBM create a permanent OT&E for the TMCH that allows complete end to end testing and includes all the functionality found in the production environment?

We look forward to ICANN will publishing responses to these questions in the Q&A typically distributed a few days after completion.

Read previous and future diary entries here.

Google signs first new gTLD contract

Google has signed its first Registry Agreement with ICANN, covering the new gTLD .みんな.
The string means “everyone” in Japanese. It had priority number 34.
Google proposes to use it as an open TLD, available for anyone to register names in.
Signed by Google subsidiary Charleston Road Registry, it’s the 34th new gTLD contract ICANN has executed.
Google has 96 new gTLD applications remaining. One of them, for .search, is still Initial Evaluation.

dotShabaka Diary — Day 12, Welcome to ICANN

The twelfth 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.

Wednesday 18 September 2013
The شبكة. team met with marketing and PR agencies in the Middle East today to make plans for launch.
 
They were shocked that there was so much uncertainty around a global program that in the words of ICANN’s Christine Willett “… will have the first new gTLD launched and in production by the end of this calendar year.”
 
The agencies were astounded that after such a significant investment we still have no idea when شبكة. can be launched.
 
We welcomed them to the world of new gTLDs.

Read previous and future diary entries here.

dotShabaka Diary — Day 11, 2013 RAA issues

The eleventh 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 17 September 2013
As شبكة. gets closer to launch, signing up Registrars becomes ever more critical and we have started discussions with potential partners across three continents. To participate in Sunrise, Registrars must have already completed two steps: 1) Signed the 2013 RAA; and 2) Completed TMDB Accreditation.
To date, around 20 Registrars have signed the 2013 RAA according to the InterNIC website.
However, because Registrars cannot access the TMDB environment until they have signed the 2013 RAA, even fewer have started TMDB accreditation. Many of those that have signed the RAA have been frustrated by TMDB OTE access problems.
Is there any official ICANN database where Registries can confirm Registrar TMDB Accreditation?
Registries are locked out of the TMDB environment until the 2013 RAA is signed. Why not let Registries access the TMDB as needed (now) to accelerate readiness for the launch of IDN gTLDs?
And why aren’t ICANN or Deloitte publishing TMCH numbers for non-English trademarks? How can we decide whether the Sunrise Phase should be 30 days or more if we don’t know the numbers? Why not publish the forecasts and let the Registries decide how to optimise launch phases for their businesses model?

Read previous and future diary entries here.

Coming soon: phone numbers in .tel

Will companies defensively register their phone numbers? Telnic is to start selling long numeric .tel domain names for the first time, so we’re about to find out.
The company plans to lift the longstanding restriction on numeric domains of eight characters or longer on October 15, according to a press release (pdf) this morning:

Registrants wishing to register strings such as 00442074676450.tel or 0207-467-6450.tel will be able to do so through ICANN-accredited Registrars from 15:00 GMT on Tuesday 15th October.
“Registrants now have an increased choice of registering a .tel name or a .tel number under which they can publish all types of contact information online,” said Khashayar Mahdavi, CEO of Telnic. “This means that if the customer knows either the business name or telephone number for a business, it can be reached online quickly in a mobile-friendly way.”

Telnic expects numeric .tel domains to cost the same as regular .tel domains, which varies by registrar but can be as low as about $15. There’s not going to be any special sunrise period.
Telnic has had the ability to do this since early 2011, when ICANN approved its Registry Services Evaluation Process request to lift its original ban on numeric-only second-level domains.
The RSEP was not without controversy. Telnic, remember, was one of two applicants for .tel back in 2003, and it won partly because its application committed the company to avoiding numerals.
There had been concern expressed by the International Telecommunications Union and others that phone number .tel domains might interfere with ENUM-based numbering schemes.
Those concerns had largely dried up by the time Telnic submitted its RSEP in 2010, when the only complaint came, weirdly, from Go Daddy.

.sex and two other gTLD pass evaluation

Three new gTLD applications passed Initial Evaluation this week, including one of the two applications for .sex.
The approved .sex bid belongs to Internet Marketing Solutions, which is competing with .xxx operator ICM Registry.
The other applications passing IE this week are .leclerc, a French dot-brand, and .aquitaine, a French geographic region.
There are only 20 applications left without results, almost all of which — apart from a generic bid for .bar and Google’s controversial “dotless” .search — appear to be dot-brands.

Eight more new gTLD contracts signed, six by Donuts

ICANN has brought up its number of contracted new gTLDs to 32 with the signing of eight new Registry Agreements yesterday.
Six belong to Donuts:: .graphics, .technology, .reviews, .gallery, .guide and .construction.
Two IDN registries have also signed contracts: .我爱你 (Tycoon Treasure), which means “I love you” in Chinese, and .集团 (Eagle Horizon), which means “group” or “conglomerate” in Chinese.
The prioritization numbers for the 32 newly contracted application ranges from eight to 496. Almost all of the non-ASCII strings with contracts to date belong to Donuts.

dotShabaka Diary — Day 10, TMCH Troubles

The tenth 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.

Wednesday 11 September 2013
It is great to see the Trademark Claims functionality available in the TMDB from 9 September. As we previously posted, we had to put TMCH Integration Testing on hold as we couldn’t download the DNL File or upload the LORDN File. We are now able to download the DNL File but cannot upload the LORDN File. We have reported this to IBM and look forward to wrapping up TMCH Integration Testing soon. Stay tuned for the next update.

Read previous and future diary entries here.

Four more new gTLDs, including .sexy, get contracts

ICANN signed four more new gTLD contracts with four different registries yesterday.
The lucky recipients of Registry Agreements are:

• .uno (Dot Latin LLC) — a general-purpose, open gTLD aimed primarily at Spanish and Italian speakers.
• .menu (Wedding TLD2, LLC) — also open, though the registry plans to run second-level portals corresponding to types of food (italian.menu, etc).
• .sexy (Uniregistry Corp) — signing a Registry Agreement with boring old ICANN doesn’t strike me as particularly sexy, but Uniregistry went ahead and did it anyway.
• .世界 (Stable Tone Ltd) — this Chinese string means “.world”. It will also be open and obviously targeted primarily at Chinese-speaking registrants.

The deals mean ICANN has now signed contracts covering 26 new gTLD applications. It’s slow going so far, but the pace is definitely picking up.
As of last week, DI PRO Application Tracker allows you to search for only gTLDs that have signed contracts, along with 23 other search criteria.

Wine gTLDs get a pass as GAC fails to agree

Applicants for wine-related gTLDs will no longer be opposed by the Governmental Advisory Committee, it has emerged.
Writing to ICANN chair Steve Crocker this week, GAC chair Heather Dryden said that the GAC had failed to reach an agreement on whether to issue formal Advice against the applications.
Three .wine applicants and one .vin applicant are affected.
Some governments are concerned about strings at the second level because quite often a word many people associate primarily with a type of wine is also the protected name of the wine-producing region.
Champagne is probably the best-known example of this.
Nevertheless, the GAC couldn’t reach agreement on whether to provide formal advice to ICANN on this topic, so the applications will be free to proceed along the new gTLD program’s track.