Last week, New gTLD Applicant Group (NTAG) members—who account for over half of the applications submitted to ICANN in this round—issued a unanimous letter to ICANN’s New gTLD Program Committee (NGPC) [PDF] urging decisive action on Government Advisory Committee (GAC) Category 1 Advice at their upcoming February 5th meeting.

The NGPC has been committing to address outstanding items of the GAC Advice in a manner that allows the largest possible number of applicants to proceed since last September. No doubt these are complex issues, but unaffected applicants are now launching regularly. ICANN recently celebrated the delegation of 100 new gTLDs. As an applicant impacted by GAC Advice, we too would like to get on with our application.

However, most understand that this issue is close to resolution. What worries me as NTAG Chair is the next issue. What is the next GAC Advice? What is the next name collision? What issue did we miss that may cost applicants time and money? As a community, we must start thinking more carefully about the choice to delay while at the same time doing the planning that gets us ahead of these challenges.

Leadership often involves making tough choices. Sometimes delays are necessary to find solutions to complex problems. But delays are not without consequences. We must strive to manage delays before they occur. When we cannot, we must weigh the benefit of delay against the cost to applicants.

ICANN’s President and CEO Fadi Chehadé reflected in his opening speech at the Buenos Aires ICANN meeting [PDF] this past November that if the new gTLD program does not get off the ground, not only is it a problem for the gTLD program, it is a problem for the credibility of ICANN.

As long as any one application remains grounded, as a community we still have that problem.