New TLDs

What If New gTLD Applicants Held Private Auctions Where Losing Applicants, Not ICANN Gets The Money

Over the last week at ICANN the arguably best idea coming out of the ICANN meeting is the concept that applicants for new gTLD strings with more than one application, hold a private auction amongst themselves with the winning amount going to the other losing applicants instead of to ICANN. As a backdrop, under the Guidebook multiple applicants for a new gTLD extension are encouraged to work together and come to an agreement to resolve the conflict. more

Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom… But Watch Out for Weeds

When ICANN committed -- after no small debate -- to an open, rather than limited application process for new gTLDs, supporters likened it to "letting a thousand flowers bloom." On reveal day we got our first glimpse at the thousand (plus) flowers they promised. Now it falls to ICANN to tend this wild new garden... But now the fun of spreading the seeds has already begun to fade, and the hard work of turning this new, unprecedented flowerbed into a safe, innovative and worthwhile global garden has already begun. more

Accountability, Transparency, and… Consistency?

ICANN Compliance now has two conflicting answers on record concerning the enforceability of RAA 378 on WHOIS inaccuracy. This is a topic of extreme importance and one we are trying to get to the bottom of. ...inconsistency needs to be resolved as it directly impacts the current RAA negotiations and certainly before new gTLDs are deployed. more

Amazon, Google, And The Prospect of Closed gTLDs - Don’t Believe the Hype

There have been a lot of complaints leveled at companies like Amazon and Google who have applied to register a number of new gTLDs. The criticism is that the public will not benefit from having Amazon own .book, .store, .you, and .grocery if they only use it for their own purposes and don't open them up to sell domains to the broader public, and that allowing these companies to own generic registries will hurt their competitors in that space. Although these arguments are not without merit, there are also positive aspects to having established companies own gTLDs. more

ICANN Has Opened Up Opportunities for Everyone Including Africa

The ICANN latest reveal of the applications pending batching has shown a number of very crucial details of what the new domains system is like. The new system before batching presents new applications with the North Americas having the highest applications amounting to 911, Europe follows with 675, Asia pacific which already has one continental domain .asia has three hundred and three domains, Latin America which shares the same ecological niche with Africa has 24 new applications 7 domains higher than Africa which has presented 17 new domains. more

ICANN Suspends Digital Archery

Today, ICANN announced the temporary suspension of the Digital Archery system. ARI Registry Services applauds this development, as it's a clear signal ICANN is listening, considering and acting upon constructive feedback from the community. We encourage ICANN to not only reassess the Digital Archery system, but also the need to proceed with batching at all. more

Is ICANN Leaving Africa Behind? Or Is It Really the Other Way Around?

As I prepare to jet off to Prague this weekend for the coming ICANN conference, I had to reflect back on the tumultuous year this has been in ICANN and the Internet world generally, especially as relates to Africa and Emerging Markets. And after all the smoke and fury, I had to ask: Is ICANN leaving Africa behind? Or could it be that it's exactly the opposite? That Africa is moving forward and ICANN is missing the party? more

ICANN 44 Prague: A Look at the Future

ICANN's 44th public meeting is about to start in a few days with a number of topics on the agenda. Some of them are new, while some of them are ongoing. First off, ICANN will be announcing the new CEO this Friday afternoon in Prague. Whoever it is will be coming to the organisation at a time when it faces a number of significant challenges. While the actual official meeting does not start until Monday morning there will be plenty of meetings on over the weekend as well... So what's on the "menu" for Prague? more

A Proposed New gTLD Timeline Without Batching

Following the release of our new gTLD multiple batch timeline yesterday, today we would like to take the opportunity to demonstrate to ICANN and the community exactly how a single batch timeline could be implemented and how this would benefit all applicants. In recent weeks, ARI Registry Services has publicly expressed concern about the current batching model and digital archery system. Several other key stakeholders within the community have also raised concerns and expressed support for our position. more

Proposed New IETF Standard Would Create a Nationally Partitioned “Internet”

For those worried about the threat of a state-based takeover of the Internet, there is no need to obsess over the International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs) exclusively. Three Chinese engineers are proposing a way to alter Internet standards to partition the Internet into autonomously administered national networks, using the domain name system (DNS). The idea was not proposed in the ITU; no, it was sent to a multi-stakeholder institution, the granddaddy of the Internet itself, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). more