After years of wrangling, the Internet may soon see the introduction of new top-level domains.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will consider 44 applications for TLDs (top-level domains) at this week’s meeting of the board of directors in Marina Del Rey, California.
With more than 800 people pre-registered — virtually all with a vested interest in the domain name spaces of the future — the three-day meeting promises to be a spectacle of ubergeek proportions.
“The board has said that it wants to add a limited number of TLDs in a measured and responsible fashion,” said Andrew McLaughlin, ICANN’s chief policy officer.
A detailed report, released Friday, breaks down the 44 applications into categories.
There are general purpose TLDs, such as .web and .biz; special purpose TLDs, such as .coop and .union; and TLDs such as .tel that contemplate new services such as Internet-based telephony.
The staff report also provides a detailed summary of each application. One thing it does not do, however, is provide the board with simple answers to the complex question of which applications to choose.
“We’re not telling the board which ones they ought to add,” McLaughlin said.
After the board decides which applications to accept, ICANN will enter into an extended negotiations period with the companies proposing the TLDs, said ICANN vice president Louis Touton. While ICANN expects that the negotiations will be completed by year’s end, it is unlikely that new TLDs will open for business until the second quarter of next year.
Also meeting this week will be two of ICANN’s three supporting organizations — the Domain Name Supporting Organization (DNSO), which concerns itself with the Domain Name System; and the Address Supporting Organization, which focuses on the system of IP addresses used to identify every computer on the Net. Each supporting organization elects three directors to the ICANN board on a staggered basis.
The DNSO is comprised of several constituencies representing a range of interests in the Domain Name System, including ISPs, businesses, TLD registrars and non-commercial Web publishers. Many of these constituencies have submitted comments to the ICANN board on the TLD applications.
The Intellectual Property Constituency has prepared a comparison of all 44 applications on the basis of what steps they plan to take in protecting the intellectual property rights of third parties, such as trademark holders.
The gTLD Constituency has issued a “best practices” document outlining which policies it thinks all TLDs should adopt regardless of what their application states. Likewise, the Business and Commercial Constituencies have issued comments of their own.
The DNSO’s Non-Commercial Domain Name Holders Constituency has issued its agenda for its meeting this week. Like the IPC, it is expected to discuss ICANN’s Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Process, a controversial and mandatory domain name arbitration procedure.
Since its inception, ICANN has been the subject of much controversy and ire among the members of the Internet community. ICANN’s Board meeting this week is no exception.
Law Professor Michael Froomkin recently accused ICANN’s several board members of “board squatting” after the nonprofit corporation announced that four of the original board of directors will have their terms extended until 2002.
“The decision on those who would accept extended terms was made by the nine original directors in secret, with no public process,” Froomkin wrote. “In the past, ICANN’s unelected board members have cited ‘continuity’ as a reason for staying on.”
“That’s balderdash: even if they all left today, a majority of the Board — nine members — would be experienced, and only five would be new (what’s more, most of the five new directors have considerable ICANN experience and/or superior technical credentials).”
Those who must hold down a day job — while ICANN decides the future of Net names — can still get in on the action this week thanks to a webcast of the event hosted by the Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society.
