Like in the Steve Martin’s Movie the Jerk, where he proclaims the new Phonebook are out, the new Phone book are out; The new gTLD Guide Book is finally out.
Yes ICANN has finally published the “final” gTLD Guidebook.
You can download the English version here (pdf)
ICANN has made it clear that the Guide Book will be an ongoing process which will be amended on the go, will be a work in progress and may never be “final”
“The Applicant Guidebook is intended to be an inclusive guide and will be regularly updated as aspects of the process are deemed necessary and are implemented.”
“In addition to the Applicant Guidebook, a summary of changes since the last version and a discussion version of a process for amending the Applicant Guidebook are also posted. ”
“There are certain areas where work is still ongoing, such as: whether single character Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) can be delegated as TLDs, ensuring continued registry operation through a continued operations instrument, and providing support for needy applicants through the work of the Joint Applicant Support (JAS) working group.”
You can read a summary of the changes from the previous Guidebook here (pdf)
The biggest change to the Guidebook seems to be the timeline.
Of the $185,000 application fee $5,000 of it is buy a “key” or “slot” to place your application.
Under the Final Guidebook that slot must be applied for and the $5K paid by March 29th 2012.
The actual application still has to be submitted by April 12th but if they slot is not reserved by March 29th then applicants will be out of luck.
Do you need to have 10+ yrs of legal experience and an attorney to read that junk?
Bull
Yes that would be me
The Junk Reader
downloaded … now I (just) need to find the time to read its 291 pages … 🙂
Wonder when the required FTC Franchise Filings will appear as well as the State of California documents required to sell what they call Business Opportunities ?
driver: “where you going?”
thejerk: “end of this fence”
what was really strange is in that recent adage article where the marketing guy at hp criticises the penultimate icann guidebook is that he fails to include a link to the guidebook itself. like we’re supposed to just believe his arguments without any specific references to or a copy of the document.
providing a link is the right thing to do. make it easy for readers.
i expect to find the same gaping hole in this version as in the last one regarding how they are going to implement string matching, i.e. the technical _details_. would the trademark and gac reps be interested in understanding this? i think so, if it were presented clearly in an easy to understand format.
the trademark lobby, not to mention the gac folks worried about troublesome strings, really have no clue how the string matching can be done from a technical standpoint. they don’t know what’s possible and what’s not. and of course they cannot contest methods which they do not understand. that means it’s a free ride for icann as the best the folks who are worried can do is wait and see what the system is like _after_ it’s already running. (which is really too late).
I am just simply amazed ———-