You want to register for a new gTLD?
The TLD Application System (TAS), the online system for submission of new gTLD applications is now live.
Check out it out here.
Once you fill out that form, you just have to send in your $5K which will allow you to submit your application and the $180,000 balance that goes with.
Applications as of 7PM EST are now being accepted
The deadline to get your application in is April 12, 2012.
Don’t’ forget you have to have your online TAS registration complete and your $5K to reserve your online application spot in by March 28th 2012.
Here is all of the info from ICANN:
“”After more than seven years of planning, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has initiated a process that could trigger a dramatic expansion of the Internet.
Starting today, ICANN begins accepting applications for new generic top-level domains (gTLDs). The world of .com, .gov, .org and 19 other gTLDs will soon be expanded to include all types of words in many different languages. For the first time generic TLDs can include words in non-Latin languages, such as Cyrillic, Chinese or Arabic.
Applicants will use the TLD Application System (TAS) to submit their application, in which they answer the 50 questions detailed in the Applicant Guidebook. Links to register in TAS are provided on the ICANN New gTLD page.
12 January:
29 March:
12 April:
ICANN begins accepting applications
The last day to register in TAS
Final day ICANN accepts applications
An updated version of the Applicant Guidebook was posted with the opening of the application window. The updated version incorporates clarifications made through responses previously published by the gTLD customer service center. Main points of clarification are on topics such as batching, background screening, the applicant support program, Continued Operations Instrument, GAC advice processes, and the registry code of conduct. Additional information and answers to previously asked questions can be found in the Program’s Supplemental Notes. These materials are not intended to introduce new requirements or criteria. Links to both the Applicant Guidebook and the Supplemental Notes can be found at the ICANN New gTLD page.
Also available now are changes to the Applicant Support Program: limited financial assistance is offered to qualifying applicants. Through this program, applicants, especially from developing economies, have access to financial assistance in the form of an evaluation fee reduction and other in-kind or community pro bono services. The financial assistance element of the program will allow a limited number of qualifying applicants to pay a US $47,000 evaluation fee instead of the full USD $185,000. This fee reduction has been made possible because ICANN’s Board of Directors has dedicated USD $2,000,000 to the program. This is a seed fund to which other organizations can donate. In response to public comment, the draft program has been updated to increase availability of refunds, make the program available to certain trademark owners, and broaden the scope for those seeking to serve the public interest. More information on the Applicant Support program can be found on the ICANN New gTLD page.
ICANN encourages all interested parties, whether applicants or observers, to refer to the New gTLD section of ICANN’s website for authoritative documents, helpful resources, and latest developments. The New gTLD site is found at http://newgtlds.icann.org.””
we will have to wait at least a year before any new gtld’s get into the icann root.
a lot can happen between now and 2013. dns is about to get a major shake up compliments of the us congress.
alas, as an icann new gtld applicant, if things change, if the government starts censoring icann dns, if users lose trust in icann dns, if easy workarounds suddenly appear en masse as the internet community adapts, you will not be getting your application fee and tooling up costs back. all that money paid to consultants: gone.
of course, none of this affects dot com. that registry alone is far more important than icann or any new gtld it puts in its icann “root”.
realisitically, dot com is the only gtld we all need as consumers. we could skip icann’s root, other tld’s could disappear and we’d hardly notice. in almost all cases, a business must have a dot com presence to be taken seriously. and most businesses do.
new gtld’s are just a money-making scheme for icann and their followers. and this will only become more and more obvious over the next year.
I’d like to pay my $5K for the right to apply for a tld that succinctly represents this whole idea, .fail
None of it matters. Comcast deployed DNSSEC – the internet is saved!
Let ICANN roll out ALL the extensions it wants.
The internet is saved.
Thank you, @ Comcast . . . *tear*
techdirt.com/articles/20120110/18081517371/comcast-owner-nbc-universal-admits-that-dns-redirects-are-incompatible-with-dnssec.shtml
good luck to all
This program will never take flight. Too many problems.
Louise, when a user makes a DNS query, DNSSEC matters little unless the authoritative nameservers for domain name being queried use it.
As it stands, with the present level of adoption, DNNSEC can only verify some of the tld’s (e.g. .org) and a very very small number of domain names.
So some tld’s are set up to use it. A user can verify that referral information the registry provides is accurate. But nothing more.
What the user really needs is a way to make sure the answer from the authoritative nameserver for the domain name she is querying is not forged.
And DNSSEC adopted by a registry or an ISP, who only middlemen a typical DNS query, does nothing to address that unless the person running the authoritative nameserver for the domain name implements DNSSEC. And that implementation is a huge administrative burden involving cryptography that most admins do not understand. That lack of basic understanding is a proven recipe for insecurity.
There’s an alternative to DNSSEC that is easier to understand, implement and administer. It additionally provides protection against tempering with DNS queries in flight (DNSSEC does not) and is aimed not at cryptographically signing each and every domain name ahead of time, but at verifying the identity of the nameservers themselves. That way, the user can verify she is communicating with the proper authoritative nameserver. She can be sure she’s getting the information she seeks (an IP address) from the true authoritative source. Neither the registry nor any cache is the authoritative source. They are middlemen, one provides a referral to the authoritative source. The other makes and stores a copy of the authoritative source’s info. But truly, the user needs neither of those. She only needs to connect to the authoritaive source to get the info.
As such, this alternative to DNSSEC can cut out the middlemen. Without middlemen the risks of “cache poisioning” disappear. When there is no risk of cache poisioning then there is no need for DNSSEC. When there is no need for DNSSEC, companies save millions of dollars and admins will avoid headaches and potential screw ups.
And so it makes a lot of sense.
It gives the user more control and arguably more security. She can manage her own secure copy of authirtative information (a cache, or just a simple permanent file).
Anyway, it’s admirable that Comcast has adopted DNSSEC. After all it preempts nxdomain redirection which is a money-making scheme for ISP’s like Comcast. Such redirection is in fact the basis for “DNS service” companies like OpenDNS. If we do away with redirection, OpenDNS would have to find some other way to make money.
s/who only middlemen/who are only middlemen
s/tempering/tampering
s/authirtative/authoritative
Way cool! Some very valid points! I appreciate you writing this write-up plus the rest of the website is also very good.