This is going to be my last post about the Dot Nxt Conference but an important one.
In the audience from Dot Nxt was a women from Nigeria from a region known as Delta and she was at the conference to try to learn about getting .Delta for her community.
Of course there are many other potential applicants for a .Delta including Delta Airlines and Delta Faucet.
In the session on “Evaluation and Disputes” the issue was raise how this small community could wind up with .Delta and frankly the answer was not very encouraging for her.
While ICANN has chatted about offering some poor communities financial assistance to reduced the normal application fees of $185k to something less, the young women from Delta found out there would be no such help coming in offsetting other fees and costs which will be could be quite substantial.
How substantial?
Objection fees paid to ICANN, expert witnesses, three member panels, travel expenses for the panelists and then attorney fees.
If you just want to be a nuisance objector and stall an application its going to cost you somewhere around $20K-$50K
If your going to for an all out fight you should budget yourself for something into the six figures for a contention or objection.
Maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Of course the applicant is may have to spend likewise to fight a contention or objection.
So where does that leave our friend from Nigeria if Delta Airlines and/or Delta Faucets or other companies with Delta in their TM name anywhere in the world want to make application?
Pretty much screwed.
The panelist Derek Newman of Newman & Newman (a Lawyer whose clients include; TLD registries, registrars, new-TLD applicants, back-end registry service providers, and brand owners), suggested that best the community of Delta might hope for is that one of Delta companies who seriously want .Delta may give the community something to go away and drop their objection.
However the community is still going to have to find the money to go through the objection process (In the case of Delta Nigeria they may not have a huge problem because it appears they have some oil) but the same situation is going to arise from a lot of communities that aren’t fortunate enough to have some oil.
A few other sticky points:
The final guidebook is now overdue, by most accounts people expected the final version to be out before now.
After passing the new gTLD program ICANN said they were going to put on a road show to inform the public about the new gTLD program but not only hasn’t the education series started ICANN hasn’t really announced any locations or dates and the application period opens in 4 1/2 months.
Other than the ICANN meeting in Africa which is going to be lightly attended the education series need to be happening as we speak.
The amount of the application fee that the poor communities would be subsidized by ICANN hasn’t been set.
The Guidebook doesn’t provide for what happens if a new gTLD operator wants to call it quits at some point. Logically the first step would be for the operator to find a buyer but failing that no one knows what happens to the extension. Does it just go away? Can someone else make a new application for it down the road in a future round? Or will it be blocked forever as a conflicting string?
ICANN’s budget for the new gTLD program which is suppose to based a on cost recovery system doesn’t take into account even $1 in revenue as coming from auctions of conflicting application when some expect the top generic extensions to draw bids into the tens of millions of dollars. What is ICANN going to do with what is likely hundreds of millions in extra revenue?
While those inside the community of service providers keep looking at the starting date for applications to be accepted, January 12, 2012, it seems to me many applicants are looking at the last day for submission of April 12, 2012.
Waiting until the last minute maybe a huge issue as the applications and the surrounding rules are complicated and not well suited for last minute application.
Human nature tells me most people will put things off as long as possible and wait for the last minute to get things done.
This is a problem.
For one, all but of the back end operators who spoke at the Dot Nxt show expressed that they would NOT accept a client seeking the same string they already had a signed contract for.
There are a small number of back end providers, maybe less than 10 on earth right now and with the exception of Neustar that publicly stated they would accept applications from competing strings, the other will not.
Meaning that those who wait too long may have a hard time finding a back end provider.
There are still plenty of issues and challenges and time is getting short for those who have interest in applying for their own TLD and for ICANN.
Stay tuned.
Hahahahaha LMAO if anyone sincerely believes that her motives were to acquire .delta for her “community in Nigeria”.
Perhaps I should ring up Uzi Nissan and tell him to make an application for .nissan… and see what kind of ‘settlement’ can be arranged.
Anyone buys this as a sincere inquiry, I have an awesome bridge for sale.
well, I’ve googled a bit, but I’ve found very few companies that may want/like a .delta TLD
there is also an italian car (made by the FIAT Group) called Lancia Delta but I’m sure that Fiat may want to own the .lancia and .fiat TLD but not .delta
“After passing the new gTLD program ICANN said they were going to put on a road show to inform the public about the new gTLD program but not only hasn’t the education series started ICANN hasn’t really announced any locations or dates and the application period opens in 4 1/2 months.”
====================
1. The ICANN CEO has announced he is leaving.
2. It may be prudent for the newish ICANN Board to delay a year to see how the .XXX splits the net in two.
3. The U.S. FCC has contracted with 9 companies and now added Microsoft to the group to manage the new registries
If ICANN operates on industry consensus, they will table the rush to new gTLDs.
“What is ICANN going to do with what is likely hundreds of millions in extra revenue?”
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What does .ORG do with $56,000,000 in annual revenue ? they give ISOC $26,000,000 to pay insiders (Cerf’s Cronies) to talk up the Internet Eco.System Model
MLM – Multi-Level-Marketing systems have an infinite ability to absorb all revenue – islands, yachts, planes, etc are not cheap
“What is ICANN going to do with what is likely hundreds of millions in extra revenue?”
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Bigger YACHTS ?
www. ietf. org/list/nonwg.html
Discussion list to plan sailing events collocated with IETF meetings, usually on the weekends immediately before or after an IETF. …
www. ietf. org/mailman/listinfo/ietf-sailors
They’ll all be getting a 300% raise next year thanks to all dumb applicants. Stick with your current .com or cctld and don’t apply to any .brand.
Will these folks also have email addresses? John.Doe@Drink.Coke? Is that about right? Just don’t see it being adopted by the masses.
“Other than the ICANN meeting in Africa which is going to be lightly attended the education series need to be happening as we speak.”
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What do you suppose 150+ ICANN Staff do during all of the (fabricated) delays ?
…are they “working from home” ? (i.e. the health club ?)
…or on travel to bring the new TLD message to remote places on planet Earth ?
IMO, the someone’s hope to see ALL companies of the world buy their own TLDs (.ford .canon .ibm etc.) is only and illusion, since only very few of them will buy and manage a TLD just to own, few, useless, domains like (e.g.) printers.canon copiers.canon camera.canon etc.
“someone’s hope to see ALL companies of the world buy their own TLDs”
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Those someone(s) do not care about “companies” they are mostly NGO socialists and communists. They fund themselves 4 or 5 times normal and then fly around the world promoting their agenda. Domains are a means to an end. They could just
as easily be selling/leasing taxi cab medallions.
One way to stop them is with FREE non-monetized domains. Another way is to move the bulk of the users to a new platform with a new paradigm.
There is sort of a deadly trend which is to SIT and Watch the insiders carry out
their agendas. They are a fascinating group to study. Their Eco.System is based
on pure greed and they deny it and twist (spin) all aspects of their clique/cartel.
Delta is also a large municipality (100,000+ people) in the metro Vancouver area (where I live). They certainly may have an interest as well.
Stick to .com and .CO
“was a women from Nigeria”
A womAn from Nigeria?
you have her picture and her contact info?
When China and Nigeria is mention, the word SCAM comes into your mind
Was that Reservations.Delta or Reservations.Delta.com or Delta.Reservations.com or Delta.Reservations.com ???
I am confused – I better just key in Delta.com
Thank you, Michael, for pointing out why this gtld event will be a huge failure filled with chaos, fighting and litigation. Why? To introduce a bunch of extensions that no one will ever probably use. I agree with RAYY to stick with .com and maybe .co.
The more extensions the better, the more confusion and more websites…
and people will realize all websites are “BullS”
Instead of being so negative, it is time for all of us to support ICANN to come out whatever extensions they please.
Come on people, be positive…you will make lots of money.
or delta.reservations
DOT Africa ring a bell ? 😉
only Delta Airlines could be interested to buy the .delta TLD but at the same price of a 747, so, I doubt it will buy this TLD
Any people who’s priorities lie in the possession of vanity Internet addresses actually sound very well off
Here’s a link to the ICANN page regarding the Global Awareness:
https://community.icann.org/display/newgtladvertising/Home
They selected a company to manage the ad campaign but it was supposed to have begun already.
The new website about New gTLDs is scheduled to be launched Sep 1
Another problem with with applicants waiting until the last minute to apply could be batching and delegation. ICANN will review applications in batches. 500 the first, and 400 in subsequent batches. The concept of a ticketing system has been suggested for the batching process. So, If part of your plan is to try to be one of the first to market, you better be in that first batch. Which means, getting your application in on the front end of the window. And, they will delegate no more than 1,000 per year. If they receive 1500 applications or more, then those on the tail end should not expect to be delegated for quite some time.
This is a really good example. I remember using delta-air.com for years in the mid-90s before Delta Airlines acquired Delta.com. There are many companies named Delta.
“those on the tail end should not expect to be delegated for quite some time.”
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You may want to check the infamous IANA Jon Postel statement from Circa 1995….
….something to the effect of….”expect to wait a long time”
What a great system, YOU will be paying people for a long time…while the rest of the world builds a new Internet from The.Edge inwards…the corrupt rotten core will eventually be dissolved or perish….
You can bet that there are going to be at least a couple of cash rich giant corporations that are going to be interested in every one of the top keywords. I wonder if ICANN ever considered any means of fair distribution and use for these new gTLDs or whether they based everything on the notion that capitalism will sort everything out. Unfortunately capitalism same as with communism or the so many other isms are no longer able to solve our problems in this third millennium and unless we can come up with a new way of thinking we are going to have a lot of problems not only with the new TLD program, but also with the global economy as a whole. ICANN wants to build a new World (at least when it comes to the Internet) that is based on the old ideologies of power, greed, and favoritism.
–
“You can bet that there are going to be at least a couple of cash rich giant corporations that are going to be interested in every one of the top keywords.”
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There will be 4096 (generic) Top Level Domains that will be challenged in U.S. Federal Courts and the open free markets in the USA
Applicants that want to spend 10 years and upwards of $10,000,000 per Top Level Domain can venture into those Top Level Domains
.XXX is at the early stage of “the process” – They think they are at the end – They took the ICANN bait, hook line and sinker
;; ANSWER SECTION:
xxx.com. 42m40s IN SOA ns1.xxx.com. hostmaster.xxx.com. (
1314719001 ; serial
4h33m4s ; refresh
34m8s ; retry
1w5d3h16m16s ; expiry
42m40s ) ; minimum
xxx.com. 6H IN NS ns1.xxx.com.
xxx.com. 6H IN NS ns2.xxx.com.
xxx.com. 1H IN NS ns1.xxx.com.
xxx.com. 1H IN NS ns2.xxx.com.
xxx.com. 1D IN TXT “Powered by http://cr.yp.to/djbdns.html”
xxx.com. 1H IN MX 0 smtp.secureserver.net.
xxx.com. 1H IN MX 10 mailstore1.secureserver.net.
xxx.com. 1H IN A 174.129.1.23
;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns1.xxx.com. 1H IN A 66.114.124.159
ns2.xxx.com. 1H IN A 66.114.124.160
;; Total query time: 222 msec
;; FROM: gp.centergate.com to SERVER: default — 156.154.70.10
;; WHEN: Tue Aug 30 10:06:40 2011
;; MSG SIZE sent: 25 rcvd: 299
Where is .XXX located ?
1. Ask the XXX.COM nameservers…
;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns1.xxx.com. 1H IN A 66.114.124.159
ns2.xxx.com. 1H IN A 66.114.124.160
What does XXX.CO know about .XXX ?
;; QUERY SECTION:
;; xxx.co, type = ANY, class = IN
;; ANSWER SECTION:
xxx.co. 1D IN NS ns1.sedoparking.com.
xxx.co. 1D IN NS ns2.sedoparking.com.
xxx.co. 10M IN A 82.98.86.176
xxx.co. 1D IN SOA ns1.sedoparking.com. hostmaster.sedo.de. (
2007021501 ; serial
1D ; refresh
3H ; retry
1W ; expiry
1D ) ; minimum
;; Total query time: 192 msec
;; FROM: gp.centergate.com to SERVER: default — 156.154.70.10
;; WHEN: Tue Aug 30 10:09:23 2011
;; MSG SIZE sent: 24 rcvd: 145
It’s a .MIRACLE there is now an SOA record in DNS for TheDomains.com
thedomains.com. 1D IN SOA ns1.thedomains.com. hostmaster.thedomains.com. (
2011061002 ; serial
1D ; refresh
15M ; retry
1W ; expiry
1H ) ; minimum
hmmm. sounds like there’s a market for new back-end-providers. this is not rocket science folks. plenty of marketing spin, and even FUD if they feel they need use that.
maybe a small community in nigeria does not need all the gimmicks that the incumbents are pitching. maybe just a network that “works” is enough. not everyone needs the resiliency of the .com nameservers.
in this area of dns services, like in other areas of networking and computing in general, there’s a heavy bias toward “big”. if you’re not a “big” company with “big” clients, it’s as if you don’t matter. the focus stays on the big players.
of course if the big players see that a small fry might grow big, they probably won’t hesitate to buy him out. because if they’re smart they know dns service is not rocket science.
it sounds like some people are getting cocky. namely the comment from that lawyer, who may see know where the money is, but surely doesn’t know the technical details.
in the end, it’s not money that makes the system work, it’s engineering- it’s the know-how. and here we’re dealing with the engineering of what amounts to an electronic telephone directory. it’s not very complex, it’s just very boring.
i wouldn’t be so cocky about the future of such a business. surely the telco’s thought their printed yellow pages business was protectable and could never fail. but then came the domainers…
@back-end-provider
My utopian beliefs which have somewhat of a dotted line to your beliefs were abandonded nearly 10 years ago.
“in the end, it’s not money that makes the system work, it’s engineering-”
No it is the legal processes, lawyers, udrp, ACPA that give money value – and domains value
@brianwick: understood. but remember this network, which is now a network of networks and part of so many peoples’ daily lives, began as a military and academic resource. there was no money in it. in fact, commercial use was prohibited.
so if there was no financial incentive, no commercially-motivated legal disputes, lawyers, federal laws and pseudo-mediation systems, how did this network get built? and how can it work? what about the free market and all that?
it works because some nerds at berkeley back in the 80’s liked to hack on big, old computers without graphics. paid or not, they would be doing it.
is there value in what they did? those giving them gov’t grants thought so. the us military paid them to deliver a networking protocol suite. and though it wasn’t the ubiquitous choice for networks in the beginning (there were plenty of commercial alternatives), it is now. that protocol suite is what you’re using now to view this website. it’s what almost everyone is using. and it started at a university.
the lawyers that grab your attention and the disputes they encourage, come later. only when it’s clear there’s money being made will we see them. lawyers working at the universities are generally low key.
technology that eventually is worth tens or hundreds of millions often comes from working environments that lack clear financial incentives: e.g. academia. what is the “economic stimulus”? maybe the stimulus is intellectual challenge?
this is not some utopian ideal, it’s reality.
no matter how much a corporation pays its engineers or scientists, they still end up having to “steal” from universities. that’s just the way it is and the way it’s always been. it can be irksome for some who are involved, but we all learn to live with it. and in fact we (univeristies, corporations and governments) encourage it, because we recognise it’s the path innovation so often takes.
but how can people getting paid so little (relative to their industry counterparts) create stuff that becomes so valuable?
i don’t know.
but i know they do.
so when evaluating technology, i look past the marketing, the lawyers and the talk of who’s “big”, and dig down to the engineering.
does it work? does it work “good enough”? and finally, how does it work?
if i asked you 10 yrs ago what the dominant networking protocol would be i doubt you would have said tcp/ip.
biglie i’m afraid i missed your point.
asking the xxx.co[m] ns’s about .xxx yields no response.
but you weren’t even doing that. you were asking a cache. can you trust this cache, or any cache?
if no (as the zone signing, huge dns packet proponents have assumed), then why use one?
looks like someone at xxx.com knows a thing or two about code quality and common sense, as the txt rr indicates.
“Who Will Get .Delta…?”
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“asking the xxx.co[m] ns’s about .xxx yields no response”
Also ask the 22 other gTLD nameservers for their “opinion”
Learning to use the “dig” command can be useful
As for .DELTA – It is not in the “Top 2,048 DLDs – Dash Level Domains”
New Top Level Domains enter the Top 4096 very slowly with a lot of voting and opinions obtained from the running nameservers – not some panel of $185,000 judges
“you were asking a cache. can you trust this cache, or any cache?”
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The DNS (at least the original DNS) is (was) a light-weight database of HINTS
If you gather HINTS and opinions from many places you can begin to get a trustworthy collection of servers to use for a particular Top Level Domain
In a true Bottom.Up Multi-Stakeholder system the software polls many sources for opinions
ICANN is TOP DOWN – Look at the 2 letter TLDs they are removing
What happens when they remove the TLD you paid dearly to develop ?
…or delegate it to some **manufactured competitor**
In the new Slot-Based TLD DNS there are 4096 Slots – That is sort of like 4096 ICANNs – Software easily polls and populates the slots in a FAIR manner