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By: Adam Eisner on November 2nd, 2009
Posted in: Events, Industry News
Tags: ICANN, ICANN Seoul 2009
Comments: 0

I’m back from Seoul, which played host last week to ICANN’s 36th International Meeting. As far as ICANN meetings go, this one was extremely busy, well-attended and led to several significant decisions on a policy level.

The decision which garnered the most international attention was ICANN’s approval of a “fast track” process for certain Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs). This will allow certain ccTLDs to introduce internationalized versions of their extension in native language scripts. Historically, IDNs have only been available “before the dot”, while the actual extension had to remain in Latin characters. IDN ccTLDs, however, will allow the extension “after the dot” to be entered in native language scripts as well. With the approval of the fast track process, ICANN will now begin accepting IDN ccTLD applications. Stay tuned for more developments on this new process in the coming months.

For those interested in the approval of new Top Level Domain names, the Seoul conference had both positive and negative developments. On the plus side, coming away from the conference, it is very clear everyone is committed to new TLDs. However, it is also now clear that the original time-line, which would have seen the first applications submitted in the first quarter of 2010, is now obsolete. Instead, there are no longer any clear time-lines for the approval of new extensions. On a positive note, ICANN did approve a motion to explore allowing those interested in operating a new TLD to submit an “expression of interest”. These submissions would be accompanied by a deposit, and would theoretically allow ICANN to gauge how many serious bids currently exist and help them garner additional support.

The next ICANN conference takes place February 2010 in Nairobi, Kenya. By that time, we should have some additional clarity on just how long the new TLD process is going to take. But will we see dates and time-lines before then? If we do, you can be sure we’ll discuss them in this space.

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By: Adam Eisner on October 27th, 2009
Posted in: Industry News
Tags: ICANN, ICANN Seoul 2009
Comments: 0

Although ICANN’s 36th International Meeting here in Seoul has been underway for less than two days, it has already been quite eventful.

At Monday morning’s session on new gTLDs, a number of people voiced their frustration at a lack of definitive timeline around their launch (remember that applications were originally scheduled to be accepted in the early part of 2010, but it appears at this point that timeline is unlikely to be met). In the afternoon, representatives from Afilias, a registry services provider, and Demand Media, parent company of Enom, had a unique and spirited debate on the topic of Registry-Registrar separation. The session, held as a debate, addressed whether registrars involved in new TLD bids should be allowed to operate a registrar which sold the extension as well. An informal poll where participants were asked to shout their approval for one side over the other reflected the polarizing nature of the issue, as the room seemed split.

The final session I attended Monday was an open meeting of the Post-Expiration Domain Name Recovery Working Group (PEDNR-WG), which is examining topics related to the abilities of registrants to recover domain names post expiration. This group is still in its early stages, with further updates expected in the coming months.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend the workshop on Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs), another highly-anticipated discussion topic at the meeting. During that session, it was announced that the IDN application process was expected to begin November 16 (subject to ICANN Board approval). This will allow ccTLD operators to offer their extensions in native scripts should they choose to do so.

All three sessions I attended were standing-room only, as was the IDN session. It is clear that this conference is touching upon a lot of hot-button issues that are going to have a significant impact on the future of the Internet.

Today (Tuesday) is Constituency Day, where various supporting organizations of ICANN get together to discuss relevant issues for a full day. Tucows’ CEO Elliot Noss and I will sit in the meeting of the Registrar Constituency alongside many other ICANN-accredited registrars, where we will discuss a wide range of topics affecting registrars industry-wide.

Editor’s note: For those not in Seoul, ICANN offers remote participation via its website that allows you to attend the meetings virtually, complete with a video and audio stream plus a chat window.

Thanks to ICANN for the photos on their Flickr page and for releasing them under a Creative Commons License.

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By: Adam Eisner on October 23rd, 2009
Posted in: Industry News
Tags: ICANN, ICANN Seoul 2009
Comments: 0

ICANN’s 36th International Meeting, to be held next week in Seoul, Korea, promises to be an eventful one for a number of reasons.

The meeting will be the first under Rod Beckstrom, ICANN’s new CEO. Beckstrom was confirmed as the CEO during the Sydney, Australia, meeting in June 2009, and has had a very busy few months since. Probably the most important development during his short tenure has been the Affirmation of Commitments announced in late September.

The Affirmation of Commitments is largely considered a very positive step in affirming ICANN as a global organization while solidifying its role in governing the Internet. For more insight into the impact of the Affirmation of Commitments, I highly recommend reading Tucows’ CEO Elliot Noss’ blog post on the topic.

gTLDs a “hot” topic

There will also be much discussion on the progress of new gTLDs at the conference. A few weeks ago, ICANN published a third version of the new gTLD Draft Applicant Guidebook (DAG), which outlines requirements and procedures for those interested in applying for a new domain extension (ICANN plans to accept proposals for a round of new extensions in 2010). Anticipated time lines for the introduction of new extensions and proposed measures to protect trademarks, two issues related to new gTLDs which have not yet been settled, will also be “hot” topics.

IDNs on the agenda

Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) will also be widely discussed. ICANN recently submitted a final proposal to “fast track” certain ccTLD extensions, and this proposal will be considered at the meeting by the ICANN board. If approved, the proposal will clear the way to introduce IDNs “after the dot” – that is, making domain extensions (and not just the name itself) available and operational in different language scripts.

I’ll provide some notes on the meeting once I’m on the ground in Seoul, as well as a wrap-up. Keep an eye on this space for updates.

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By: Adam Eisner on September 28th, 2009
Posted in: Events
Tags: Parallels EMEA Roadshow 2009
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Earlier this month OpenSRS sponsored and participated in Parallels’ EMEA roadshow, which traveled to seven European countries in order to connect with web hosting companies in each region.

Liam Philley, Le Quan Truong and Ben Reuss at the Parallels stop in Stockholm, Sweden

The presentation focused on a wide variety of topics, but among the points I tried to emphasize to the European hosting community were:

• The growth and success of ccTLDs are on the rise. Over the past several years, gTLD market share has dropped while ccTLD market share has increased. Many market-focused web hosting companies have adopted a good range of ccTLDs (including .EU, .CA, .UK, .ME and .DE) and are promoting them aggressively.
• Web hosting companies are getting in front of their brands. According to Mitch Keeler’s count over at The Web Hosting Show (www.webhostingshow.com) , almost 100 web hosting companies are on Twitter, engaging customers, prospects and promoting their brands. Virtually every popular web host is active on Twitter, operates a blog and is very transparent when it comes to how they operate (we’re there too: follow @OpenSRS on Twitter).
• There’s opportunity to be found in leveraging the growth of the ‘personal web’. Whether it’s end users using a domain to tie together their Facebook, Twitter and Flickr pages, or using a domain name and email address to brand oneself (think of the .ME or .NAME extensions, or our own Personal Names service), consumers are quickly finding many personal uses for domain names. Hosting companies that leverage this trend will have an excellent opportunity to introduce a new revenue stream before the competition figures it out.

In talking to attendees at each stop, it was obvious that the hosting companies which attended found it to be worthwhile and informative. If Parallels hosts a similar tour next year, I highly recommend attending. It’s a unique opportunity to connect with other hosts in your area, meet Parallels staff, learn more about the product and check out some potential vendors as well.

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By: Adam Eisner on June 30th, 2009
Posted in: Announcements
Tags: ICANN Sydney 2009
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Last week a bunch of OpenSRS people, including Adam Eisner, Director, Domain Services, were in Sydney, Australia at the 35th International Meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). One of the big happenings at the meeting was the signing of a five-year extension of its Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) with ICANN.

All global top-level domains (gTLDs) sold through OpenSRS, the Reseller services division of Tucows, are governed by this agreement.

This new RAA has two impacts on OpenSRS Resellers:

1. The ICANN fee for gTLD domain purchases is reduced by two cents to USD$0.18 effective July 1st, 2009. Pricing in OpenSRS will be updated to reflect the change in the ICANN fee effective July 1st, 2009.
2. A change in how WHOIS privacy data is handled will impact a very small subset of Resellers who are operating their own WHOIS Privacy service apart from the Contact Privacy that is included in all eligible domains sold through OpenSRS.

We have put together a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for our Resellers, but if you have any questions about the new RAA which are not covered there, feel free to contact us as at newRAA@opensrs.com.