Universe Of Potential New Internet Domains Unveiled

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(ICANN) late last night posted the master list of proposals from which a
small handful of new global Internet "neighborhoods" will be selected in
November.

At least 45 companies plunked down the requisite $50,000 application
fee and submitted a proposal to ICANN to operate a new global Internet
domain. Because several bidders proposed more than one new domain,
the list, located online at
http://www.icann.org/tlds/tld-applications-lodged-02oct00.htm ,
contains hundreds of suggestions for new domains.

At a meeting in Los Angeles this November, ICANN's powerful board of
directors is expected to approve the creation of the first new generic top-
level domains since the advent of .com, .net and .org, more than a decade
ago.

Under ICANN's proposed timeline, an undetermined number of
applications will be approved in November and by early 2001 the new
extensions will be officially added to the Internet's central legacy root
server.

The recommendations included on the applications site run the gamut from
the innocuous (.web, .pro, .info, .dir) to the potentially controversial
(.sex,
.xxx, .kids).

In addition to paying the $50,000 fee and recommending a name, applicants
were also required by ICANN to elaborate on whether they were
proposing the creation of a restricted or unrestricted domain and to
demonstrate their technical readiness to operate a global Internet
registry.

Once ICANN sorts through the information it has received from the
various applicants, the organization will post on its Web site a more
complete directory of the applicants and the details of their proposals,
ICANN official Andrew McLaughlin told Newsbytes Monday.

In unveiling the recommendations it received, ICANN revealed more
details about the much-anticipated proposal submitted by a global
consortium of 19 Internet registrars called "Afilias LLC."

Afilias includes as members the world's largest and second largest sellers
of ".com" names (Network Solutions and Register.com, respectively) as
well as a bevy of smaller companies, and as such is one of the most
heavily
backed applicants vying to operate a new domain.

Afilias announced that it had submitted a proposal late last night, but
declined to say what domains it had recommended.

According to the ICANN site, the consortium recommended the creation of
.info, .site and .web.

After the proposals are posted, and the Internet public gets an
opportunity
to weigh in, the ICANN staff will make its recommendations on which
domains should be created to the ICANN board.

But the final decision on which domain proposals will make the cut will
rest solely with the ICANN board, which often bucks ICANN staff
recommendations in making its final judgments on Internet governance
matters, McLaughlin told Newsbytes last week.

ICANN board members have differed in their recommendations of how
many new domains should be added, but many ICANN observers predict
that the body will vote to approve anywhere from three to 13 new gTLDs.

In addition to proving their technical expertise, companies submitting
bids
must demonstrate how their proposals will improve the Internet address
space by providing users with a valuable alternative to the existing
domains.