ICANN Narrows Field Of Possible Internet Domains
The list of possible new Internet domains was pared down
today as the staff of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers (ICANN) weeded out several proposals that didn't meet ICANN's
rigorous standards.
Next week, members of ICANN's board of directors are expected to
approve the first new generic top-level Internet domains (gTLDs) since the
advent of .com, .org and .net more than a decade ago.
ICANN is the not-for-profit company charged with managing the Internet's
vital addressing system.
Since nearly 50 companies and organizations applied to operate a couple
hundred new domains, today's ICANN staff report is aimed at winnowing
down the applicant list to include the most viable proposals.
"There are some proposals where we say in our opinion that they are just
not up to snuff," ICANN official Andrew McLaughlin told Newsbytes
today.
If ICANN accepts a company's proposal, it will fall to that company to
operate a new global domain-name registry for the proposed suffix.
Given the massive technological hurdles involved with creating and
operating a stable, worldwide registry, the ICANN staff reviewed the
applicants based on their technical merits, financial backing and plans for
rolling out the new domains.
But while the ICANN staff report rejects a more than a dozen of the 47
applications the organization received, the staff opted to simply state the
"pros and cons" of the remaining proposals, rather than suggest which
proposals the board should approve, McLaughlin said.
In its report, the staff singled out seven applications for general-use
domains that "merited further review."
Of those seven applicants, three are proposing to operate ".web" and three
are proposing to operate ".biz." The remaining applicant proposed to
operate one of three domains: ".cash, .global" or ".secure."
Among the organizations to make the final cut were Affilias LLC, a
consortium of Internet domain name sellers proposing to operate .web,
Diebold Inc., which proposed .cash, an Image Online Design Inc., which
purports to legally own the rights to the .web suffix.
In addition to recommending further review of seven applications for
general use domains, the ICANN staff suggested that the board take a
closer look at four applications for personal Internet domains such as
".nom, .per, .i" and ".name."
In a controversial move the staff also suggested that the ICANN board
consider three applications for a restricted ".kids" domain and one
application for a restricted ".xxx" domain.
Child protection advocates have long lobbied for the creation either of an
Internet "red light district," like .xxx, that would be the sole province
of
pornographic content online or of Internet "green spaces" like .kids, where
content would be strictly regulated.
Both proposals raise free speech and privacy concerns.
The ICANN staff report also identified three proposed "restricted business"
domains (.fin, .travel and .pro) that they said warranted further review by
the ICANN board.
Finally, the ICANN board recommended five special purpose domain
applications (.co-op, .union, .museum, . air and .health).
Since observers predict that the ICANN board will approve probably no
more than a dozen, and possibly only two or three new domains when it
meets next week, the rather broad staff report will only provide board
members a rough template of which proposals to choose from.
McLaughlin said that the staff report deliberately makes no
recommendation for how many proposals should be approved.
While the ICANN board is not bound by the staff recommendations, it
typically accepts the guidance included in staff reports.
The staff report is available online at http://www.icann.org/tlds/report.