Category — ICANN
Intellectual Property Constituency Asks ICANN to Reconsider Digital Archery Batching
In memo sent by head of ICANN’s Intellectual Property Constituency (IPC), Steve Metalitz On May 9th, which asks ICANN to reconsider its ‘digital archery’ (DA) methodology for new gTLD batching.
Here is the full memo:
TO: ICANN Board New gTLD Program Committee
FROM: Steve Metalitz, IPC President
RE: “Digital Archery” batching method
DT: May 9, 2012
I write at the direction of the Intellectual Property Constituency (IPC), to urge ICANN to reconsider use of the “digital archery” method for batching new gTLD applications for evaluations.
On May 4, ICANN announced that over 2000 new gTLD applications have been received. Since the evaluation system is only designed to handle about 500 applications at once, it is clear now that batching is not just a theoretical possibility, but a necessity, at least under the evaluation system ICANN has adopted.
The “digital archery” batching method announced by the ICANN Board on March 28 is complex, untried, and readily subject to gaming. The paralysis of ICANN’s new gTLD application system (TAS), resulting from a so-called “glitch” that ICANN failed to detect in testing the TAS, has now persisted for nearly a month, with no defined end in sight. This episode inescapably casts doubt on ICANN’s capacity to implement another technically complex system for batching evaluation of applications. Another such “glitch” in the earliest stages of the most ambitious and far-reaching project ICANN has ever undertaken would permanently damage the organization’s credibility, and likely call into question its continued viability as the steward of the domain name system.
The possibilities for gaming the “digital archery” process are obvious and manifold. Inevitably, it will serve as yet another revenue extraction opportunity for those entities that are managing and promoting new gTLD applications. We are already seeing this happen. See http://www.pool.com/gtld/digitalarchery.aspx. This arcane and seemingly arbitrary batching method will also reinforce the widespread impression that all ICANN procedures are dominated by “insiders” with contractual relationships to ICANN, who will surely know best how to manipulate this initiative to their own benefit, or that of their paying customers. It is difficult to reconcile such an outcome with ICANN’s obligation to act in the public interest.
Whether or not the ICANN staff presented to the Board any options to the “digital archery” proposal before the March 28 decision, the fact is that alternatives were suggested by the community that would have avoided the serious pitfalls and risks – including but by no means limited to those mentioned above – of the method the Board chose.
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May 15, 2012 No Comments
Whois Review Team Issues Scathing Report On ICANN: “ICANN The Corporation Has Failed To Meet Expectations”
The WHOIS Review Team just issued a 92 page report “to review the extent to which ICANN’s WHOIS policy and to see whether ICANN’s implementation are effective, meet the legitimate needs of law enforcement and promote consumer trust.”
The answer was clear.
FAIL!
“Formed in October 2010, the WHOIS Review Team comprised representatives from across the ICANN constituencies, a representative of law enforcement and two independent experts.
“WHOIS as an issue encompasses:
- The WHOIS Protocol, including its continued fitness for purpose given that both the Internet and uses of WHOIS have expanded beyond what their original designers would have imagined possible;
- Internationalization of WHOIS Data, and the consistent handling of non-ASCII text in both the records and the display of the domain name itself
- Ongoing development of WHOIS policy within ICANN’s existing machinery, and the impact of other policy development on WHOIS;
- Maintaining some coordination role to ensure that so far as possible, policy development effort is not duplicated, relevant research is brought to the attention of relevant working groups or staff, and is followed up in a timely way; and
- That compliance with contractual obligations, and outreach to affected communities of users is managed effectively and that timely reporting be given to the Community.
“”The WHOIS Review Team finds that in all of the above points, ICANN the corporation has failed to meet expectations”
As for its recommendations the team recommended that
“WHOIS, in all its aspects, should be a strategic priority for ICANN the organization.”
“It should form the basis of staff incentivization and published organizational objectives.”
“To support WHOIS as a strategic priority, the ICANN board should create a committee that includes the CEO.
“Advancement of the WHOIS strategic priority objectives should be a major factor in staff incentivization programs for ICANN staff participating in the committee, including the CEO.”
“Regular (at least annual) updates on progress against targets should be given to the Community within ICANN’s regular reporting channels, and should cover all aspects of WHOIS including protocol, policy development, studies and their follow up.”
The committee went on to say:
One of our earliest “findings” was our inability to find a clear, concise, well- communicated WHOIS Policy. The Team was assured that one existed and that it had been in force for some time.”
“Several versions of Registrar and Registry contracts were reviewed as were compliance activities related to the policy. Throughout, we were unable to locate a document labeled WHOIS Policy as referenced by the ICANN- approved Affirmation of Commitments.
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May 11, 2012 No Comments
ICANN “Targeting” May 22 As Re-opening Of TAS: Big Reveal Still Unknown But Prague Looks Likely
According to a statement issued overnight, ICANN is “targeting 22 May 2012 as the intended reopening date for the TLD Application System.”
“It is anticipated that the system would remain open for five business days and close on 30 May. This takes account of the 28 May Memorial Day holiday in the United States.”
“We have met our commitment to provide notice to all users on or before 8 May 2012 by sending out notifications today.””The large majority of users are unaffected by the glitch.”
“”Even as late as yesterday, 7 May 2012, our packet-level research uncovered a new set of instances (in addition to those previously announced) where another applicant might have viewed a set of system-generated file names. It is possible that further analysis will also show that some of the parties that we have notified were not affected, but notice was provided out of an abundance of caution.
“”It would look like there is a good chance the Big Reveal might take place in Prague during the ICANN conference set for late June.
Also this announcement gives applicants until at least May 30th to request a refund of their application fees is they want to withdraw their applications…
May 9, 2012 No Comments
ICANN Offers Full Refund To Any Applicant For A New gTLD Which Pulls Its App Before The Big Reveal
In an Announcement tonight, ICANN is offering to refund any applicant who has submitted and paid its fee for a new gTLD if they pull their application prior to the Big Reveal.
“”In recognition of the inconvenience caused by the temporary suspension of the TLD application system, ICANN will provide a full refund of the application fees paid by any new gTLD applicant that wishes to withdraw its application prior to publication of the list of applied-for new top-level domain names.”
“A resolution authorizing full refunds was adopted during a Board of Directors workshop in Amsterdam on Sunday, May 6th 2012.”
“Whereas, the TLD Application System (TAS) has been offline since 12 April 2012 due to a technical glitch and the application window will not be closed until TAS reopens for a period of at least five days.
“Whereas, ICANN recognizes that, during the pendency of the glitch, applicants may have re-evaluated decisions to participate in the New gTLD Program.
Whereas, the Applicant Guidebook at Section 1.5.1 sets out a tiered refund schedule in the event that an applicant wishes to withdraw its application.
Resolved (2012.05.06.NG01), the New gTLD Program Committee directs the CEO to offer to applicants a full refund of the New gTLD Application fee actually paid to ICANN if the applicant wishes to withdraw its application prior to the date that ICANN publicly posts the identification of all TLD applications.”
Here is what the announcement did not say:
1. Whether all applicants effected by the “glitch” have been so notified as promised by ICANN on or before May 8th.
2. When the TAS will be back up.
3. When ICANN is planning on posting the “identification of all TLD applications.”
ICANN had previously promised to complete notifying the effected applicants “on or before Tuesday, May 8th”. (as I write this post it is midnight EST May 8th)
As an attorney, I do think its a pretty smart move by ICANN to head off lawsuits by allowing companies to pull their application and get a full refund, although as an attorney I would have liked the announcement better had ICANN clearly stated the date its planning on posting all the applicants information thereby setting a final date for requesting a refund.
Without such an announced date any date 5 days after the TAS system re-opens would be a possible date for ICANN to post the information, thereby closing the refund window.
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May 7, 2012 No Comments
Beckstrom: ICANN May Deny New gTLD Applications If They Got An Unfair Advantage In Seeing Others Info
Rod Beckstrom the CEO of ICANN just told theHill.com, that applicants who looks at other applicants info in an attempt “to gain an unfair edge over their competitors” may have their own application denied.
In an interview with The Hill, he noted that ICANN has “ultimate authority” over approving all applications and said the organization will examine whether any groups used a recent system glitch to look at the applications of their rivals.
“If we were concerned with any parties’ actions, one could hypothetically imagine that well could be taken into consideration [of whether to approve their applications],” Beckstrom said.
“He said ICANN officials will be able to tell whether any groups changed their applications after using the glitch to snoop on their competitors.”
Denial of an application would mean a $185,000 loss in fees to the applicant, however depending on what information an applicant saw and what in reaction they made upon seeing the info, a denial of the application would seem fair under certain circumstances.
Say there was one application for a certain generic string and upon seeing that application another applicant went ahead an applied for that unique string, that would certainly be an action for which I could see a denial of application.
I actually had a post ready to publish on this topic basically calling on ICANN to deny an application where an applicant viewed sensitive material and then acted upon it but with this story we will scrub ours as it seems ICANN is already on top of the issue.
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May 7, 2012 No Comments
Breaking: ICANN 2,305 New gTLD Applications Received To Date; 2,091 Paid For
ICANN just announced tonight that when the TAS system was taken down there were 2,091 applications, either submitted or in progress.
In addition, there were 214 potential applications that were registered prior to the March 29th deadline, but whose payments have not yet been received or reconciled.
The total therefore should be 2,305 if payment is received for all applications to date.
Of course there may be additional applications submitted after the TAS system re-opens for the 5 day period.
For those that registered for the TAS system they could each submit 49 applications.
ICANN went on to say that it has received approximately USD $350 million in fees from new gTLDs applications
On re-opening the TAS ICANN said:
“”As we have reported, we are in the process of notifying applicants whether they were affected by the software glitch, and plan to complete this process on or before Tuesday, 8 May.”
“Shortly after that process is complete, we will announce the schedule for reopening TAS and completing the application period. Once the system is reopened, we will keep it open for at least five business days.””
With this information now disclosed we are closing down the poll we have been running on TheDomains.com on how many new gTLD application will be submitted.
Surprisingly over 60% of all those who voted in the unscientific poll said there would be more than 5,000 applications submitted which is clearly wrong.…
May 4, 2012 No Comments
Beckstrom Tells NationalJournal.com That Now The TAS Will “Track Users Every Keystroke”
In an interview that Rod Beckstrom just did with the Nationaljournal.com, Beckstrom said that the TAS system will “To prevent further problems, will now track users every keystroke.”
Duh
Wouldn’t that have been a good thing to build into a system through which hundreds of millions of dollars will flow through?
Beckstrom in the delay in getting the TAS system back up and running said:
“What is driving us here is quality, not speed”
“Software glitches are unfortunately inherent to almost any software system, and it’s just unfortunate that this glitch came up at this time,”
“We think the thorough method in which we deal with the issue, our standard of care, and our openness in communicating should support the role of this institution in carrying out its duties further in the future.”
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May 4, 2012 No Comments
ICANN TAS Update: 105 Applicants May Had File & User Names Viewed By Other Applicants
ICANN just issued another update on the TAS system and gave out some numbers this time.
“”At the time we took the system offline, there were 1268 registered users and some 95,000 file attachments in the system.”
“Of these, there were approximately 455 instances where a file name and the associated user name might have been viewed by another applicant.”
“We are continuing to review system logs and packet-level traffic to confirm how many viewings actually did occur.”
“Our review has determined that approximately:
- 105 applicants might have had file names and user names viewed by another applicant.
- 50 applicants might have viewed file names and user names from one or more other applicants.”
“ICANN is in the process of notifying applicants whether they were affected by the software glitch that caused us to take the TLD Application System, or TAS, offline. As we announced earlier this week, we plan to complete this notification process on or before 8 May.”
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May 2, 2012 No Comments
11 Things I Learned From Reading ICANN’s 2013 Budget
ICANN published its draft budget last night and will open the public comment period on May 25th.
It will approve the budget at the Prague ICANN meeting in June
I went through the budget an found some pretty interesting things.
While everyone has a top 10, I thought I would go with a top 11:
1. ICANN needs a new financial planner:
“As of 31 March 2012, the Reserve Fund balance was $52.3 million.
Total investment income for FY13 is budgeted to be $1.0 million”
So less than a 2% return is budgeted.
Since you can find a 5 year CD paying out about 2% if you can’t do better than a 2% return on investment you should find another guy to handle your investments.
In its annual report ICANN had almost $100 million in cash but I guess only 1/2 of that is in the “reserve fund”
2. When Cost of Living is only going up by 3.6% how does ICANN justify budget increases of 18% and 31% and 39%
The cost of living adjustment issued for 2012 by the US Government is at 3.6% (they haven’t announced 2013 yet)
However ICANN budget includes:
“”FY13 operating expenses are budgeted to be $74 million (without contingency) an increase of 18% over FY12’s forecast.
“FY13 administration costs are expected to increase by 31%.”
“Professional Service costs for FY13’s budget are $20.6 million; a 39.3 percent increase over FY12’s forecast.”
3. ICANN is a pretty good place to work
As of May 1, 2012, ICANN has 143 employees.
Here are some of the perks an employee gets:
“US-based staff members are entitled to three weeks’ vacation per year for their first five years (and four weeks per year after that).”
“Staff members are eligible to earn a bonus based on achievement of specifically defined performance targets”
“ICANN has a retirement program which they allocate 7% of gross total compensation to”
“Other Personnel Costs are approximately 10% percent of gross include medical/dental insurance premiums, recruitment and relocation costs.”
4. ICANN spends a lot on its conferences:
ICANN meeting’s core functions typically cost over $1.5 million per meeting and include:Venue costs including meeting space, audio-visual, technical support functions, power, bandwidth connectivity, and backup provisions which are estimated at about $750,000 per meeting.
“Food and catering, registration administration, printing, office supplies, and shipping are estimated at $250,000 per meeting”
“Meeting interpretation, scribe services, pre-meeting site inspections, and professional planning services are estimated at $500,000 per meeting”
Keep in mind that “Local sponsors typically pay for gala and other costs”
ICANN staff also get free airfare, room and a per diem allowance for attending conferences:
“Airfare costs average $2500 and are adjusted up or down depending on the venue and class of travel.”
“Lodging costs average $250 per night for the seven-day ICANN meeting.…
May 2, 2012 No Comments
Oman Relaunches .om With the Support of ARI Registry Services
According to a press release today .Om is being officially relaunched today.
.Om certainly has some typo potential and should be an extension brand holders and other high traffic sites keep an eye on.
“”The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) of the Sultanate of Oman, with the support of ARI Registry Services, officially relaunched the .om country code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD) today in a move to ensure the ongoing stability and growth of the Internet within the country and greater Gulf region.
ARI Registry Services was selected by the TRA in March 2011 to provide domain name registry software and supporting services to revitalise the .om ccTLD.
The project will also include the launch of عمان. (.oman), the Arabic script IDN ccTLD for Oman.
Mohammed Al Kindy, Senior Manager Technical Affairs for the Oman TRA, said the project was important to the ongoing development of the Internet in Oman.
“The relaunch of .om and launch of عمان. (.oman) will provide Internet users in Oman with a stable and reliable piece of infrastructure that is based on best practice domain name registry operation. This will provide an opportunity to expand the reach of the Internet in Oman and reinforce its importance as a national asset.
“We thank ARI Registry Services for their support on this project,” Mr Al Kindy said.
Adrian Kinderis, CEO of ARI Registry Services, congratulated the TRA on the relaunch.
“This project represents a significant advancement of the Internet within Oman and reinforces the Government’s commitment to provide the best possible Internet experience to its people. We congratulate the TRA for their foresight and dedication to developing the Internet in their region,” Mr Kinderis said.
“The introduction of عمان. (.oman) will position Oman as one of only a few Arabic speaking countries with the capability to allow its citizens to navigate the web in their native language. This is something Oman should be proud of.
“This has been a tremendous project for the team at ARI to be involved in. We have completely customised our solution to address the needs of the TRA and assist them in the revitalisation of a national asset. Our work has included the development of customised registry software to handle the various policy and business requirements that are specific to the region, the purchase and configuration of hardware along with the deployment of staff to implement our licensed product and educate the TRA on its management,” Mr Kinderis said.…
May 1, 2012 No Comments
