While the torrential rains that swept through Cartagena, Colombia throughout Friday, December 3rd have given way to steady sunshine since, the atmosphere within the Julio Cesar Turbay Ayala Convention & Exposition Center – site of ICANN’s 39th meeting – remains hot and stormy. Both proponents and opponents of the new gTLD program are hurling their last rhetorical salvos with the realization that the final rules for the application and approval of hundreds, or even thousands, of new gTLDs will soon be locked down and that this meeting almost surely provides the last non-virtual venue at which questions can be asked, answers sought, and pre-launch positions staked out.
The overall tone for the meeting’s atmospherics was presaged by the December 2nd letter from Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information Lawrence Strickling (available at http://forum.icann.org/lists/5gtld-guide/pdf4SSmb5oOd5.pdf) to ICANN President & CEO Rod Beckstrom. That missive states the U.S. government’s growing unhappiness with ICANN’s performance under the Affirmation of Commitments that succeeded direct U.S. oversight, as exemplified by ICANN’s perceived failure to adequately explain key decisions made in regard to the evolving Applicant Guidebook (AG). The letter also questions the adequacy of the length of the current comment period and its expiration on the very morning that ICANN’s Board may vote on the proposed Final AG, stating:
“…a thorough and thoughtful analysis will take more than the twenty working days allotted in the ICANN public comment process…the suggestion that the ICANN Board could make an informed decision regarding the launch of the new gTLD program in Cartagena is unrealistic.”
To make sure that ICANN fully gets the message, Mr. Strickling is walking the halls in Cartagena. During the weekend pre-meetings, U.S. Government Advisory Committee member Suzanne Sene repeated these sentiments forcefully, and many other governments sang from the same songbook. As the GAC has replaced the U.S. as ICANN’s overseer one would think the ICANN Board would take this input with requisite seriousness.
For its part, ICA has been primarily focused on assuring that the rights protection rules for new gTLDs provide adequate due process for registrants, and that large domain portfolio owners/managers are treated fairly if they wish to be involved in launching a new gTLD. The proposed Final AG does not assuage our concerns in these areas, and indeed has raised new questions. Therefore the ICA on December 6th filed a comment with ICANN requesting that it extend the Final AG comment deadline so that we can direct our energies toward getting some answers in Cartagena and can incorporate whatever new information we receive here in our comments, We also believe that the optics of ICANN Board approval less than 24 hours after the comment period closes would be awful and would not be in the long term interests of the new gTLD program or of ICANN itself.
The ICA comment is available at http://forum.icann.org/lists/5gtld-guide/msg00021.html and states:
The domain name registrants, investors and developers represented by the
Internet Commerce Association (ICA) wish to respectfully request that ICANN
extend the comment period on the proposed Final gTLD Applicant Guidebook (AG) by a minimum of two weeks (14 days) and preferably by an additional three weeks.
The 28 days allowed for comment on this AG is just over half the average time
(50 days) allotted for comment on the four prior iterations of the Guidebook; a
2-3 week extension would bring the length of the comment period in line with
that provided for prior versions. This fifth version of the AG does not just
contain proposed resolutions of previously discussed matters but significant
new material that we are working to assimilate and understand. Many ICA members are present in Cartagena and busy attending sessions and interfacing with staff in this attempt, but meaningful participation at the Cartagena meetings mitigates against preparation of a fully informed comment letter for consideration by our membership prior to its submission in just under four days.
The reasonable extension we are requesting should in no way interfere with
approval of a Final AG by the ICANN Board that permits opening of the
application window for new gTLDs in Spring 2011. We certainly hope that the
December 10th comment deadline has not been set in order to facilitate such a
vote by the Board in Cartagena. The current comment deadline will occur just
hours before the start of the Board Meeting in Columbia, and given the time and work burdens placed on key ICANN staff by this meeting there is no way they can review and meaningfully summarize suggestions and concerns expressed in the final round of comments (most of which are usually submitted within the final 24 hours of any comment period) to aid the Board in understanding them prior to a final vote. Given recent expressions of concern by the GAC and individual national governments regarding ICANN’s policy process, and particularly the adequacy of explanations of policy decisions, it is particularly important that the Board vote on the Final AG be conducted in a manner that demonstrates that all submitted comments have been accorded serious consideration.
We appreciate your consideration of our suggestion on this matter.
Sincerely,
Philip S. Corwin
Counsel
Internet Commerce Association