Baher Esmat Blog

In its meeting on June 26^th the Board of ICANN approved the recommendations for the introduction of new generic top level domains (gTLDs) and directed ICANN staff to complete the implementation plan to be reviewed and approved by the Board before the launching which is expected to take place in Q2 2009. This decision came after an extensive process of policy development initiated by the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) in December 2005, and concluded in September 2007 when GNSO submitted its policy recommendations to the ICANN Board. Here are some reflections of the Board resolution in the media:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7475986.stm

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/450970a8-43df-11dd-842e-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1  

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jun/27/internet.digitalmedia

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jun/26/internet

http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20080626/tc_pcworld/147629 

The resolution has also raised a lot of controversy as some seem to be skeptic about the process while others believe that the GNSO recommendations which were approved by the Board on June 26^th would allow ICANN to become a content regulator. Recommendation 6 is the most controversial in this debate, it says: “Strings must not be contrary to generally accepted legal norms relating to morality and public order that are recognized under international principles of law”. 

The new gTLDs are most likely to include names in non-ASCII scripts or what is known as Internationalized Domains Names (IDNs). Also and in relation to IDNs, the ICANN Board has acknowledged work being undertaken to facilitate the introduction of IDN country code top level domains (ccTLDs). This process is known as “fast track” in which the Government Advisory Committee (GAC) and the country code Name Supporting Organization (ccNSO) together with community members (IDNC WG) have been working on designing a mechanism to enable the timely introduction of IDN ccTLDs, and have posted their final draft report for public comments. 

The introduction of new gTLDs and IDNs would be the largest expansion in the domain name system since its inception.