The forces of resistance to change and innovation are stepping up their fight against the rollout of new generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs).

Never mind the fact that the program itself is the result of:

• 21 months (from 2005 to 2007) of intense work by the GNSO resulting in a consensus vote to approve the program's guiding principles from the various groups that make up the GNSO – ICANN's manager of policy development for gTLDs.
• 7 draft versions of the program's Applicant Guidebook, documented and augmented by 47 comment periods during which over 2,400 comments were received and analysed by the ICANN team in charge of implementing the GNSO's new gTLD policy recommendations.
• 55 explanatory texts or independent reports were produced during this implementation phase which lasted from June 2008 to June 2011.

Since the ICANN Board vote to approve the program on June 20 2011, America's Association of National Advertisers is the driving force behind a new movement to stop new gTLDs, teaming up with businesses and companies to create the Coalition for Responsible Internet Domain Oversight, or CRIDO.

On November 10, CRIDO sent a letter to the department of commerce to express its "strong concern with respect to the June 2011 decision by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers".

The letter mentions "troubling conflict of interest questions" which can no doubt be read as references to Peter Dengate Thrush's move, just after the June 2011 Board vote and as soon as he stepped down from his position as Chairman of the ICANN Board, to a gTLD consultancy firm.

In its letter, CRIDO seems happy to forget that ICANN is no longer under US control and calls on the DoC to postpone the January 12, 2012 application window. The letter is signed by 40 companies, including Amex, Adobe, Coca Cola, Dell, Ford, HP, Kellogg, Nestle USA, and Samsung.

I'm at the Domain Forum in Sofia, Bulgaria, today doing a couple of presentations on new gTLDs. The first is an introduction to the program itself and the following panel I'm on is looking at what registrars will have to face as many new gTLDs come online and they are asked to connect to them.

The Domain Forum itself is a great opportunity to get outside the usual "ICANN bubble" that those of us who are used to attending ICANN meetings and working in that community tend to live in month-in, month-out.

It's a clear reminder that for some people, the acronyms "new gTLDs", "IDN, "GNSO" or GAC" don't mean anything. And yet, the GNSO's recommendations for the new gTLD program were clear: there needs to be enough communication ahead of launch so that as many potential applicants as possible are aware of the program.

Events like the Domain Forum in Sofia are an important part of achieving that aim. Looking around the room, this is clear. ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom is here in Sofia speaking just before me as part of ICANN's outreach efforts on the new gTLD program. In attendance here in Bulgaria are the country's minister for IT, the country's GAC representative, and many people just wanting to learn more about the program itself.

Find out more about the Domain Forum here.