Websites are reporting that Kenya's government has announced its intention to block .XXX. This was precisely one of the fears opponents of the adult entertainment domain voiced in San Francisco, where .XXX was given a definitive go-ahead by the ICANN Board.

Kenyan Communications Secretary Bitange Ndemo was quoted by www.xbiz.com as saying "We are not going to allow .XXX in this country. It's actually a certificate for people to watch pornography."

It remains to be seen what effect the wholescale blocking of a TLD will have on the way the Internet works, if any.

In related news, www.domainincite.com reports that the European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes wrote a letter to US Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke on April 6, 2011 asking him to wait before adding .XXX to the Internet root.

The Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition and the Internet of the US Congress has called a hearing into ICANN's new gTLD program for Wednesday May 4, 2011.

Considering who has initiated this, no-one will be surprised to see much of the proceedings centre around trademark protection.

What may be more surprising to some is that representing ICANN in front of the US congressmen attending the hearing will be Kurt Pritz. Although Pritz is ICANN's Senior Vice President of Stakeholder Relations and the man in charge of the new gTLD program, most would probably have expected Rod Beckstrom, the organisation's CEO, to take centre stage.

Instead, it appears that Beckstrom will not even make an appearance. Many will no doubt be surprised by this as when ICANN was heard by the House of Representatives in June 2009, then-CEO Paul Twomey went to Washington in person.

The reason for Beckstrom deciding not to go may be due to his past links to the US administration (he was US cybersecurity tsar in 2008) and a desire not to see those colour this hearing…

A criticism that I often hear of ICANN is that it is a toothless body with no real ability to regulate the domain name system.

A couple of recent episodes seem to indicate that ICANN actually takes enforcing rules very seriously.

There's this letter from ICANN General John Jeffrey to .JOBS registry Employ Media. The language of the letter is totally unambiguous. ICANN feels that Employ Media has usurped the responsibility that it was given to build a TLD that would "serve the needs of the international human resource management community" in a way that instead appears to "exclusively serve the financial interests of Employ Media".

It had been promised for April 15… It's out on April 15th!

The new DAG (Draft Applicant Guidebook) is out. This shows both the incredible amount of work ICANN Staff is putting into getting this program finished and that the June 20th date for green-lighting the new gTLD program is one that ICANN really wants to keep to.

Read the new DAG here.

Following final approval at last March's San Francisco ICANN meeting, the newest Internet domain's roll-out has started.

Dot XXX registry ICM had already announced details of the adult entertainment domain's sunrise periods and launch program.

Now comes the news that the domain has been activated at the root and is therefore fully functional, as evidenced by ICM's new website address.

As of today, there are 22 active generic Top Level Domains on the Internet.

Most ICANN registrars are members of the Registrar Stakeholder Group (RrSG), their official representative body. Although membership is not compulsory for ICANN-accredited registrars, it does carry several advantages.

RrSG members have regular meetings with ICANN policy, compliance, finance and registrar liaison staff. They are able to vote to elect representatives on the GNSO Council, ICANN's policy-making body for generic Top Level Domains. They engage with Law Enforcement Agencies, registries and governments, while working on industry best practices and exchanging information to continually improve the service registrars provide to their customers.

With the recent events suffered by Japan, RrSG members are banding together to provide help where possible. See the following announcement below from the RrSG Executive Committee.

ICANN Registrars Provide Assistance to Registrants in Japan

Many ICANN-accredited registrars are implementing special emergency registration provisions to assist their customers who were impacted by the last week's earthquake and tsunami, and the ongoing nuclear crisis in Japan.  Special domain-related services include enhanced procedures for making changes to domain name DNS records, alternative hosting arrangements, and allowing automatic or emergency renewals of domain name registrations.

Implementation details vary, so affected registrants should contact their registrar directly to learn what special measures are being offered by registrars to protect customer domain names from accidental expiration or transfer.  Most registrars are providing extended support coverage and alternate customer contact methods to ensure that domain names continue to resolve and customer websites remain operational.

Was asking Bill Clinton to speak at ICANN San Francisco (for a reported $250,000 fee) a good idea?

For the domain name system, for the unique governance model that ICANN represents, as a spotlight for the key issues that model is currently dealing with – How to integrate governments with being taken over by them? How to spread the Internet to non-English speakers or writers? How to maintain technical stability while continuing to support the ever-increasing demand for network resources that innovation continues to drive? – the media interest generated by Clinton's visit alone probably made it worth it.

About 1,000 people heard him speak in the main ballroom at the San Francisco Westin on Union Square on Wednesday March. They thought he was enthralling enough to hear that they cheered when he walked on stage, and had given him two standing ovations by the time he left it.

As for me, well obviously in this case I can't give an unbiased opinion. When I started in the domain names industry, I never thought it would lead a small time entrepreneur from Paris like me to this. Meeting Clinton was an honor. Simple as that.

The meeting was called in an attempt to resolve the remaining issues of contention between ICANN's decision-making body and the representatives of the world's governments on the subject of the new gTLD program. ICANN's bylaws state that if the GAC gives advice and if the Board, after having listened to that advice, is not ready to follow it, a formal consultation must take place in order to air the differences.

Brussels was not that meeting. It was a first step in the bylaws process. The consultation meeting has been scheduled for March 17, the day before the Board meeting that will bring ICANN San Francisco, the first of 2011's three International ICANN Meetings, to a close.

ICANN staff has just confirmed to the GNSO that the meeting initially planned for Amman, Jordan, will now take place in Singapore. The Amman meeting was cancelled due to the current uncertainty in the region.

The meeting will happen from June 19 to 24 2011.

In preparation for the March San Francisco meeting, ICANN introduced a new sponsorship program with both increased costs and levels of sponsorship.

A new top sponsorship level was created and set at a whopping USD 500,000. Other packages also saw their costs increase.

Sponsors found it hard to stomach the changes and ICANN has therefore revised its sponsorship program.

"Earlier this year, ICANN announced a new sponsorship program that introduced higher levels of support, as well as price increases for lower level sponsorship packages," says ICANN on its sponsorship website.

"Some of our supporters have found it difficult to purchase the sponsorship package that provides their preferred benefits at the new cost.

We have listened to concerns expressed by our community and today are announcing a revised sponsorship program that reduces the cost for many of our lower level sponsorship packages while retaining some of the higher level opportunities. 

We have also created a 33% discount rate for non-profit organizations."

In the run-up to an upcoming meeting between the GAC and its Board, ICANN has published a set of briefing papers. The page used for this also includes a proposed set of dates listed as ICANN's expected path forward.

Of special interest is the April 14 date listed as the date for publication of the AG. This is tentative and does depend on the outcome of the two GAC/Board meetings that will happen in Brussels next week and then in San Francisco on March 17.

But it also sets a clear target date for the start of the new gTLD program.

ICANN has posted a preliminary draft of its FY 2012 budget (ICANN's fiscal year runs from July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012). The document makes for interesting reading if you know what to look for. Here are a few titbits I picked up.

500 new gTLD applications

ICANN is still working on a year 1 estimate of 500 new gTLD applications and therefore forecasts taking in USD 92,500,000 in application fees (at 185,000 a pop) if the program launches during the upcoming fiscal year.

Greater than expected ccTLD contributions

Unlike gTLD registries and accredited registrars, ICANN has no direct contract with ccTLD registries. So they are free to contribute as little, or as much, to ICANN's budget as they see fit. It seems that for FY 2011, ICANN had underestimated the amount ccTLD operators would be willing to front. ICANN had forecast taking in USD 835,113 from ccTLD registries. In fact, it got USD 1,600,000. Ok so that's still far from the USD 32,647,000 that new gTLD registries contributed or the USD 29,159,000 that registrars ponied up, but it's still nice to see ccTLD registries getting stuck in.

Meeting sponsors

For the upcoming San Francisco meeting, in March, ICANN has considerably upped the price of its sponsorship packages. Some speculated that might be to finance Bill Clinton as a keynote speaker for the opening ceremony (Clinton charges organisers when he gives a speech). But the draft budget provides another possible explanation. ICANN had forecast getting USD 1,067,973 in sponsorship revenue for FY 2011. For the upcoming fiscal year, it has forecast less at USD 900,000. Have worries about not making the budget pushed ICANN to up its prices?

ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom will be one of the participants of a meeting with the governments happening in Brussels end of February to try and launch the new gTLD program as soon as possible.

ICANN has confirmed the dates for a highly anticipated meeting between its Board and the government representatives of its Governmental Advisory Committee. The meeting will happen in Brussels on Feb 28 and March 1.

Although the meeting will be open to observers and scribed, only Board and GAC members will be allowed to speak.

As Chair of one of ICANN's supporting organisations, the GNSO, I regret the decision not to solicit feedback from our group and from others. There would have been time in the run-up to this meeting for the GNSO to consult with its constituencies and stakeholder groups and, at the very least, prepare a statement.

The meeting is crucial as it aims to identify the remaining differences of opinion between the Board and the GAC on the best way to come to resolution on the new gTLD program.

If, at the end of the meeting, such differences remain, ICANN's bylaws may impose a further round of consultation with the GAC. This would undoubtedly prevent the program from being launched at the next ICANN international meeting, in San Francisco (March 13 to 18).

Read the Brussels meeting announcement here.

President Bill Clinton will guest star at ICANN's 40th international meeting, in San Francisco in March.

ICANN was started by the Clinton administration in 1998. With the California-based organisation returning home for its next meeting, Clinton's presence brings more prestige to what is already expected to be a heavily attended event.

Dubbed the "Silicon Valley" meeting, ICANN 40 is expected to break all attendance records as it draws local Internet professionals and companies on top of the fifteen hundred plus delegates that normally attend an ICANN meeting.

Clinton is expected to keynote at the opening ceremony. But getting the former US president isn't free. "We’ve seen some wildly inflated figures of what President Clinton would be paid to speak," says ICANN staffer Scott Pinzon on the organisation's blog. "His speaking fees are a matter of public record, and you can rest assured that the half-million and million-dollar figures some have reported are way out of line."

However much Clinton is being paid to show up, it won't come out of ICANN coffers. "The fees will be covered by a targeted sponsorship donated specifically for this purpose," adds Pinzon.

ICANN's sponsorship packs have been revamped for the San Francisco meeting, with new levels added such as the Diamond pack, priced at USD 500,000, or the Platinum Elite at USD 250,000! As Verisign is currently the only sponsor listed by ICANN, and the company is shown at Diamond level, it may be providing the "targeted sponsorship" that Pinzon alludes to.

In any case, the SF meetings looks like being a record-breaker for ICANN both in terms of attendance, and sponsorship revenue. Now if only the new gTLD program could be green-lit there, that would make it the perfect event for ICANN.

According to an open LinkedIn group focused on new gTLDs, the man behind .GAY is planning a .FLORIDA.

Alexander Schubert is fast becoming one of the major players in the new gTLD space and has acknowledged plans for a .FLORIDA project to be announced this January.

A website is already up, although Schubert describes it as still a "mock-up". The website indicates that the company behind .FLORIDA is currently being created. It will be called dotFlorida LLC.

It's obviously early days for the project, as the following caveat on the website confirms: "It should be noted that discussions with the state of Florida are pending. .FLORIDA will not be created without the permission of the Florida State government."

Wise words of caution, as under ICANN's new gTLD rules, no geographic TLD can be created without the all clear from the corresponding local government.