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.

As part of its drive to make sure its new gTLD program has maximum visibility, ICANN has opened a FAQ and general guidance site on new gTLDs.

The site provides help and information for potential new applicants, including useful links to the latest version of the applicant guidebook.

Video guides to new gTLDs and a calendar of upcoming gTLD-related events also feature.

As the program itself ramps up, the site will provide data on actual applications and stats for the first application round.

ICANN has published the latest version of the Applicant Guidebook. This September 19 version brings only limited changes compared to the May 30, 2011 guidebook.

The first and most noticeable is the inclusion of an actual first application round start and end date, and time!

Quoting from the new guidebook: The user registration and application submission periods open at 00:01 UTC 12 January 2012. The user registration period closes at 23:59 UTC 29 March 2012.

The new AG also takes into account the June 20, 2011 ICANN Board resolution which officially gave the new gTLD program a green light but included extra instructions. For instance, module 2 of the guidebook now describes how key terms associated with the Red Cross and the Olympic Committee cannot be requested as gTLDs.

These rules are subject to change however, as ICANN community work continues on issues such as whether the aforementioned organisations should also benefit from having their names protected at the second level, and how support can be provided (financial or otherwise) to needy applicants.

As amazing as that may sound, ICANN is keeping to its schedule! The new gTLD Applicant Guidebook was published on the target date of May 30, 2011.

This version is considered final. So if ICANN can weather the continued opposition from some groups with particularly strong lobbying skills, then its Board will be voting to approve the new gTLD program during a special meeting on June 20 in Singapore.

Could this really be the home stretch?

The ICANN unofficial timeline for the launch of the new gTLDs seems to be on track. A planned teleconference between ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) and the Board happened yesterday (Friday May 20) on schedule.

Unofficial reports say the meeting was very positive, although differences of opinions are still said to exist on trademarks.

The next major milestone will be May 30, when the final Applicant Guidebook is scheduled to be posted.

An extra GAC/Board meeting, not featured on the timeline, has been confirmed for June 19, in Singapore. The day before the planned final meeting of the Board to give the program its official green light.

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…

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.

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.

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.

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.

The ICANN Board and the GAC have apparently set a date for their joint meeting early next year. GAC representatives have been told to plan for a 2-day meeting to be held in Geneva on February 28 and March 1.

The meeting is an attempt to resolve the final issues standing in the way of ICANN's approval of the new gTLD program. It is not yet known whether this will be a closed meeting. ICANN's thrice yearly international meetings are open to anyone and attendance is free, but this specific get-together between GAC and Board members may be seen as requiring a little more intimacy.

So in all the excitement about the Board decision on vertical Integration of registries and registrars, it seems the next version of the new gTLD Draft Applicant Guidebook has been forgotten.

According to a timeline put together by ICANN and agreed to by the Board, it was supposed to be published yesterday (Nov 9).

Well it hasn't, but the latest is it should be out by the end of the week, maybe even late today...

The launch timeline for new gTLDs that was approved by the ICANN Board at its last meeting (October 28) shows November 9 as the publication date for the latest version of the DAG.

That timeline itself is a significant document, as it provides for clear dates all the way up to the actual launch of the first round of new gTLD applications.

Key dates would be:

• December 10, 2010, when the Board would approve this latest version of the DAG as final,


• January 11, 2011, when ICANN would start its global communications campaign, and,


• May 30, 2011, when the first round would be launched.

So today we get to see if this timeline is to be believed. At the time of writing, still morning in Europe so middle of the night in the US, it's a little early for anything to have been released. But if the DAGv5 does indeed appear today, the Board would then be in a position to approve the AG at its Cartagena meeting, following the mandatory minimum one-month comment period.

If DAGv5 is even a single day late, that could delay the process.

I guess we'll know in a few hours' time...

So to coin a famous English TV catch phrase: "until then, keep 'em peeled!"

When will the next version of ICANN's new gTLD Draft Applicant Guidebook come out, and will it be the last? Whether you are pro, or against, new gTLDs, those two questions have to be foremost in your mind as we move ever closer to the last ICANN meeting of the year, in Cartagena this December.

This is when the final AG is supposed to be released. But will it happen like that?

On the one hand, ICANN Staff clearly think the DAG is almost done. Briefings given to the GNSO Council by ICANN's new gTLD boss Kurt Pritz point to limited changes between the current DAG (version 4) and the next one. Expect parts of the guidebook to be changed, à la DAGv2 to DAGv3, but not a fully revised version.

The new material will be published in November. A comment period will then be initiated leading up to the Cartagena meeting. But Staff will shy away from calling this the final guidebook because only the ICANN Board can do that.

Will they? From private conversations I've had, it's pretty clear that some Board members feel there is no more to say and the guidebook should now be finalised. I'm also hearing that ICANN Staff is gearing up for an official launch to the new gTLD program sooner rather than later. So if the Board does say "yes" in Cartagena, they will be ready.

To be clear, many are still opposed to new gTLDs. Good intentions often stand in the way of good ideas. "Why now?", "It's too soon!", "Work on it some more!" or "You haven't thought this out properly…" are phrases that have often been thrown ICANN's way by the perpetual naysayers who would rather things never changed and this program be shelved.

But their arguments may at last be loosing traction. Even though the next guidebook will not be called final when it is published by ICANN in the next few weeks, there is a good chance that it will become so soon after. It's about time! Time to stop being afraid of the future and instead, to make sure the Internet remains the most innovate, fast-moving medium in human history.