Stephane Van Gelder

Is ICANN in danger of overload? Yes!

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 17:45:26 +0200

Just read a post on the ICANN Blog entitled "is ICANN handling too many policy issues?". The post is a response by ICANN VP of Policy Development David Olive to an article published in another blog and asking that very question.

David joined ICANN earlier this year (February) to manage its policy department. As Vice Chair of the GNSO I was fortunate to work with him almost from the get-go while he took over from previous VP Policy Denise Michel (who is now advisor to the ICANN CEO). David is an instantly likeable guy: soft-spoken yet resolute, mild-mannered and extremely easy to get on with, he has brought a new energy to ICANN's policy team.

Now you guessed it, if I start off by being so nice about David it's because I'm about to criticise him . Well actually, not so much criticise as simply disagree with his latest post. David argues that ICANN isn't taking on too much policy work because a) everyone's issues are important and ICANN could not say "yes" to one and refuse another and b) the work isn't prioritised so it looks like it's all over the place when it actually isn't.

Continue reading "Is ICANN in danger of overload? Yes!"

ICANN Board Chair will be paid $75,000 a year

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 17:38:49 +0200

ICANN's Board met on August 5th and approved a number of resolutions, including one that must have been particularly pleasing for Chairman Peter Dengate Thrush. Even before he became Chair, Dengate Thrush has always argued for some kind of compensation for that position.

Now approved, this will be paid on a pro-rata basis starting on August 6, 2010.

I think this is one of the sanest decisions the ICANN Board has taken in years. The amount of work asked of ICANN volunteers, specially the Board and its Chair, is enormous. Chairing the ICANN Board has become a full-time job and if the body in charge of coordinating the Internet's naming and numbering system wants to keep drawing quality people to its top volunteer positions, it must be ready to compensate them.

At all levels, there's a terrific amount of volunteer goodwill within ICANN. Taking one group I am currently involved in as an example, the Vertical Integration Working Group, I am stunned by the dedication of its members. With 2 teleconference meetings a week (each lasting from 1.5 to 2 hours) and numerous position papers and other reports drafted, the sixty plus members of the group have spared no effort in their quest to find a solution that will then benefit the whole community as part of the new gTLD program.

Being on the Board is even more demanding. And it requires complete impartiality. I know of several people who have both the expertise and the will to serve as Board members but to do so, would be required to give up their day jobs. The question then becomes: how can ICANN expect them to give up their salary and maybe even a long-term career just for the "honour" of serving a 3-year term on the Board?

Compensating the Board Chair is clearly a sensible decision and a step in the right direction, but it does generate its own sets of problems. Why only the Chair? In fact, why stop at Board members?

These are questions that ICANN will also have to look at in the near future.

Domain names help Verisign beat analyst forecasts

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 19:30:03 +0200

COM and NET registry Verisign has just reported its results for the second quarter of the year. Analyst expectations were for revenue figures somewhere around $166.5 million. Helped by its naming operations, Verisign beat those forecasts at $168.7 million.

The company ended its second quarter (from April to June 30th) with a profit of $35.2 million, up from $34.9 million for the same quarter a year ago.

The bulk of Verisign's business is now centered around domain names, in particular its management of the COM and NET namespaces. The company claims 101.5 million active domain names in those two suffixes at the end of Q2, a 9% increase year-over-year.

In May, Verisign inked a deal with Symantec to sell its authentication business for about $1.28 billion in cash. A purchase which should complete 3 months after the sale date of May 19.

DAGv4 separation rules lack support

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:37:32 +0200

The comment period for the 4th version of ICANN's Draft Applicant Guidebook for the new gTLD program closed yesterday (July 21).

Although as it stands, the DAG is nearly finished, a couple of grey areas remain. One is the issue of morality and public order (MAPO), and who should judge, according to what criteria. The other is about separation between registrars and registries.

It is INDOM's view that the strict separation requirements introduced in the DAGv4 are both unfair and anti-competitive. We said as much in the comment we sent to ICANN a few days ago. We are encouraged to see others (here and here for example) picking up on our comments and agreeing with them.

The final version of the guidebook is scheduled to be released before the next ICANN meeting (Cartagena in December). It is our hope that it will not contain rules that prohibit ICANN-accredited registrars from being involved, in any way whatsoever, in a TLD.

As we wrote in our comment to ICANN: "With the Guidebook as it is currently written, those with in-depth domain name expertise are excluded, except existing registries. Entities without this expertise would be accepted. This is akin to giving a license to provide medical services to anyone except doctors."

INDOM's comment on DAGv4

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 13:12:13 +0200

We posted our comments on the latest draft of the Applicant Guidebook for new gTLDs yesterday.

They can be read here. For those who don't have time to go to the ICANN website to read them, here's an excerpt giving the general gist of what we said:

"We feel the forced exclusion of ICANN-accredited registrars from the new gTLD program is unfounded, detrimental to consumer and applicant choice and would lead incumbents in the registry market to enjoy unfair protectionism. It must not be implemented in the Final Guidebook."

Sex.com for sale (yet again)

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 13:01:18 +0200

So sex.com is once again making headlines. Sedo has just announced that it has been retained by Escom LLC, the owner of the domain, to handle its sale through its second-hand domain sales platform.

The name will be sold along with two related trademark registrations, making this a pretty complete package for any interest buyer.

There's little doubt the name will sell, but at what price? Just how valuable is it on today's Internet? Enough to see Escom cover some (if not all) of the $14 million loan it took out to buy the domain in 2006 and has since been unable to repay?

ICANN not happy with its own accountability review?

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 11:23:13 +0200

ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom during the Brussels meeting opening ceremony. (INDOM Photo).

ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom's speech at the Brussels meeting opening ceremony has elicited a strong reaction from the team tasked with reviewing ICANN's accountability and transparency.

And in what is a clear display of transparency, that reaction has been posted on the ICANN website.

ICANN Board could vote on final AG by December

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 16:29:56 +0200

In his presentation to ICANN's GAC (Government Advisory Committee), ICANN Senior Vice President Kurt Pritz indicated that root scaling and economic study issues were the main ones remaining to be solved before a final Applicant Guidebook could be published.

His presentation was made today in Brussels, in the run-up to ICANN's 38th international meeting which starts on Monday June 21. The GAC and the GNSO (Generic Names Supporting Organisation – the policy-making body for gTLDs) traditionally hold working sessions during the weekend before an ICANN meeting.

Pritz went on to say that if the aforementioned issues can be resolved in the coming months, the Board could be in a position to approve the final guidebook in December. Presumably, that would require the final guidebook to be published several weeks before the December ICANN meeting in Cartagena so that there would be time for public comment before the Board came to vote on it.

It's clobbering time… again?

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 15:59:30 +0200

I naturally keep a close watch on all domain name related topics. One of fun side effects is seeing fan and geek sites scramble for clues about upcoming films or products as soon as a new domain is registered. Media and entertainment companies must have a hell of a time hiding their new projects while at the same time protecting their intellectual property by registered the relevant domains…

I especially love leaks like FantasticFourReborn.com, a domain spotted by fan sites as being registered by Fox, and hence the source of some speculation that the Fantastic Four movie reboot will be entitled "Reborn".

Could be, although it must be said that movie studios are becoming more and more adept at generating buzz around "false positives", i.e. domains that are registered as realistic possibilities just to throw people off the scent. So far, there's no working website behind www.FantasticFourReborn.com. But that could change.

Exactly how much did Gary Kremen make (or loose) from Sex.com?

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 12:45:47 +0200

Spotted this great article the other day about Gary Kremen, the guy who first registered Sex.com before it was stolen. 46-year-old Kremen (also the founder of Match.com) is a serial entrepreneur with business interests as wide as they are numerous.

But the numbers that caught my eye are the dollar amounts Kremen eventually made from Sex.com. I already knew that after recovering the stolen domain, he sold it for $14 million. I did not know that Kremen also got a $15 million settlement from Verisign, the company who bought Network Solutions, the registrar that was involved in the actual mechanics of the Sex.com theft. The article also explains that Kremen sold a house for $4 million last year. Ownership of the house, which belonged to the Sex.com thief, was transferred to Kremen as part of the legal proceedings surrounding the case.

Without a doubt, $33 million is a very tidy sum. But consider this: Kremen probably ended up loosing out. If he hadn't lost so many years fighting to recover his stolen domain name, Kremen might have been able to built it up into an even more lucrative business…

DAGv4 is out!

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 09:13:02 +0200

As anticipated, the latest draft of the ICANN new gTLD Applicant Guidebook was published a few hours ago.

The new DAG includes models for trademark protection such as the Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) and the Trademark Clearinghouse (TM Clearinghouse). Other changes include a new proposal on registry-registrar separation for the registry agreement (the contract future registries will sign with ICANN), which is also the subject of ongoing work in the GNSO, ICANN's policy development body for generic TLDs (Top Level Domains).

DAGv4 will be at the centre of discussions in Brussels, from June 20 to 25, during ICANN's second international meeting of 2010.

DAGv4 out today?

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Mon, 31 May 2010 10:08:02 +0200

The Icann rumour mill is on overdrive today as the fourth version of the Draft Applicant Guidebook for the new gTLD program is expected to be published at some point during the day.

This latest instalment of the rules a prospective new gTLD applicant would have to follow is greatly anticipated. Icann staff have claimed that this version should be considered as almost final, with only minor tweaks needed to transition to the definitive Applicant Guidebook due to be published in December 2010.

Proponents and opponents of new gTLDs therefore wait with baited breath for the DAGv4 to come out. The former to check that the program is indeed nearing conclusion while the latter are no doubt already looking opportunities to generate further delays.

If the rumours are right, we should know more in a few hours…

Key staff members leaving ICANN

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Mon, 17 May 2010 14:11:40 +0200

We recently heard from Doug Brent, ICANN's COO, that he will be leaving after 4 years with the body responsible for coordinating Internet domain names. Having worked with Doug in the course of my duties as a member of ICANN's GNSO Council and more recently as Vice Chair of that Council, I can say that he will be missed. Doug was as helpful as he was professional, and always managed to make you feel like no problem was insurmountable. Quite a feat in the ICANN environment.

I hear that other members of staff may be leaving soon. Some, it appears, have already left. VP, Global and Strategic Partnerships Theresa Swinehart for example, who was an ICANN veteran having joined the organisation way back in 2001. I also worked with Theresa, when she was on then-VP Paul Levins' team. I have not seen an official announcement from ICANN on Theresa's departure, which seems odd, but she is no longer shown on the staff list.

Another major staff member about to leave, so I am told, is IANA boss David Conrad. Although I do not know David personally, I have heard several people credit him for a marked improvement in the way IANA has performed over the last few years. IANA is a key element of ICANN's job as steward of the Internet's naming system as it allows new domains to be added to the Internet root. For instance, in order for several new non-Latin script Internet domains to become active recently, they had to be "delegated" by IANA.

So all this leaves me with one question. What's going on at ICANN at the moment for some many key staff members to be leaving? I've also heard a rumour that Nick Ashton-Hart, Senior Director Participation and Engagement, may soon be on his way…

Non Latin .RF now in the root

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Wed, 12 May 2010 17:37:07 +0200

Just in from Russia, it would seem that the Cyrillic version of .RF, ?? (or xn--p1ai in coded form) has now been inserted in the Internet root. This means that .RF domains can now function on the Web.

This is the 4th IDN ccTLDs to be activated by ICANN. The others are non Latin versions of .EGYPT (??? or xn--wgbh1c), .ALSAUDIAH (???????? or xn--mgberp4a5d4ar) and .EMARAT (?????? or xn--mgbaam7a8h).

The Russian Federation domain has already started its launch period and we have already begun taking orders for .RF names.

Millions of German domain names off the grid for more than an hour

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Wed, 12 May 2010 17:11:43 +0200

Reports of a major resolution failure on the .DE zone are coming out of Germany. It appears that for about 1.5 hours around lunchtime (in Europe) today, there was a problem with the nameservers used to support the .DE zonefile.

As a consequence, many .DE domains became unavailable causing disruptions to websites, email and other domain-related services. The German registry Denic apparently stepped in very quickly to correct the problem (which they may have caused by mistakenly reloading the zonefile with erroneous data), and the .DE zone now seems to be running normally again.

A statement on the problem has yet to be issued by Denic, but there are bound to be consequences. Denic runs the largest ccTLD in the world and this technical problem probably sets a new record for massive domain name disruptions. It is extremely rare, unheard of in fact, for such widespread disruption to occur at registry level on a major TLD.