ICANN, Cairo. Applicant Guidebook session. Domaine.info and ICANN present Domaine.info and ICANN present ICANN CAIRO Egypt November 2008 Workshop Understanding the Draft RFP for New gTLDs A NovaMedias Production Hi, I'm Kurt Pritz. We just finished a well attended session on the new gTLD applicant guidebook that was originally posted on our website. The purpose of the workshop was to describe for potential applicants and those interested in the new gTLD process the nuts and bolts associated with applying for a new TLD. The guidebook provides a direction manual for those interested in applying. The presentation started with some of the principles associated with the guidebook. The fact that the guidebook and the whole gTLD process and the introduction of the new gTLDs into the root zone was really more in ICANN's mission at its founding... and then it was carried through by an intensive policy development process that was carried through by ICANN's policy making bodies... notable the gnsl that provided policy recommendations to ICANN in creating this body of work. Its ICANN now implementing those policy recommendations that are going to allow iCANN to open up the domain space and provide additional competition and choice for consumers and the internet. These TLDs will be introduced with principles of conservatism, both technical and fiscal , the introduction of names in a measured way that will provide for the ongoing stability and security of the domain name system. So beyond that, the workshop took potential applicants and those who are interested, through the various application and evaluation criteria that applicants for new top level domains will be measured against and tried to present a clear road map of the applicant guidebook so those that attended or who will attend online later, can look at the guidebook and find the info they wish to find. ICANN's published this applicant guidebook as a draft for community discussion. The clear idea is to garner opinions and expert advice from those members on the community that can offer information that will result in improvements to the draft RFP. Thus far at this meeting already we have seen several comments that will serve to improve the quality of the RFP and the integration into an entire process. There was a comment regarding vision for opening the domain space and defining that vision well so that, at the end of the day when the round is over, we can measure the results of the new gTLD process to determine if those objectives have been met. There are also several specific suggestions regarding individual elements of the applicant guidebook,where that can be improved. So already, even though there will be some changes to the guidebook, to the directions for applying for a new TLD that will make it more effective. We look forward to carrying on discussions this week and through the next month and a half so that those suggestions can be incorporated in the next draft applicant guidebook that will be published in early 2009. So as with all ICANN staff and board members we're delighted to be here in Cairo and we would like to thank our host for hosting such a great meeting. I also want the thank the participants in the meeting. Those who attended gave up their time and have spent time looking at all these materials in order to provide their advice and expertise so I would like to thank them for that. ® Copyrights Domaine.info 2008 All Rights Reserved Your comments and reactions are welcome Vos commentaires et reations sont les bienvenues participate@icann.org