New gTLD Progress Report

New gTLD Progress Report:

13 August 2012

Did you miss our webinar for applicants last week?
You can watch it here: http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/announcements-and-media/webinars
We’ll be holding more webinars to keep you informed of important developments as new generic top-level domains advance toward inclusion in the Internet.
Here is an overview of what we covered during last week’s webinar.

Initial Evaluation Is Underway

All applications have now been assigned to the relevant geographic, string similarity, and DNS stability evaluation panels. Of the 1927 applications, 342 have been allocated to both the financial capability and the technical and operational capability panels.

Clarification Questions Coming Soon

Many applicants are expected to receive clarifying questions from the panels to clarify information in their applications. Based on the pilot evaluations, common areas of questions include Letters of Credit, security policy, and independent security assessments.
These clarifying questions must be consistent across all applications. To ensure we achieve that, we will conduct a pilot program in a few weeks, during which we will send clarifying questions to approximately 50 applicants.
This will help ensure that the clarification questions are clear and that applicants understand what information is being requested.

Requests for changes to submitted applications

Many applicants have asked to change some aspect of their applications – we had received 49 such requests as of 9 August. The process and criteria for processing these requests will be posted very soon on the New gTLD microsite, and applicants will be notified when that happens.

More Time to Comment on Applications

Many people and organizations have expressed a desire for more time to comment publicly on applications, so we have extended the formal comment period through 26 September 2012 – an additional 45 days. Comments received by 26 September will be forwarded to the evaluation panels to review and consider as part of their evaluations.
And even after that, the Application Comment forum and the Program Feedback forum – where you can provide additional feedback – will remain open throughout the evaluation process.

Next webinar

We will hold the next applicant webinar in September, so check the New gTLD microsite for the date and time.

Got a specific question?

Please let us know what you would like to hear about at: newgtldcommunications@icann.org.

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