First .music, now .berlin wants extra credit for being early to the new TLD game.
I wrote previously about how one applicant for the .music top level domain name requested favored status since he had been working on the concept for so long. Now another group is asking for similar status.
dotBERLIN GmbH & Co., which hopes to release a .berlin top level domain name, has submitted a comment to ICANN asking that companies that have been involved in the new top level domain name process for a long time be given an extra point on their application:
Many of the recently emerged new gTLD applicants may take advantage of the immense delay the new gTLD program has been facing since its start in 2005. The tentative timeline published with the Board’s approval of the new gTLD program in June 2008 stated an application window for March 2009. We think that applicants which were planning with this timeline already had a ripe application, while a number of new applicants who came in during the last 18 month sometimes seem to rather copy existing concepts and projects or have questionable business models.
For this reason we claim:
> One extra point in the Community Priority Evaluation should be given if organization of an applicant was already established before the approval of the new gTLDs program by the ICANN Board on 26 June 2008 or before the first communicated application window in March 2009.
Of course, the idea behind new TLDs is that every possible applicant be made aware of the process with plenty of time to apply. Once the application guidebook is finalized there will be an official communication and marketing period to drum up interest. To suggest that groups that were involved prior to this official communication period should get favored status defeats the purpose.
George Kirikos says
Just another example of the “gaming” that goes on within the ICANN ecosystem. Often it’s not so explicit as this, but happening behind closed doors by the “insiders.”
Jim Fleming says
“gaming” that goes on within the ICANN ecosystem
——————————–
Not to worry…
As of 2010, “the ICANN ecosystem” is tiny compared to 1998.
Each week, “the I* Ecosystem” gets smaller on a percentage basis. A small closed clique re-cycling the same people does not grow.
The challenge now is to build a real .NET free of that polluted “Ecosystem”.
2012
http://TheBigLieSociety.com
Steve M says
You want extra points … hire Kobe Bryant and put a basketball in his hands.
When it comes to these new tlds, rarely will so many pay so much for so little.
Antony Van Couvering says
@Steve M –
“You want extra points … hire Kobe Bryant and put a basketball in his hands.”
Now that’s funny!
Anonymous says
I see no problem in granting an additional point for those that have spent a lot of time, energy, and money over the past couple of years helping ICANN to carry the new gTLD process up to, and hopeufully through, the goal line.