Technical infrastructure can handle 1,000 new TLDs a year, but there will be other bottlenecks.

One of the interesting things to come from ICANN’s closed door board retreat over the weekend is this tidbit: ICANN thinks it can delegate up to 1,000 top level domain names a year without technical root scaling problems.

Staff has also developed a model and a rationale for the maximum rate of applications that can be processed over the next few years. Staff is directed to publish this model and rationale and to seek Board support for the judgments embodied in this model, thereby providing a firm basis for limiting the rate of new delegations. Based on the discussions to date, this limit is expected to be in the range of 1,000 new delegations per year, with this number to be defined precisely in the publication.

A bigger question might be if ICANN’s application queue can handle that many new top level domain name applications — it has been suggested previously that it can only handle about 300 a year through the process.

Some ICANN constituents, including Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), have asked ICANN to limit the number of TLDs approved as the system is opened. But their request seems to be based more on concerns about controversial TLDs and unforeseen political problems than root scaling. Something tells me 1,000 is a lot more than GAC is hoping for.

What if more than 1,000 applications are received for the first year? ICANN wants a way to prioritize them, and it’s not based on time stamps:

…in the event that the number of applications exceeds the maximum rate, an objective method for determining the order of application processing that conforms to the limited delegation rate (not relying primarily on time-stamping) will be defined in the Applicant Guidebook.

ICANN meeting coming to America next Spring.

For the first time in a long time ICANN will hold its international meeting in the United States March 13-18, 2011.
That means U.S. residents won’t have to make a trip that involves three plane hops and 12 different time zones to attend the meeting.

You probably don’t pay attention to ICANN policy that much if you’re a domainer. You aren’t excited by policy. You probably don’t care much, either. That has been my experience whenever I post about an important ICANN comment period and two or three people act on it.

You probably won’t be excited about the sessions at this event. But when was the last time you went to a conference for the sessions? Maybe a trip to San Francisco will get you excited. The truth is the domainer community needs to show up in force to remind ICANN and its constituents that we exist. We can only complain about not having a voice so much. We can only neglect to contribute to comment periods so often.

And March’s meeting will be huge given the imminent opening of the application period for new top level domain names.

Here’s a chance to be there, in the thick of it. Mark your calendar.

U.S. control of internet can be misused, leading to countermeasures by other countries.

What’s wrong with the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act being proposed in the U.S. Congress?

The problem is that the U.S. government is trying to use the fact that VeriSign is located in the U.S. as a way to shut down internet traffic it doesn’t agree with. Other governments look at this and worry that the U.S. is trying to control the internet. They start thinking about splintering the internet. They also think about doing the same thing as the U.S. — trying to find ways to control internet traffic in their own country.

Michael Geist from University of Ottawa puts it so well in the closing paragraphs of an op-ed on TheStar.com:

The net effect of these laws is to create a two-tier regulatory structure for the Internet. Domain names may be global – more than 200 million have been registered worldwide – yet the U.S. continues to retain effective control over much of the system.

As the recent moves to use the domain name system to address online concerns demonstrates, that control raises serious concerns about its jurisdictional reach and the misuse of a system intended to route Internet traffic without regard for its content or destination.

Trade-in your domains for a ticket to TRAFFIC South Beach.

This month’s Epik conference had a unique twist — you could pay for conference admission by trading in domain names.

I was a bit surprised, yet excited, to learn this morning that you’ll be able to do the same thing for October’s TRAFFIC conference. Rob Monster has worked out a deal with TRAFFIC organizers to let you pay for admission with Epik bucks.

To take advantage of the offer you need to send a list of domains to Epik quickly because the deal ends September 30. Epik will respond with an offer to buy your domains with Epik bucks. I suspect this offer will bring in a number of additional attendees to the conference.

Epik is also bringing SwapFest to TRAFFIC. The event premiered at Epik’s conference earlier this month. It was the first domain swapping event with a common currency and it worked — $100,000 in domains changed hands.

David Castello saved me a lot of embarrassment this weekend.

Earlier this year at TRAFFIC in Vancouver I asked David Castello which of two dates I should hold a domain name event in Austin: September 24-25 in conjunction with the Texas v. UCLA football game or November 12-13 with the Texas v. Oklahoma State football game.

David said “Don’t do it in September. It will still be too hot.”

He was right, and he influenced me to host the event in November. What David didn’t tell me, because he knew it would be too painful, is that I shouldn’t hold it in September because Texas was going to get embarrassed by UCLA on its home turf.

I’m thankful I took David’s advice. It was hot in Austin today and Texas got spanked. And although I’m still in pain after Texas looked horrible today, there’s a silver lining: tickets to the game vs. Oklahoma State will end up being a lot less expensive if Texas keeps playing like this.

Be sure to mark your calendars for November 12-13 here in Austin. We’re going to have a great time Friday evening and then we’ll have some sort of event around the football game on November 13. Be sure to reserve a hotel room now; you can always cancel it later.

And thanks, David. I appreciate the tip.