The guidebook itself won’t be done — but ICANN will approve something in June.
I’ve gone through the latest version of the new top level domain name applicant guidebook and read ICANN’s explanation of what it is.
I’d call it version 0.7 (beta).
And I’d argue that there will be no approval of the guidebook at June’s ICANN meeting in Singapore. Instead, ICANN hopes to loosely “approve the new gTLD program”.
It’s right there in ICANN’s introduction to the latest guidebook.
The Applicant Guidebook is intended to be a comprehensive guide and will be regularly updated as aspects of the process are implemented. The Board will listen to community dialogue at the ICANN public meeting in Singapore, and will continue to solicit comments on specific areas.
Well, you can’t “approve” something in its final state if you will solicit comments after you plan to vote on the approval.
The introduction then states:
The Board of Directors will consider approval of the New gTLD Program at an extraordinary meeting on Monday, 20 June 2011, during ICANN’s international meeting in Singapore.
For years the ICANN community has been equating the official approval of the program to be the approval of the guidebook.
But that need not be the case. Instead, expect ICANN to consider “approval of the new gTLD program” at the June 20 meeting. The guidebook will be open ended. There’s no way all outstanding issues will be settled by then, and ICANN is admitting this with its latest language.
That said, it’s possible that the communications period will launch after the Singapore meeting. That would be a big win for new TLD applicants as the marketing activities can run concurrent to finalizing application terms.
Still, I don’t think ICANN Chairman Peter Dengate Thrush’s planned party to celebrate approval will be as exciting with this looming over applicants’ heads.
Birmingham says
It looks like New TLD Guidebook will be Approved on 20th June in Singapore looking at the following statement. However, as it was stated before this is not a static process, so there will be updates.
“ICANN reserves the right to make reasonable updates and changes to this applicant guidebook and to the application process at any time by posting notice of such updates and changes to the ICANN website, including as the possible result of new policies that might be adopted or advice to ICANN from ICANN advisory committees during the course of the application process. Applicant acknowledges that ICANN may make such updates and changes and agrees that its application will be subject to any such updates and changes. In the event that Applicant has completed and submitted its application prior to such updates or changes and Applicant can demonstrate to ICANN that compliance with such updates or changes would present a material hardship to Applicant, then ICANN will work with Applicant in good faith to attempt to make reasonable accommodations in order to mitigate any negative consequences for Applicant to the extent possible consistent with ICANN’s mission to ensure the stable and secure operation of the Internet’s unique identifier systems”