The Special Meeting of the ICANN Board of Directors which took place Thursday, October 28th (10/29/2010 JST) has produced a result many new gTLD applicants have been waiting for: A timeline.
The ICANN board passed a resolution which aims at starting the New gTLD Application round on May 30th, 2011. According to the resolution, the issues of Vertical Integration, Recommendation 6 Objection Process, and Geographic names have yet to be resolved.
The timeline shows that the proposed Final Applicant Guidebook (AGB) is targeted to be published for public comment on November 9th, and the board hopes to approve the Final AGB at its Regular Meeting of the ICANN Board in Cartagena, Columbia following the conclusion of the 39th ICANN International Public Meeting.
If all goes well with the Final AGB, we are looking at a four-month communication campaign leading up to the official launch of the application process on May 30th, 2011.
The schedule seems tight, and there are still some tall hurdles to clear. Without a clear resolution on the V.I. issue, many would-be applicants are still left with some level of uncertainty. The Final AGB, which is due to be published 10 days from today, should give us a good idea of where the process stands, and just how certain the May 2011 lunch is.
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October 30, 2010