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Public Comment

Public Comment is a vital part of our multistakeholder model. It provides a mechanism for stakeholders to have their opinions and recommendations formally and publicly documented. It is an opportunity for the ICANN community to effect change and improve policies and operations.

New gTLD Program Implementation Review Draft Report

Open Date

23 September 2015 23:59 UTC

Close Date

7 December 2015 23:59 UTC

Staff Report Due

31 January 2016 23:59 UTC

Comments Closed

Report of Public Comments

View Comments

Brief Overview

Purpose: This public comment period is being opened to obtain community input on the draft Program Implementation Review report.

Current Status: The draft Program Implementation Review report is posted for public comment for the ICANN community's review and consideration. To facilitate the review and analysis of all comments, we request that commenters clearly indicate to which section(s) of the report their comments relate.

Next Steps: Following the review of public comments received on this report, ICANN will prepare and publish a summary and analysis of the comments received. The draft report will be updated as appropriate. The final report and summary and analysis of public comments will be provided to the Review Team called for by the Affirmation of Commitments, for its review of the New gTLD Program's promotion of competition, consumer choice, and consumer trust.

Section I: Description and Explanation

ICANN is seeking input on the draft Program Implementation Review report, which contains ICANN's observations from the operational experience of administering the 2012 round of the New gTLD Program. The report is intended to capture ICANN's experiences and lessons learned, and public comments will help to record the community's observations from the implementation of the New gTLD Program.

The following topics are covered:

  • Application Processing
  • Application Evaluation
  • Objections Procedures
  • Contention Resolution
  • Transition to Delegation
  • Applicant Support
  • Continued Operations Instrument
  • Program Management

The draft Program Implementation Review report documents the experiences gained during implementation for consideration in future application rounds. To support this intention and to capture the lessons learned first-hand, the report is a self-assessment performed by a staff review team at ICANN. However, many stakeholders have played a major role in the Program. Accordingly, input received from applicants, service providers, and other members of the community on various elements of the Program has been incorporated into this draft report. ICANN seeks and encourages additional input from stakeholders during this public comment period. Stakeholder input will be considered and taken into account in updating the draft report. While ICANN believes it is beneficial to document and publish its analysis of the experience gained in implementing the Program, it also values the experience and insight from others who participated in the process. It is recognized that other stakeholders are performing their own reviews, and this review is not intended to replace those reviews nor to represent the experience of all stakeholders.

In particular, ICANN is seeking comments on the lessons learned for each section, which have been summarized in Annex 1 of the draft Program Implementation Review report. Many of the lessons learned are considerations for future application rounds, and ICANN welcomes the community's input on how the implementation of future rounds could be improved upon.

All comments will be reviewed and analyzed in the report of public comments, which will be included as a supplement to the final report.

To provide consistency and to facilitate the discussion, ICANN requests that commenters clearly indicate the relevant sections of the report within their comments.

Section II: Background

The New gTLD Program was the first effort to enable expansion of the DNS on such a large scale. The implementation guidance provided in the community-developed Applicant Guidebook described many complex and previously untested concepts and processes.

The Affirmation of Commitments, signed in 2009 by the U.S. Department of Commerce and ICANN, provides for ongoing commitment reviews. Section 9.3 describes a review of the New gTLD Program in terms of promoting competition, consumer trust, and consumer choice to be performed by volunteer community members ("Review Team"):

If and when new gTLDs (whether in ASCII or other language character sets) have been in operation for one year, ICANN will organize a review that will examine the extent to which the introduction or expansion of gTLDs has promoted competition, consumer trust and consumer choice, as well as effectiveness of (a) the application and evaluation process, and (b) safeguards put in place to mitigate issues involved in the introduction or expansion.

The draft Program implementation Review report is ICANN's assessment of the execution of New gTLD Program processes, and it is intended to help inform the Review Team's assessment of the effectiveness of the application and evaluation process. The report documents the experiences of the ICANN staff members charged with executing the New gTLD Program. Other reviews are also being undertaken by ICANN to help inform the Review Team's work on the competition, consumer trust, and consumer choice, and safeguards aspects of the Program. ICANN also recognizes that there are ongoing efforts by the community to review various aspects of the New gTLD Program. The Review Team may also wish to consider including the work of these community groups in its review.

Section III: Relevant Resources

Section IV: Additional Information

Section V: Reports