So, you’ve heard about ICANN’s new TLD Program and you’re thinking about the best way to get involved so you can gain a slice of the of the $5 billion dollar domain name industry. You might be an entrepreneur out to make your next million, a brand looking to make a statement of leadership in the digital space, a city keen to deliver a clear digital identity online or maybe something cool I’ve never even heard of! Regardless of your intention, what you might be missing is a real insight into the ways in which you can activate the new Top-Level Domain opportunity to introduce a business never before seen in the domain name space. As someone who has been following the program closely for a few years now, below are five key tips that will hopefully get your brain working in overdrive: 1. Act now: The clock is ticking on this limited opportunity. The application window will open on 12 January and we’ll start to see new Top-Level Domains in operation from 2013. If companies and entrepreneurs miss the application window (12 January 2012 to 12 April 2012), it may be a long time before they have the same opportunity again. Get moving now to make sure you don’t miss the boat. There is less than 176 days until the application window opens and you’ll need all of that time to make sure your approach is on the money. 2. Think different: This opportunity isn’t all about trying to be the next .com. The real value lies within the formation of market or vertical centric generic TLDs that will offer value to a specific target audience. Let’s take a .music TLD as an example of a generic Top-Level Domain that could be launched specifically for the music industry. Such a namespace is not intended to be a competitor to .com, however it will still hold significant value to the music industry given it will be directly tied to the subject matter as well as the global music community. The logical step regarding perceived value is the opportunity to demand a higher price per domain, driving profit up even if overall registration volumes don’t break world records. So think very carefully about your audience, as I firmly believe that the most successful new Top-Level Domain applicants will be those that are able to identify a consumer group that is willing to pay more per domain for the privilege of an authoritative, trusted and relevant domain name. In this game, an audience of “everyone” is a very risky move to make. 3. Commercialise your .brand TLD: .brand TLDs don’t just have to be an online branding exercise to improve message recall and online efficiency. There are huge opportunities available for .brand applicants to activate the namespace and drive return on investment. Imagine eBay securing .eBay and selling a slice of that space to its audience of 94 million registered users at two dollars per vanity domain name fee? Think michaeltwist.ebay and you’ve got the basis of a solid revenue generation model. 4. No language barrier: For the first time in history, new Top-Level Domains are available in non-Latin scripts and with 60% of the world’s population residing in countries where the native language is based on a script other than Latin, you could be one of the first to capitalise on this latest shift in domain name technology. Imagine what the Chinese equivalent for .com could be worth to the thriving Chinese community? 5. Seek advice: The new Top-Level Domain program is not for the novice – there are few people who can run a slice of the Internet alone – so start with the idea and seek advice from an industry expert who understands the application process, policy and technological infrastructure required to make the most of the new Top-Level Domain opportunity. The five tips explained above are just a starting point for a much larger analysis of your idea and associated business case. At AusRegistry International, we are currently working with brands, entrepreneurs and governments across the world in a full service capacity that can cover your entire new Top-Level Domain project from strategy right through to technology and launch marketing services. Please feel free to drop me a line if you’re after some advice on how you can make the most of this revolutionary opportunity. Also, be sure to read a blog we wrote last month explaining why choosing a domain name registry services partner for your new Top-Level Domain is the most important decision you will make from here on in. For more information please visit www.ausregistry.com or find out more about the new Top-Level Domain program here: www.BeyondDotCom.info This article was written by Michael Twist, Top-Level Domain specialist with AusRegistry International and was sourced with permission from www.ausregistry.com/blog/?p=831 .

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), whose mission purpose describes it as “an agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce…principally responsible for advising the President on telecommunications and information policies” has recently published a Further Notice of Inquiry that includes a Draft Statement of Work intended to “detail the work requirements” for the functions of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), and, effectively, to form the basis for IANA’s future contract. IANA is the entity that oversees global IP address allocation, root zone management in the Domain Name System (DNS) and other related functions. IANA is currently operated by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), but was originally run by the Information Sciences Institute of the University of Southern California under a contract it had with the United States Department of Defense. As such it has always been under US control. IANA’s contract is next up for renewal on 30 September 2011. In a section entitled “Responsibility and Respect for Stakeholders”, the Draft Statement of Work stipulates that, in processing requests relating to new generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs), “the Contractor shall include documentation to demonstrate how the proposed string has received consensus support from relevant stakeholders and is supported by the global public interest.” This has been interpreted by some as an attempt by the NTIA to establish veto powers for ICANN’s Government Advisory Committee (GAC), which is a policy advisory body composed of the representatives of various governments from around the world. ICANN’s Applicant Guidebook (AGB) is a document that sets out the rules and mechanisms for all aspects of the new gTLD application process. In its seventh iteration and still a work in progress in spite of the fact that the new gTLD programme was approved by the ICANN Board on 20 June 2011 (see the article Launch of New gTLDs: ICANN says Yes, We Can, above), it does not require “consensus support from relevant stakeholders” in order for a new TLD to be approved. It provides the GAC with various mechanisms to highlight problematic new gTLDs, such as the GAC Early Warning notice and the GAC Advice process, but the ICANN Board can simply choose to brush off the GAC’s concerns, as it did recently in relation to the approval of both .XXX and the new gTLD programme. In the run up to the approval of .XXX, US government reservations concerning the approval of this controversial TLD were expressed by the administrator of the NTIA, Laurence Strickling. However, these objections emphasised perceived risks to the stability of the Internet rather than on any moral objections to the TLD and they stopped short of any kind of strong-arm tactics that might invite the ire of those who would like to wrest control of Internet governance out of US hands and place it under the auspices of a UN controlled body. NTIA’s latest action would thus seem to be a cunning ploy to discretely re-empower the GAC and its constituents, including the US. The US found one of its most fervent allies in its resistance to both the new gTLD approval process and the approval of .XXX in European Commission Vice President and Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes. Kroes and Strickling met on 12 May 2011 after Kroes had gone so far as to write to US Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke subsequent to approval of .XXX requesting that he block its addition to the DNS root in order to allow for more time for the concerns of the GAC and other parties to be heard. Strickling responded in a letter dated 20 April 2011 to Kroes stating that, while the Obama administration did not support ICANN’s decision on .XXX, he did “not think it is in the long-term best interest of the United States or the global Internet community for us unilaterally to reverse the decision.” In any event, all of this may be only a taster for the ructions to come when ICANN is faced with approving controversial new gTLDs, such as .gay and .porn. This article was written by David Taylor head of the Hogan Lovells domain name practice Anchovy. For more information on David Taylor, see www.hoganlovells.com/david-taylor or email him at drd@hoganlovells.com.

A Fibre Channel technology roadmap, published by the FCIA (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Data center cabling systems maker Data Center Systems ( www.datacentersys.com ) announced on Monday that its chairman and CTO Kevin Ehringer has joined the board of directors for the Fibre Channel Industry Association ( www.fibrechannel.org ), an international Fibre Channel industry association comprised of manufacturers, vendors and systems integrators.

A Fibre Channel technology roadmap, published by the FCIA (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Data center cabling systems maker Data Center Systems ( www.datacentersys.com ) announced on Monday that its chairman and CTO Kevin Ehringer has joined the board of directors for the Fibre Channel Industry Association ( www.fibrechannel.org ), an international Fibre Channel industry association comprised of manufacturers, vendors and systems integrators. According to the company’s press release, the FCIA’s core mission is broadening the market for products based on the Fibre Channel networking technology

Web Hosting – Austin, TX – Data Foundry, a leading provider of data center outsourcing and colocation services, announces participation at two upcoming energy events in April 2011, SPE Digital Energy Conference and Exhibition and Alliance Expo. Data Foundry will be showcasing its premium data center and disaster recovery solutions for the energy industry.

Timmons speaks at a Port of Quincy event relating to data center tax breaks (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — In a move that has been referred to alternately as “poaching,” “stealing” and “snagging,” Apple reportedly hired Microsoft’s data center general manager Kevin Timmons yesterday, to an unspecified position, though one generally expected to closely related to the company’s near-complete 500,000 square-foot data center in Maiden, North Carolina. In a post on his Green Data Center Blog, breaking the news that Timmons was leaving Microsoft for Apple , Dave Ohara observed that perhaps the most interesting point was the fact that the most scarce resource in the data center business was not power or cooling, but talent at the executive level. “It is such a small world in data centers and especially smaller for the executive rank,” wrote Ohara, “information flows as recruiters call and others want opinions on various candidates and companies to work for.  Besides the executives, senior data center design engineers are heavily recruited.” Timmons leaves the same post at Microsoft that Data Center GM Mike Manos left several years ago to work at Digital Realty Trust

iWeb Achieves Its Highest-ever Ranking Among Canadian Tech Companies Friday, April 15, 2011, 4:46:49 AM Montreal, QC, April 13th, 2011 – iWeb (TSX-V: IWB), Global provider of Internet hosting services and IT infrastructure, has been ranked 120 th in the 2011 Branham300, the annual listing of the top 300 Canadian Technology companies, thanks to revenues of US$29 million in 2010, iWeb’s overall ranking has been steadily improving since the Company’s first inclusion on the ranking, 241st in 2006. iWeb’s ascension in the Branham 300 ranking; 2006 – 241st 2007 – 206th 2008 – 195th 2009 – 162nd 2010 – 124th * 2011 – 120th *a procedural anomaly prevented iWeb’s results from being properly displayed in the 2010 ranking “We are thrilled to be recognized as one of Canada’s top IT companies since 2006; iWeb’s 26% growth in 2010 compares well to the 4% average growth rate for companies appearing on the 2011 Branham300.” said Eric Chouinard, President and CEO of iWeb. He added that “Based on this year’s ranking, the Canadian ICT industry comes across as healthy, which is a promising indicator of future growth for iWeb.