New gTLD Expressions of Interest Working Group Report
A group of people met at the ICANN meeting in Seoul and called themselves the Expressions of Interest Working Group — EOI-WG in ICANNese. We were trying to come up with a way to get the ball rolling on new gTLDs, and we thought that if we could just get a list of the new TLDs and the people who were going to apply for them — well, then we would know a lot. We’d replace the theorizing with practical knowledge, with many benefits. We’d know how many new TLDs there would be, so we could stop seeing the phrase: “…a potentially unlimited number of names.” We’d also be able to address root scaling issue

Eleven more call on ICANN to introduce new TLDs without delay
The sixty signatories to our letter supporting the quick introduction of new top-level domains have now been joined by eleven more. From around the world, they include new TLD applicants, domainers, intellectual property attorneys, Internet entrepreneurs, leaders of non-commercial Internet groups, security experts, and web designers. Marta Tellez,  Project Manager for .BCN (Barcelona) (SPAIN) Frank Michlick, DomainCocoon  Inc. (CANADA) Ryan Kaatz, Intellectual Property Attorney (USA)

New York City Announces Its Intention to Apply for .NYC
New York City announced that it will seek the .NYC web address, making it the first U.S. city to seek a top-level domain. New York City now joins Barcelona, Berlin, London, Paris and Rome as a global city applying for its own web address. Paul J. Cosgrave, the Commissioner of New York City’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT), announced New York City’s intention to apply for the .NYC top-level

Make that 60, not 61
In a letter that was written to Rod Beckstrom and other high-ups at ICANN, we included the signature of Stephen Deerhake of GDNS, who administers the .AS domain. That was a mistake – he did not agree to be added as a signatory, and his inclusion was my error. Stephen and I have worked together for many years — he was the CTO for NetNames USA, which I ran long ago, and he is also well known to others at Minds + Machines. As we worked to put the letter together, we each thought that the other had contacted Stephen, when in fact we hadn’t. My sincere apologies to Stephen personally and for any issues this may have caused him in his professional life.

Quick Guide to Changes ICANN Draft Applicant Guidebook 3
Here are some quick notes on the new Draft Applicant Guidebook 3, published today by ICANN. I’ve restricted my comments to new stuff, what’s changed since the last version. This post is really intended for people who are somewhat familiar with the older versions of the DAG and want a quick update. I’m sure it’s incomplete: rely on it at your own peril. With one exception, the overall balance of the DAG has not changed. It has filled out; it’s bigger and more detailed. Processes are better explained. It’s a more mature document. For new TLD applicants, it’s mostly neutral to good, with no major surprises. It foresees mor