ICANN: Accountability & Governance Public Experts Group Begins Discussions
As announced on 19 August 2014, members of the Accountability and Governance Public Experts Group have been selected. This group will be responsible for the selection of up to seven Advisors to sit on the ICANN Accountability & Governance Coordination Group to assure that best practices are brought in from the larger global community.
Initial discussions amongst the group members have begun, and they will be holding their first call on 26 August 2014 to determine their working methods moving forward. An audio recording of the call will be posted on the Public Experts Group Space on the Community Wiki following the meeting.
In addition, the community may follow the Public Experts Group through its publically archived mailing list.
For all information regarding the Public Experts Group and the ICANN Accountability and Governance Process, please visit the Community Wiki.
This ICANN announcement was sourced from:
https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-6-2014-08-25-en
Enhancing ICANN Accountability and Governance Transition Update
ICANN: Answers to the Top 10 Questions About the Proposed Next-Generation Registration Directory Services to Replace WHOIS
Should you be interested in the DNS , registration services, WHOIS and related issues, join the Expert Working Group on gTLD Directory Services (EWG) for an interactive online Q&A about next generation Registration Directory Services (RDS).
Date: Tuesday, 16 September 2014
Time: 19:00-20:30 UTC (time converter: tinyurl.com/qbxp6w6)
Date: Wednesday, 17 September 2014
Time: 13:00-14:30 UTC (time converter: tinyurl.com/ozzcn65)
You are invited to an interactive session with the EWG, focusing on the Final Report by the EWG as well as a set of Frequently Asked Questions regarding the EWG Report. In this session, EWG members will answer the top 10 questions asked about the proposed RDS and explore new questions posed by attendees.
The EWG was formed to reexamine the purpose and provision of gTLD registration data, envisioning a next-generation solution to replace today’s WHOIS that will better serve the needs of the global Internet community.
The Final Report represents the culmination of an intense 15+ month effort during which this diverse group of volunteers considered over 2600 pages of public comments, survey responses, and research results.
Ultimately, the EWG agreed that today’s WHOIS model of giving every user the same entirely anonymous public access to often-inaccurate data should be abandoned. The EWG’s 166-page Final Report details a proposed next-generation RDS that would collect, validate and disclose gTLD registration data for permissible purposes only, leaving minimum data publicly available while safeguarding the rest through a new paradigm of gated access.
Attend this session to better understand and ask any questions you may have about how the proposed RDS tackles, in an unprecedented manner:
- Difficult data privacy issues;
- Validation challenges that have long degraded data quality and accuracy; and
- Striking a workable balance between access and accountability.
Don’t miss this opportunity to more deeply explore key features of the proposed RDS – the foundation from which the community (through the GNSO ) can develop a new global policy for gTLD registration data to protect personal privacy and ensure greater accuracy, accountability, and transparency for the entire ICANN ecosystem for years to come.
Webinar Details
Please join the webinar either on Tuesday, 16 September 2014, Time: 19:00-20:30 UTC (time converter: tinyurl.com/qbxp6w6) or Wednesday, 17 September 2014, Time: 13:00-14:30 UTC (time converter: tinyurl.com/ozzcn65). The two sessions are duplicates, scheduled to accommodate different time zones.
The webinar will be run in an Adobe Connect room with a brief slide presentation covering the top 10 questions about the RDS, along with a dial-in conference bridge for audio. The session will be conducted in English.
Please register via email to
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
by Monday, 15 September 2014 – 23:59 UTC to receive the dial-in details. A reminder with log-in and dial-in details will be sent to you prior to the webinar. Materials for the webinar can be downloaded from the EWG’s public wiki.
Webinar Materials
- Final Report by the EWG – Available Now
- Frequently Asked Questions regarding the EWG Report – Available Now
- AC Recording – To be uploaded following the webinar
- Audio Recording – To be uploaded following the webinar
- Transcript – To be uploaded following the webinar
- Chat Transcript – To be uploaded following the webinar
- Presentation – To be uploaded just prior to the webinar
This ICANN announcement was sourced from:
https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2014-08-25-en
ICANN: ICG Announces Third Conference Call
The IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group ( ICG ) will hold its third conference call on Tuesday, 26 August 2014, from 12:00-13:00 UTC. The community is welcome to attend by way of a listen-only mode Virtual Meeting Room through which audio of the call will be streamed. Translations will be available through relevant Adigo Bridge dial-in numbers and Conference ID codes.
A list of country dial-in numbers can be found here. In the case that there is no appropriate dial-in number for an interested participant, ICANN will provide a dial-out service to that individual. Correspondingly, language service Conference ID numbers are listed below:
- Français – Conference ID: 75929475
- Español – Conference ID: 68385764
- Pусский – Conference ID: 345720
- Português – Conference ID: 759752
Livestreaming translations in 中文 and العربية will be unavailable for this call, however translations of both the audio and transcript will be provided after the meeting.
Participants who are interested in an English line but are unable to join by way of the Virtual Meeting Room may request a dial-out service.
For all dial-out service requests please contact
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
by 10:00 UTC, 26 August.
For more information about the ICG and the IANA Stewardship Transition, please visit the NTIA IANA Functions’ Stewardship Transition Microsite.
This ICANN announcement was sourced from:
https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2-2014-08-25-en
New gTLDs Break 2 Million Registrations, But 4 In 5 Parked
Registrations of new gTLDs domains broke the two million mark over the weekend across the 367 gTLDs that have been delegated, 195 of which having entered General Availability. As of Sunday there were over 2,031,000 registrations according to nTLDstats.com.
The gTLD with the most registrations, or Domains Under Management, continues to be .xyz with 455,926 registrations, or 22.7 percent of all registrations, down from around a quarter only a few weeks ago as more gTLDs launch.
In second place remains .berlin with 138,000 registrations and then .club with over 98,600, .guru with over 69,000 and then .wang which is closing in on 56,400, being the only gTLDs with more than 50,000 registrations.
But what of the registrations. There is certain to be a shakeout at the end of years one and two as it can be expected that many domains won’t be renewed. Especially .xyz that has seen almost 83 percent of its registrations through one registrar, Network Solutions, which has been giving its .com registrants the equivalent .xyz domain unless they opted out. Additionally, .berlin ran a heavily discounted promotion for a few weeks that saw registrations jump around 90,000 in a few days.
Additionally, almost four in five (79.51%) of the new gTLD domains registered are currently Parked meaning very few are being used for productive websites, nor likely any other use like email. Six percent (120,664) are currently being redirected to another website.
The gTLD, according to nTLDstats.com, with the highest proportion of Parked domains is unsurprisingly .xyz with 93.63 percent of all their registered domains currently being parked followed by .berlin with 83.25 percent.
Interestingly the gTLDs among the top ten with the least domains parked proportionally are .photography (63.19%) and .email (65.23%) while .wien with 8,149 registrations and .webcam with 9,071 have the lowest proportion of parked domains with 53.94 and 47.27 percent respectively. Could this be an indicator of future success?
Of the registries, the largest is Donuts with 145 of the 371 gTLDs released into the wild (delegated) that cover over 839,600 of the registrations, or 41.72 percent. There are also 182 registrars that are taking registrations for at least one of the new gTLDs.
In broader registration statistics, there are also 18 gTLDs that have passed the 20,000 mark, 37 have passed 10,000, 76 passed 5,000 and 176 have passed 1,000.
