The fourth version of the Draft Applicant Guidebook (DAG4) on new TLDs was the subject of much debate at the recent ICANN Brussels meeting (at which Valideus was a silver sponsor).
What ICANN does well is to maintain the stability of the domain name system in the face of an ever-increasing volume of registrations (now 195 million and counting) and attempts to compromise stability. DAG4 tells us that applied-for character strings will be reviewed by a DNS Stability Panel “to determine whether the string creates a condition that adversely affects the throughput, response time, consistency or coherence of responses to internet servers” and that all applicants must describe in detail “additional registry services that are unique to their TLD”. With customary registry services being defined as “Receipt of data from registrars…provision of status information on zone servers…dissemination of TLD zone files…dissemination of information concerning domain name registrations and DNSSEC” this implies that ICANN really is expecting some applicants to deliver the innovation they have heralded. The pre-delegation testing of registries will also now cover DNS infrastructure as well as registry operations whilst ICANN ‘s modelling has shown that it can add 924 character strings to the root zone annually without fear of instability (see the Root Zone Scaling Report of March 2010). ICANN is pressing ahead with its concept of a voluntary High Security Zone for registry operators that “demonstrate and uphold enhanced security-minded practices and policies, though it states that, “its development and operation are beyond the scope of the guidebook”. All applicants must implement DNSSEC and publish a DNSSEC Policy Statement as well as making Zone files available through a standardised process to “credentialed users”