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New gTLD Program Implementation Review Draft Report

ADOPTED 12Y, 0N, 0A

Main penholder: Maureen Hilyard

Assisted by: Cheryl Langdon-Orr, Alan Greenberg

     

Christine Willett christine.willett@icann.org

AL-ALAC-ST-1215-02-01-EN

For information about this Public Comment, please click here 

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, Explanation, and Purpose

ICANN is seeking input on the draft Program Implementation Review report, which containsICANN'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 andICANN, provides for ongoing commitment reviews. Section 9.3 describes a review of the NewgTLD 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

  • A session at the ICANN54 Public Meeting in Dublin, Ireland will be held in October 2015. The session is intended to provide the community with an opportunity to share their comments in a public forum, and to interact with ICANN staff directly on this topic.
  • New gTLD Program Review page on New gTLD microsite:http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/reviews

Section V: Reports

Staff Contact

Christine Willett
christine.willett@icann.org

 

FINAL VERSION TO BE SUBMITTED IF RATIFIED

Click here to download the PDF document below. 



FINAL DRAFT VERSION TO BE VOTED UPON BY THE ALAC

The ALAC welcomes the opportunity to comment on the New gTLD Programme Implementation Review Draft Report. We recognise that the review has been a self-assessment by ICANN staff of their execution of the processes involved at each stage of the implementation of the  New gTLD Programme. The review provides a pragmatic overview of lessons learned from the implementation process which will not only inform the formal Review Team’s assessment of the implementation process but also provide solutions for creating improvements in the effectiveness and efficiency of this process based on staff assessment of this first round of implementation.  

Of concern to our community was the life-cycle of the application and evaluation process relating to this first batch of applications and that the remaining applications will still not be completed until the end of 2017 which is far beyond originally projected timeframes.  Among the reasons for the delays include some effectiveness and efficiency issues relating to the time spent on some requirements of the application process that may not have been completely necessary for all applications as there was no contractual requirement attached. It was noted that some areas of the application may benefit from further community discussion based on staff lessons learned. 

We encourage the Review Team to support the recommendations made by staff, and at the same time give full consideration for more practical support to ensure that the remaining and future batches of applications are expedited as quickly and efficiently as possible. 

 

FIRST DRAFT SUBMITTED

The Programme Implementation Review is a self-assessment by ICANN staff of their execution of the new gTLD Programme at each stage of implementation and results in a set of lessons learned to help address issues that arose out of the first round.  The review is intended to help to inform the formal Review Team’s assessment of the effectiveness of the application and evaluation process

ICANN’s focus was the effectiveness of the implementation of the Applicant Guidebook and New gTLD Programme processes but not a review of the actual guidebook nor the policies relating to the introduction of gTLDs.

While ICANN were able to consider input from applicants, service providers and other members of the community during the application process, they are aware that other sections of ICANN are also involved in their own evaluations of gTLDs.  Inputs by other stakeholders are invited as part of this evaluation.   Public comment will also be sought once the final draft of the report is complete.

The life-cycle of the application and evaluation process was a recurring topic of consideration throughout the assessment of the program.  The guidebook contemplated a simple application timeline of 9 months, while a more complex one might take up to 20 months.

In reality, many of the original intake of applications took longer than expected. The main factors impacting on these results were a higher than expected application volume and the additional time needed to implement some processes and procedures. There were 1930 applications on 11 January 2012 and the first delegation was made 22 months later.  Over 700 delegations had been completed by July 2015. Although there were some withdrawals, the remaining applications are expected to be completed by the end of 2017.

A summary of 48 lessons learned is provided in Annex 1. These are recommendations for improvement within each section and subsection of the application and evaluation process.  This summary list is based on the assumption that policy recommendations for this first round of new gTLDS will remain the same for future rounds.

It is recommended that ALAC encourages the Review Team to support these recommendations in order to enable the staff to implement future gTLD application and evaluation processes more quickly, effectively and efficiently. 

 

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4 Comments

  1. Maureen Hilyard

    First Draft

    The Programme Implementation Review is a self-assessment by ICANN staff of their execution of the new gTLD Programme at each stage of implementation and results in a set of lessons learned to help address issues that arose out of the first round.  The review is intended to help to inform the formal Review Team’s assessment of the effectiveness of the application and evaluation process

    ICANN’s focus was the effectiveness of the implementation of the Applicant Guidebook and New gTLD Programme processes but not a review of the actual guidebook nor the policies relating to the introduction of gTLDs.

    While ICANN were able to consider input from applicants, service providers and other members of the community during the application process, they are aware that other sections of ICANN are also involved in their own evaluations of gTLDs.  Inputs by other stakeholders are invited as part of this evaluation.   Public comment will also be sought once the final draft of the report is complete.

    The life-cycle of the application and evaluation process was a recurring topic of consideration throughout the assessment of the program.  The guidebook contemplated a simple application timeline of 9 months, while a more complex one might take up to 20 months.

    In reality, many of the original intake of applications took longer than expected. The main factors impacting on these results were a higher than expected application volume and the additional time needed to implement some processes and procedures. There were 1930 applications on 11 January 2012 and the first delegation was made 22 months later.  Over 700 delegations had been completed by July 2015. Although there were some withdrawals, the remaining applications are expected to be completed by the end of 2017.

    A summary of 48 lessons learned is provided in Annex 1. These are recommendations for improvement within each section and subsection of the application and evaluation process.  This summary list is based on the assumption that policy recommendations for this first round of new gTLDS will remain the same for future rounds.

    It is recommended that ALAC encourages the Review Team to support these recommendations in order to enable the staff to implement future gTLD application and evaluation processes more quickly, effectively and efficiently. 

  2. Glenn McKnight

    Thanks  for the  hard work Maureen.  

    Question.  I  am reviewing the set of recommendations in the PDF  under the Appendix One  and I was curious  which  recommendations  were provided by ALAC?

    The vetting process over 22 months  clearly is a long drawn out process and I wonder if this could be expedited?
    Glenn 

  3. Maureen Hilyard

    In response to Glenn, provided during ALAC call today.

    Glenn McKnight: How many of the Appendix 1 recommendattions were from ALAC?

    Maureen HILYARD: IAll the recommendations for improvements were made by the team actually implementing the process at the moment

    Maureen HILYARD: I think the point is more that they'd like support to make the changes required to improve the process

  4. Maureen Hilyard

     I submit the following statement (Version 2)


    The ALAC welcomes the opportunity to comment on the New gTLD Programme Implementation Review Draft Report. We recognise that the review has been a self-assessment by ICANN staff of their execution of the processes involved at each stage of the implementation of the  New gTLD Programme. The review provides a pragmatic overview of lessons learned from the implementation process which will not only inform the formal Review Team’s assessment of the implementation process but also provide solutions for creating improvements in the effectiveness and efficiency of this process based on staff assessment of this first round of implementation.  

    Of concern to our community was the life-cycle of the application and evaluation process relating to this first batch of applications and that the remaining applications will still not be completed until the end of 2017 which is far beyond originally projected timeframes.  Among the reasons for the delays include some effectiveness and efficiency issues relating to the time spent on some requirements of the application process that may not have been completely necessary for all applications as there was no contractual requirement attached. It was noted that some areas of the application may benefit from further community discussion based on staff lessons learned. 

    We encourage the Review Team to support the recommendations made by staff, and at the same time give full consideration for more practical support to ensure that the remaining and future batches of applications are expedited as quickly and efficiently as possible.