In a blog entry posted today, ICANN President and CEO Rod Beckstrom affirms that ICANN is ready to begin receiving applications for New gTLDs on 12 January.
His entry also highlights a briefing that ICANN's Board of Directors held this week regarding new gTLDs. Topics the Board discussed included not only operational readiness for the New gTLD Program, but also the status of plans for timely execution of the GAC requests regarding the Early Warning; application batching process; trademark clearinghouse procedures; planning for a second round; applicant support; and further topics.
Interested parties are encouraged to read the blog entry and related Board papers.