This week's update is a brief recap of our 6 September Applicant Update Webinar. If you missed it, you can watch it here.
Withdrawals
As of 5 September 2012 we had received seven application withdrawal requests, and four of them have completed the withdrawal process:
- .AND – Charleston Road Registry, Inc.
- .ARE – Charleston Road Registry, Inc.
- .EST – Charleston Road Registry, Inc.
- .KSB – KSB Aktiengesellschaft
Objections
To date, no objections have been filed. As a quick refresher, objections are not the same thing as application comments. Objections must be filed directly with the relevant Dispute Resolution Service Providers. You can learn more about the difference between the two here, and more about the objection and dispute resolution process here.
REMINDER: Application Comment period ends soon
The official application comment period ends on 26 September. While the Application Comment Forum will remain open for the duration of the program, be sure to get your comments in by the 26th to ensure they reach the relevant evaluation panel.
Change Requests
We have received 57 application change requests.
We also posted the New gTLD Application Change Request Process and Criteria on the Customer Service page of the microsite. If you need to request a change, this is your guide for how to submit it and how it will be evaluated.
Clarifying Questions Pilot
The Clarifying Questions Pilot rolled out on 31 August. All the questions were in regards to technical and financial evaluation requirements. Over 40 applicants have volunteered to help ensure that the questions evaluators develop are clear, concise and consistent. They have until 23:59 UTC on 17 September to submit their answers.
Metering/Batching
We received over 100 comments on how to manage the metering of new gTLD applications, and we have posted a summary here: http://newgtlds.icann.org/meteringcomments [PDF, 446 KB]. These comments will be the basis for possible solutions for how to equitably meter top-level domains to the root zone. To gather more input, we have scheduled a public consultation webinar for 12 September at 12:00 UTC. Want to attend? Click here for instructions.
For more information on these topics and an update on evaluation progress, check out the Information Paper for Applicants: New gTLD Program Update [PDF, 294 KB]