ICANN Approves Fresh TLD Program
ICANN board gives green light to fresh TLD program, but there’s still work to be done.
ICANN’s Board of Directors has approved the fresh top level domain name program to a round of applause in Singapore Monday morning, although there’s a lot of work still to be done.
The resolution approving the program provides for more discussion on various parts of the plan to roll out hundreds of fresh top level domain names. One of the big areas is registry-registrar cross ownership.
The plan is to start the communications period (read: marketing) for fresh top level domain names immediately, but not accept applications until January 12, 2012. The application period would end April 12, 2012 and initial evaluations will be published in November 2012. That means fresh TLDs might come online in 2013.
It seems that there are only a couple things that could derail these dates now: pressure from the U.S. government over the IANA contract or a lawsuit with an injunction.
