[ALAC] Fwd: ICANN News Alert -- New gTLD Batching Announcement

Thu Jun 7 13:40:06 UTC 2012

I think that the DA idea is a nightmare for a bunch of reasons, but 
my recollection is that Support Applicants are automatically being 
placed in the last batch, so I am not sure that ALAC has any real 
stake in this.

Avri - your recollection??

Alan

At 07/06/2012 06:51 AM, Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond wrote:
>Hello all,
>
>please find below, more information about the Digital Archery which will
>be used to batch new gTLD applications into batches of probably 500
>applications at a time. With a possible 2000 applications to process,
>some applications might only be processed much later than others and
>this "game" of Digital Archery will set applicants apart.
>Already several firms run by close ICANN insiders are proposing a paying
>service to "win" the Digital Archery using their automation service
>which they claim will ensure their client's applications are considered
>first. This means more sources of profit, but this also means that
>applications which were made possible by thanks to all of the work the
>community did to have Applicant Support, might be discriminated against
>since they will not be able to afford the automated digital archery
>winning service.
>
>Also, looking closely at the terms and conditions of "digital archery",
>(see video on
>http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/announcements-and-media/video/batching-demo
>at Time 2:37 mark) , applicants using the Digital Archery system agree
>legally that this is a contest of skill rather than a contest of chance.
>Clearly, with the Internet's differing delays depending on where you are
>located, and since digital archery system will be accurate to 100th
>second (as seen on the demo), it is *impossible* for anyone to display
>any kind of skill except by being physically at the data center itself.
>I remind you that delays on the Internet range from 3ms to 700ms or
>more, depending on where you are, since any satellite link will
>automatically induce between 300 to 700ms -- it is a physical
>propagation time needed. And these delays are jittery too.
>
>Is Digital Archery therefore allegedly a game of chance, not controlled
>by any kind of legal structure associated with games of chance, with
>open opportunities for cheating?
>
>There have been calls to the Board by some members in the ccNSO for
>Digital Archery *not* to be used and an alternative process to be
>followed, which may also involve *not* having any batching altogether.
>Others in the GNSO Council have also written to the Board about this,
>with similar findings or other alternative propositions.
>Should we support those comments?
>
>Alas, the Board correspondence page has its last entry on 21 May 2012
>and the correspondence which I have been CC'ed into was sent on June 4th
>and on June 6th but I have asked if those have already been published.
>
>With Digital Archery starting on June 8th, should the ALAC issue a
>statement on this ASAP?
>
>I'd be interested in your points of view.
>
>Kind regards,
>
>Olivier
>(the above message includes some of my own points of view)
>
>
>-------- Message original --------
>Sujet:  ICANN News Alert -- New gTLD Batching Announcement
>Date :  Wed, 06 Jun 2012 22:35:29 -0400
>De :    ICANN News Alert <communications at icann.org>
>Pour :  <ocl at gih.com>
>
>
>
>ICANN <http://www.icann.org/>
>
>
>     News Alert
>
>http://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-06jun12-en.htm
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>     New gTLD Batching Announcement
>
>6 June 2012
>
>Given the large number of new generic top-level domain (gTLD)
>applications, we will divide and evaluate them in batches. The batching
>system is targeted to open at 00:01 UTC on 8 June 2012, and will close
>at 23:59 UTC on 28 June 2012. The target date for posting the batching
>order is 11 July 2012.
>
>The batching process will be used to determine which applications will
>be processed in the first batch, the second batch and so on. It will be
>done by: assignment of a timestamp, and the formation of batches.
>
>/Timestamp assignments/ will be done using the TLD Application System
>(TAS). All applicants must use their TAS credentials to log in, read and
>accept the batching rules, indicate their batching preference, and
>select their target date and time. Once these steps are completed
>applicants should log back into TAS to hit the target time and generate
>a secondary timestamp. Users will have access to a testing feature to
>gauge the secondary timestamp system's response time.
>
>/Batching formation/ considers an applicant's: (1) batching preference,
>(2) geographic region and secondary timestamp; and (3) contention among
>identical and "similar" applications.
>
>     (1) Applicants stating a preference for "opting-out" will be placed
>     last.
>
>     (2) Geographic diversity is important in bringing more competition
>     and choice into the domain name market. Applicants who opted in will
>     be ranked within their geographic region (Africa, Asia-Pacific,
>     Europe, Latin America/Caribbean and North America) by their
>     secondary timestamp score. Then applications will be selected from
>     each ICANN region using a "round robin" approach. This approach
>     selects the best timestamp score from each region, one region at a
>     time, on a rotating basis. If a region runs out of opted-in
>     applications, the "round robin" continues across the remaining
>     regions. This process continues until the batch is formed, with the
>     opted-out applications last.
>
>     (3) ICANN will then make preliminary determinations of contention
>     sets based upon exact match. All applications in a single contention
>     set are placed into the batch where the earliest application in the
>     contention set is placed. Once the string similarity panel
>     establishes complete contention sets, "similar" strings might be
>     reassigned to an earlier batch. No applications will be demoted as a
>     result of the promotion of others. This could result in a batch
>     larger than 500.
>
>ICANN has taken care to provide a secure and stable platform for the
>batching system. Users will connect to the Citrix XenApp
>high-availability cluster and will then log into the batching system.
>Applicants will be required to agree to a set of Batching Rules,
>including an agreement that "ICANN reserves the right to delay an
>application to the last batch or to reject an application entirely if
>ICANN reasonably determines that the applicant abused the batching
>system or intentionally interfered with the performance of the system or
>any other applicant's use of the system."
>
>Along with this announcement ICANN is posting several additional
>resources to inform applicants about the batching process. These include
>a: set of frequently asked questions (FAQs), video demonstration, user
>guide, batching details and rules, and a batching basics fact sheet,
>which all can be found on the Batching information webpage at
>http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/applicants/tas/batching/. Information on
>security, infrastructure, and operations is also available in these
>materials.
>
>
>
>This message was sent to ocl at gih.com from:
>
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