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

Fri Jun 8 13:24:03 UTC 2012

Once again, I agree with Evan's points. This gambling habits (incl. manipulations) are childish, and the finance sector is a worst example for how this may devastate and ruin a world economy. If ICANN enters into such goofiness, it can only (further) damage its reputation. And the ITU-takeover lobbyists will get some more arguments that the existing model (ICANN) "is not reliable".

Best,
Wolf

Evan Leibovitch wrote Thu, 7 Jun 2012 11:22
>I really don't give a damn about the method of random selection of who gets
>in what batch, with one exception stated below. There are many less-gamable
>ways to do the selection, based on data that has already been collected.
>
>Here's one super simple example that most people on this list could
>implement (using open source software for maximum transparency):
>1) make a checksum of each received application document that is in the
>pool (and publish the list of checksums)
>2) create a random checksum (seeded by the moment Rod presses "Enter" at a
>public event staged for the purpose)
>3) Select the 500 applications whose checksums are numerically closest to
>the random one.
>
>The above example is far from perfect and anyone taking more than a minute
>or two could come up with something better, but even this is preferable to
>ICANN playing William Tell. It's transparent, and it eliminates the
>pool.comoffering since the batch choices are made based on
>pre-existing data that
>did not anticipate this process, and no further action on the applicant's
>part is necessary.
>
>Still.... to me this is a fight between applicants, and IMO there is little
>public interest in their competitive issues. My only concern is about the
>appearance that ICANN has chosen a process that service providers are
>claiming is game-able, and that appearance is damaging to ICANN's
>reputation.
>
>I agree with Olivier that simply because orgs are promising ways to game
>the system doesn't mean they can. Even a psychic can be correct on
>occasion. But it's the *appearance* that the system is so easily game-able
>that sends such a horrid message outside the ICANN bubble.
>
>So what is there for ALAC to say?
>
>ICANN in its (lack of) wisdom refused to consider the concept of
>categorizing applications before the fact, so the option of determining
>which subsets of applications are in the public interest is not available
>without starting the evaluation process. All we have is the "community"
>designation and IDNs. And ICANN has already said that applications
>requesting support won't be done in the first batch.
>
>Personally, I would limit any comment of ALAC's to
>1) Demand that community and IDN applications be given advanced priority as
>a matter of public benefit
>2) Repeat our warning of the bias against developing economies evidenced by
>the relegation of applications requesting support
>3) Note the damage to ICANN's reputation created by the choice of a
>selection method that can appear to be gamed
>
>- Evan
>
>
>
>
>On 7 June 2012 06:51, Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond <ocl at gih.com> 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:
>>
>> ICANN | 4676 Admiralty Way Suite 330 | Marina del Rey, CA 90292-6601
>>
>>
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>>
>>
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>
>
>
>-- 
>Evan Leibovitch
>Toronto Canada
>
>Em: evan at telly dot org
>Sk: evanleibovitch
>Tw: el56
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