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

Mon Jun 18 18:18:56 UTC 2012

This new post justifies my original unease and adds to that evolved from
the Kinderis letter.

But other than question the equity of the thing - not to mention the kinda
dumb attempt to sell this DA as more than a lottery  + the services being
advertised to 'game' DA - I'm not sure the ALAC has much of a dog in this
race.

Somebody will sue....

- Carlton

==============================
Carlton A Samuels
Mobile: 876-818-1799
*Strategy, Planning, Governance, Assessment & Turnaround*
=============================

On Tue, Jun 12, 2012 at 10:30 PM, Alan Greenberg
<alan.greenberg at mcgill.ca>wrote:

> For those who haven't already read it, see Antony Van Couverings
> CircleID post from last Sunday -
>
> http://www.circleid.com/posts/0120610_biggest_glitch_of_all_icanns_batching_program_for_new_gtlds/
>
>
> 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:
> >
> >ICANN | 4676 Admiralty Way Suite 330 | Marina del Rey, CA 90292-6601
> >
> >
> >
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> >
> >
> >
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