I don’t update this blog very frequently, as I find myself quite busy with advisory and mentoring activities, but wanted to give a mega-update.
With the world in the ‘new normal’ of virtual meetings, webinars and zoom galore, a traveler like me has to slow down for a bit. I will be focusing on the continued interest in the MERGE conference (re-formatted to the new 2020 normal of virtual events), and my ICANN accredited registrar, and my new elected role within the ICANN Stakeholder Group executive committee, and co-chairing the Contracted Parties House (CPH – basically an acronym for Registries and Registrars) CPH Techops group with Marc Anderson from Verisign. I continue to do a lot of activity towards Universal Acceptance of TLDs and domain name advocacy.
I no longer hold the role of Executive Director with the Domain Name Association, where I had the privilege of working part time for the group of registries and registrars that shared my passion for elevating the domain name industry, DNS and top-level domain names. I was able to put it on an upward trajectory, but we opted to not renew my contract and instead migrate the association into the Internet Infrastructure Coalition where there are ample resources and a team of bright and well-connected technology thought leaders available to let the association continue in its important work.
I continue to contribute and work on GitHub to help maintain the Public Suffix List project, having helped ICANN’s SSAC with SAC070 and the ICANN OCTO with their documentation for TLD administrators on keeping their records up to date and understanding the benefits and drawbacks of how their listings are configured.
I have also been working with had the opportunity to help Page Howe launch https://thedomainshow.com and have been working with Arif from https://thedomainsocial.com to continue gatherings of like-minded technical enthusiasts that are developing domain names and capitalizing on the
I had the privilege to speak at the CENTR General Assembly in Pisa, to discuss the marketplace and how new TLDs can be assimilated into the marketplace via the registrar channel.
It may prove to be like taking a small sip from a fireplug with the number of applications coming, so potential applicants would benefit from taking a look at the presentation.
A few colleagues and I were musing about who the best European Registrars are for Europeans, and it was suggested to me that a poll might be in order to the 5 or 6 readers of my blog. Â
 Looking for feedback from the readers here, please pick the one that is most near and dear to you, and write one in if I missed it.
 auDA is releasing a list of reserved geographical names on October 21st.
According to the 2005 ballot, the names registered in the first 5 days will cost $825 (AU$ inc. GST) plus registrar’s registration fee. After the 5 day period, names will be charged $21.45 (AU$ inc. GST) plus the registrar’s registration fee.
Because of my tenure in the namespace market, I have the privilege of being a person that folks trust for open feedback on their TLD applications for the upcoming rounds next year.
I’ve heard or seen over 50 different pitches or business concepts at this point for new TLDs.
Some are great and have a ton of commercial appeal, some are not bad in that there is a good premise behind what they provide as an experience for the end user, and some are not going to get over a thousand registrations in their lifetime (and they’re good with that).
Lots of duplications…  Of the over 50 that I have seen, there’s 1 that I have seen 4 separate potential applicants for, 2 that I have seen triples of, and 9 that I have seen duplicates of, and the rest are individual strings.
Great minds think alike, and I am certain I have not seen every application out there.
I know most every registry platform, the various providers who outsource these capabilities, and technical requirements for resolution and registration services, and also understand the registrar channel well, because I have operated registries and registrars.
If you are a person could benefit from a chat, I’ll put it out there that I am discretely reviewing these on a pro-bono basis, and am glad to offer any feedback privately.
Jothan has been in the domain name industry since 1994, and has helped launch numerous registries, registrars, TLD consultancies and domain conferences, and is currently a consultant in the New Top Level Domain name field, with deep experience and contacts in the domain industry and ICANN arena.
