Minds + Machines

The current version of ICANN’s draft Application Guidebook (currently in Draft 2, awaiting Draft 3) allows an applicant for a new gTLD to choose whether they want to be considered as a Community or an Open TLD. An Open TLD is completely open to anyone, without any restrictions. .COM is an example of an open TLD.

To qualify as a Community TLD, you must pass some tests. Most qualifications concern the TLD sponsoring organization(s) and or the requirements placed upon potential registrants. A perfect example of a Community TLD is the .ECO TLD. They have obtained a flood of strong community support from a number of environmental organizations, individuals and supporting organizations such as the Surfrider Foundation, the Sierra Club, and most notably Al Gore and the Alliance for Climate Protection. (Disclaimer: .ECO is a Minds + Machines customer.) .ECO will be somewhat restrictive in its allocations and qualifications to register. For example, corporations with horrific track records on pollution and environmental destruction will not be able to register.

ICANN’s current draft of the Applicant Guidebook indicates that a Community TLD will trump an Open TLD applicant trying for the same name. Does that mean you should always file as a community? Not necessarily.

ICANN has set up a point system for deciding whether an application qualifies as a Community TLD. One must score very high to be considered as a community TLD, and part of that qualification means creating a restrictive process for registrations or qualifications. These barriers to entry may mean lower registration numbers, and there may be additional fields that a registrar needs to capture in their registration process — which makes them less likely to want to offer the TLD.

There are three really good reasons to file as an Open TLD instead of as a community. First and foremost, you might not actually be a community — .ADULT, for instance, really can’t be considered a community. The other reason is that once you set the restrictions on applications that help you qualify as a community, you have to stick with them. You can’t file as a community, limit registrations to a particular community, then change the rules to let everyone register. Finally, an Open TLD might attract more registrations because there are no restrictions. There are many who view Open TLDs as more attractive commercially.

In deciding whether to file as a Community TLD or an Open TLD, you need to balance commercial viability against your application’s chances for success.

In a marketplace where registrars are going to have to make choices as to which of the TLDs they offer, those that are simplest are more likely to appeal to them. They will make exceptions for popular domains, such as .ECO. That said, if a registrar can easily implement a TLD that (from an implementation perspective) is a clone of .COM, they are more likely to do so. Therefore, Open TLDs may be more widely adopted by registrars.

Most of the potential applicants that I’ve seen describe their key metric of success as wide adoption and use of their TLD. Picking the right focus, Open or Community, will be an important decision.