Blog: Minds + Machines news

Minds + Machines is a sponsor of the Trademarks and the Internet conference put on by the International Trademark Association (INTA) in Washington DC this coming week on Wednesday and Thursday (September 21st and 22nd).

New program and pricing for brands

We will be introducing a new program for brand owners who have decided to apply for a new gTLD. Features include:

• Emphasis on a complete partnership. We’ll handle the entire gTLD process, from application to operation, from ICANN questions to technical implementation, without passing you off to other consultants or technical providers.
• Reasonable flat-rate pricing, making it easy to plan, and easy to expand.
• Brand-friendly workflow once you’re up and running, making it easy to ensure that your internal registration policies are followed.
• Expert advice. Did you know that members of our team have handled the domain portfolios of many of the world’s largest companies? (Complete list upon request).
• Do you work with a favorite registrar? We work with them too. Our registry platform is connected with all major registrars, including Mark Monitor, CSC, and others. You won’t have to switch anything if you don’t want to.
• Do you want a private, fully ICANN-compliant registrar for internal use? We supply one as part of the package. We’ll help you get accredited and provide you with a complete registrar solution.

We expect that the conference will be very interesting, with lots of different points of view. ICANN Chairman Steve Crocker will be a speaker, as will many members of ICANN’s Intellectual Property Constituency, along with other prominent IP lawyers.

If you’re going to be at the INTA show, please find us on the floor or at a session. Everyone at the conference will be carrying a very handsome bag with a Minds + Machines logo, but we will be the ones wearing the distinctive Minds + Machines lapel pin.

See you at INTA, and watch this space!

I’m very pleased to report that Minds + Machines’ parent company, Top Level Domain Holdings, Ltd., today appointed Peter Dengate Thrush, former Chairman of ICANN, as its Executive Chairman.

Here’s the TLDH press release in full:

Peter Dengate Thrush appointed as Executive Chairman of TLDH

The Directors of Top Level Domain Holdings Limited (AIM: TLDH.L), the only publicly traded company focused exclusively on acquiring and operating new generic top-level domains (“gTLD”), are delighted to announce that Mr Peter Dengate Thrush has been appointed Executive Chairman of the Company with immediate effect. Mr Dengate Thrush was until recently the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (“ICANN”), where in June 2011 he led the ICANN Board to approve the programme to create new gTLDs. (more…)

Last week, we put out a press release announcing new pricing for top-level domain registry services. We called it “revolutionary.” Really?

The Internet revolution proclaimed by ICANN last week will only happen if there are enough cool, useful, or experimental TLDs to justify the mantra of choice and innovation that accompanied the approval of new gTLD program. If it’s more of the same old mush, it’ll be like television: lots of channels, repetitive programming, stuffed with ads.

For the TLD space to flourish, we’re going to need some inventors. And yet a variety of impediments conspire to keep innovators out, including a steep entry fee, a scary application, and hordes of consultants emphasizing every difficulty in order to get their price up.

It all looks very complicated and expensive from the outside. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Yes, it’s daunting, but so is going to college, or going on a date, things that people do it all the time. Getting a TLD is possible for anyone with intelligence, energy — and money. The ICANN pricing is fixed; the price for registry services and consulting is variable. That’s why reasonable, clear, predictable pricing for registry services may be the difference between the difference between a starting a great new TLD and walking away.

In the end it’s the cost of new gTLDs — not the complexity — that will deter smart and determined people. The 350-page applicant guidebook is (with effort) understandable; the ICANN acronyms are learnable; the application fillable. Except for the technical portion, every part of the ICANN application can be completed by anyone with decent business experience and a willingness to read and absorb the guidebook and accompanying materials. There will be a free support system: ICANN has a whole team set up to answer questions, and all the questions will be public, so that you can learn from other people’s queries.

We can’t change the ICANN fee, and we can’t tell other service providers what to charge. But what we can do is take away a big question mark for applicants: how much will I be paying for registry services?

For a flat annual fee of $100,000, you can register as many names as you like, and we’ll also provide you with the answers to the technical part of the application. For the smart determined entrepreneur, that may be 90% of the battle. And if you fit our criteria for disadvantaged applicants, our annual fee is only $50,000.

So why is Minds + Machines doing this? Simple: we want to lead the market to more rational pricing. We know that many small ccTLDs are run simply and efficiently, and that this is possible in the new gTLD world as well. We think we’ll get more customers with reasonable, user-friendly pricing. Finally, because although registry service providers must operate to a high standard of reliability, the services are in the end automated and therefore should be cheaper in scale: the same dynamic that we see in all other parts of the Internet. We don’t think that charging high prices by making registry services sound as if they’re some kind of esoteric magic is a sustainable business model.

Minds + Machines, as well as the entire top-level domain space, will do better with more choice and innovation among new gTLDs. And a lot of that depends on price. Is our pricing revolutionary? If it helps create more choice and more innovative gTLDs, then it is.

While new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) wait for ICANN to announce an application date, country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs) continue to migrate in large numbers to CoCCA, the registry software system which shares a codebase with Minds + Machines’ Espresso registry system.

Dot Masr, the Arabic-script ccTLD for Egypt, successfully deployed today on the CoCCA system. The National Telecom Regulatory Authority of Egypt (NTRA) has deployed its production domain name registry system for Egypt’s internationalized domain name country-code top-level domain (IDN ccTLD).

Egypt joins Kenya (.ke), Madagascar (.mg), Mauritius (.mu), Nigeria (.ng), Cameroon (.cm), Mozambique (.mz) , Namibia (.na), Egypt ASCII (.eg) and several other African countries in deploying the CoCCA registry system. In the second quarter of 2010 alone, six ccTLDs have migrated to CoCCA: Greenland (.gl), Guernsey (.gg), Jersey (.je), Palestine (.ps); and American Samoa (.as) will be migrating to CoCCA. By a wide margin, CoCCA is the most widely deployed top-level domain registry system in the world, supporting over 30 ccTLDs.

Today Top Level Domain Holdings, Ltd., Minds + Machines’ parent company, issued a statement summarizing our view of the progress at ICANN. The full text is included below:

The Board of TLDH announces that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (“ICANN”) has now released the fourth version of the Draft Applicant Guidebook for generic top-level domains (“gTLDs”). This is in line with the decision reached by ICANN’s Board of Directors at its Nairobi meeting in March where it resolved to focus on the full introduction of gTLDs later this year rather than implement an intermediate step by adoption of the expressions of interest/pre-registrations proposal.

As reported by ICANN staff during the Nairobi meeting, the draft guidebook is expected to be the last draft before the final guidebook which is expected to be published in October / November 2010, according to ICANN’s project plan. The new draft guidebook includes an expanded role for public comments on gTLD applications, as well as incorporating various measures to protect intellectual property as proposed by ICANN participants.

The new draft guidebook keeps in place the strict separations of cross-ownership and control between registries and registrars, placing significant barriers in front of registrars who wish to start new top-level domains. If this restriction remains in the final guidebook, the Board of TLDH believes that a number of potential competitors will find it difficult or impossible to enter the market. TLDH is unaffected by this policy and the Board of TLDH therefore expects that TLDH will benefit from this continuing separation between registrars and registries.

ICANN has also released other supporting documents in relation to the proposed gTLD application process, including a budget for the new generic top-level domain review process. The budget document is based on ICANN’s assumptions that there will be 500 gTLD applications, of which 5 per cent are assumed to fail the initial evaluation and a further 5 per cent are assumed to request voluntary partial refunds. Accordingly, ICANN’s budget assumes that 90 per cent. of all applications will proceed to either successful delegation, or in the case of conflicting applications, to an auction or other tie-breaking resolution.

The other few and mostly small changes in the new draft guidebook suggest that there is near-consensus among ICANN and industry participants and governments and that the application guidebook is near completion.

TLDH remains well-positioned to move forward with its plans for new top-level domains. The next meeting of ICANN will be held in Brussels from June 20 – 25. TLDH and its operating subsidiary, Minds + Machines LLC, will be participating in the ICANN meeting and will provide a further update following that meeting.

Minds + Machines’ parent company, Top Level Domain Holdings (AIM: TLDH), today sent out a press release summarizing our take on the recent ICANN Nairobi meeting from the TLDH perspective. The full text follows:

On Friday, 12 March 2010, at a meeting in Nairobi of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (“ICANN”), ICANN’s Board of Directors clarified and progressed further the framework for the introduction of generic top level domains (“gTLDs”).

The ICANN Board resolved that there should be no cross-ownership between domain name registries and registrars. This prohibition will prevent existing ICANN-accredited registrars from owning or operating new gTLDs, thus limiting the number of prospective applicants. This continues a trend of increasing the barriers to application for non-experts as ICANN adds additional requirements and restrictions to the framework for the introduction of gTLDs. TLDH is unaffected by this policy and the Board of TLDH therefore expects that TLDH will benefit from this continuing separation between registrars and registries.

The ICANN Board also resolved that ICANN should focus on the full introduction of gTLDs later this year rather than implement an intermediate step by adoption of the Expressions of Interest/Pre-Registrations Proposal. The ground rules for application for new gTLDs are expected to be published by early summer 2010. Accordingly, as ICANN approaches the point where it will be able to proceed with full applications, the Expressions of Interest (“EoI”) program becomes unnecessary. ICANN staff reported during the Nairobi meeting that the next draft of the Draft Applicant Guidebook, expected to be issued in June, will be near final, and subject only to a final comment period.

While we were supportive of the EoI proposal, we welcome ICANN’s focus that the main objective should be to speed up the gTLD process, and the intermediate step of EoIs is unnecessary if ICANN is close to resolving the final details prior to the launch of new gTLDs.

With our substantial cash resources, low operating costs and our significant interests in prospective applicants for .eco, .nyc, .berlin, .bayern and .gay amongst others, and also with the restriction on competition that has been placed on existing registrars, we believe that TLDH is well positioned ahead of the start of the gTLDs application and award process.

Following the ICANN Board meeting, Rod Beckstrom, ICANN’s chief executive, provided further details on the gTLD process, which is available on-line at http://bit.ly/buru8z.

We are proud to announce the launch of Dot Cities, a resource for cities (or states, or regions, or provinces) who are thinking about launching a new TLD.

We’re providing what we hope is a fairly full slate of information for city managers to help them decide what they need to do to go forward:

• List of existing city projects
• How to determine if a city or region can support a TLD
• Information on the application process, and the special rules for cities
• Information on how to choose a registry provider, including an RFP guide
• Costs and benefits of a city TLD
• A collection of resources, including ICANN links, market research links, and sample support and non-objection letters

The site has already received some good reviews. Please let us know what you think, and how we can improve things.

New York City announced that it will seek the .NYC web address, making it the first U.S. city to seek a top-level domain. New York City now joins Barcelona, Berlin, London, Paris and Rome as a global city applying for its own web address.

Paul J. Cosgrave, the Commissioner of New York City’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT), announced New York City’s intention to apply for the .NYC top-level domain from ICANN. The .NYC effort has enjoyed long-time support from City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn and from its earliest champion, Council Member Gale A. Brewer, Chair of the Council’s Technology in Government Committee. They all testified to the benefits of the new .NYC top-level domain for the businesses, organizations, and residents of New York City.

Former Mayor Ed Koch, who supports the dotNYC effort to operate .NYC on the city’s behalf, said on video: “.NYC is the best real estate deal since the Dutch bought Manhattan.”

dotNYC LLC, a private company that for the last year has been meeting with city officials about the plan for .NYC, is applying to become the city’s operating partner, working with Minds + Machines. dotNYC LLC congratulated the City in a press release about .NYC:

… .NYC will allow New York city residents, businesses, groups, government agencies and tourist attractions to register website names and have email addresses ending in .NYC – directly identifying themselves with the world’s leading city. Examples include: theater.nyc, pizza.nyc, blockparty.nyc, statueofliberty.nyc, yourname.nyc, yourbusinessname.nyc and millions more.

The story was covered in depth by the New York Post under the title City sets its sites on ‘.nyc’ Web domain. The Post called .NYC “the 21st-century equivalent of the 212 area code.” The Post article continues:

New York City is on the verge of getting its very own Internet domain that will give area Web sites the option of putting an “.nyc” rather than a “.com” at the end of their addresses…. New York City is the first American city to announce its intention to land its very own top-level domain…. Officials believe the domain will give New York City businesses a leg up and also generate much-needed revenue for city coffers.

Commissioner Cosgrave talked about how .NYC will make it easier to access information:

Each day the Internet serves as an essential tool in the lives of an increasing number of New Yorkers, helping inform the ways they live, learn and play. Through .nyc, we hope to make the search for New York City-related content easier than ever by providing individuals, organizations, non-profits and others a chance to own a virtual piece of the greatest city in the world.”

Speaker Quinn spoke about the impact of the NYC brand on the Internet:

A top-level City needs a top level domain, that’s why finding a partner to join the City in making .nyc a reality for small businesses in New York is vitally important. Once the .nyc program is launched, local business owners will be able to uniquely associate themselves and their business with their home, and the NYC brand.

Council Member Brewer talked about the impact on small businesses:

New York City, like many of its global competitors, plans to apply for a top level domain name. I hope that this TLD will assist local merchants based in New York City to be able to brand their businesses as located in the five boroughs. The small business community is a vital part of the New York City economy and any opportunity to increase their exposure while facilitating easy searching online is a step forward. I applaud the Mayor for applying for .nyc and I look forward to seeing this TLD attached to my local bakery or dry cleaner.

New York City municipal leaders, elected and appointed, clearly understand the benefits of the .NYC top-level domain for the City, and have spoken out unequivocally. This important announcement should prompt other cities, and businesses, to start thinking seriously about their own top-level domain strategy.

Minds + Machines has been selected to provide registry services by Bayern Connect GmbH, which is pursuing the .BAYERN top-level domain name for Bavaria. We are delighted to be chosen by this very strong applicant.

The press release from Bayern Connect quotes CEO Caspar von Veltheim:

“We need a strong and stable technical infrastructure to take our place among existing top-level domains,” said von Veltheim. “We are therefore using the Espresso platform, which powers over a dozen country-code top-level domains, is used by ICANN worldwide to demonstrate security best practices, and can deliver domain names for Bavarians at a fraction of the cost of other solutions.”

Bayern Connect’s choice of Minds + Machines to provide registry services is a natural evolution of our increasingly close relationship with CEO Caspar von Veltheim, who has also agreed to serve as Director of Minds + Machines Germany. In addition to the technical expertise provided by Minds + Machines, Bayern Connect has secured funding from Top Level Domain Holdings, Minds + Machines’ parent company.

Bayern Connect has already presented its project to the Bavarian State Government, and has the support of major Bavarian businesses and institutions, as well as important cultural figures. Prince Leopold von Bayern, a long-time advocate for the preservation of Bavarian traditions, is serving as Senior Advisor. “With .BAYERN, Bayern Connect will give Bavaria a home on the virtual Internet,” said the Prince.

Responding to concerns from intellectual property owners, Bayern Connect is being advised by Dr. Andreas Schulz, a prominent intellectual property attorney. “Trademark owners are entitled to a fair and transparent system by which the domain names are allocated. I will help Bayern Connect develop policies that will assure this,” said Dr. Schulz.

As a Bavarian business, Bayern Connect will donate a substantial portion of the annual registration revenues to Bavarian charities and cultural organizations. “Bavarians will make .BAYERN succeed, and therefore we will give back to Bavaria,” said von Veltheim. Bayern Connect GmbH is based in Munich.

UPDATE Oct. 7, 2009 — It has been brought to my attention that there is an inaccuracy in one of the quotes from Caspar von Veltheim in the blog post above. ICANN does not and has not used Espresso to demonstrate security practices. In fact, ICANN itself doesn’t demonstrate anything. Instead, they work with a company called DeltaRisk, which used an older version of the CoCCA registry software (upon which Espresso and Espresso CC are based) for the demonstrations.

This summer the number of registrars on the Espresso CC platform, jointly developed by CoCCA Registry Services and Minds + Machines, has steadily grown with the migration of several ccTLDs onto the platform.

Recent grants from Minds + Machines have enabled the development of several gTLD desired features including: one-step EPP server, WHOIS server and key retrieval configuration; transfer activity reporting; one-click database back up; banded volume discount settings, and many other easy-to-use features for TLD operators.

The Espresso system is EPP-compliant; supports IPV6, ENUM, DNSSEC; allows shadowed domains to combat botnet attacks such as Conficker; enables IDNs (internationalized domain names); and supports and multiple language files (15 so far) allowing registrars to manage their accounts in their native language.

Minds + Machines, as CoCCA’s partner, is offering a fully ICANN-compliant version of Espresso for new generic top-level domains in 2010. CoCCA (the Council of Country Code Administrators) is a member-owned organization that provides services to ccTLD operators. CoCCA began as a cooperative of three ccTLD operators, .CX (Christmas Island), .GS (South Georgia), and .NF (Norfolk Island) on a quest to build a better registry platform and to share resources as a way of achieving economies of scale. The more members, the less each has to contribute toward development, attorney fees, and infrastructure. In four years CoCCA has grown 700% , with twenty-one members now sharing resources using world-class EPP technology.

On behalf of its members, CoCCA accredits registrars that agree to follow best-practice recommendations in the registry-registrar-registrant business model. We warmly welcome the most recently approved registrars, who are now able to offer to their customers registrations in CoCCA member TLDs.

Here are the newly-accredited registrars, in alphabetical order. Welcome!

• 3w Media GmbH
  
  




• Bizcn.com, Inc.
  
  




• Blacknight Internet Solutions
  







• BRS Media, Inc.
  







• cctldnames
  







• Communigal
  







• Cybernaptics Ltd.







• DomainClub.com
  
  







• DomainersChoice
  







• Domain Monster
  







• Domain The Net Technologies
  







• Domaine.fr
  







• Enom
  







• Entorno Digital S.A.
  









• Gandi SAS
  







• Larsen Data
  







• Maridan Internet
  







• Moniker
  
  







• Networking4all
  







• Niceweb.eu
  







• NovaGroup
  







• Oxwell
  







• Register.eu
  







• Reg.Net.ua
  







• Todaynic.com, Inc.
  







• Web Solutions ApS
  







• Webworkers Internet Consultants
  







• Xin Net Technology