End­lich geht es bei ICANN wei­ter! Nach­dem das ICANN-Direk­to­ri­um heu­te den Vor­schlag für das umstrit­te­ne, weil auf­wen­di­ge und Spe­ku­lan­ten Vor­schub leis­ten­de, Vor­be­wer­bungs­ver­fah­ren (Expres­si­ons of Inte­rest, kurz EOI) abge­lehnt hat, kön­nen sich die ICANN-Mit­ar­bei­ter end­lich wie­der auf ihre Kern­auf­ga­be, näm­lich die Abar­bei­tung der letz­ten offe­nen Punk­te im Bewer­bungs­ver­fah­ren für die neu­en TLDs, konzentrieren.

Wir begrü­ßen die­se Ent­schei­dung aus­drück­lich und hat­ten uns dafür ein­ge­setzt. Das ICANN-Direk­to­ri­um schließt sich damit auch der Mei­nung der Regie­rungs­ver­tre­ter und Mar­ken­rech­te­inha­ber an.

Der Ori­gi­nal­text der Ent­schei­dung hier:

4. New gTLDs Imple­men­ta­ti­on – Sta­tus Report, and Con­side­ra­ti­on of Expres­si­ons of Inte­rest Proposal

Whe­re­as the ICANN Board pas­sed a reso­lu­ti­on in Seo­ul direc­ting ICANN staff to stu­dy the poten­ti­al impact of a call for for­mal “expres­si­ons of inte­rest”, and pro­vi­de a plan for Board con­side­ra­ti­on in Decem­ber 2009, inclu­ding pos­si­ble opti­ons and a risk ana­ly­sis rela­ting to a pro­po­sed action;

Whe­re­as ICANN staff pre­sen­ted an ana­ly­sis of the poten­ti­al bene­fits of an Expres­si­ons of Inte­rest (EOI) pro­cess, and deve­lo­ped a preli­mi­na­ry EOI pro­cess model for ICANN Board discussion;

Whe­re­as, the ICANN Board con­side­ra­ti­on of the model was defer­red until the Nai­ro­bi mee­ting to encou­ra­ge full deba­te on aspects of the pro­po­sed EOI model, con­sis­tent with advice from the GAC in its let­ter to ICANN dated 26 Janu­ary 2010;

Whe­re­as ICANN staff has recei­ved sub­stan­ti­al public com­ment on the EOI pro­po­sal, inclu­ding two public com­ment ses­si­ons and at the public forum at the 37 th Inter­na­tio­nal Mee­ting in Nai­ro­bi, with thoughtful and sub­stan­ti­al con­tri­bu­ti­ons regar­ding pro­cee­ding with an EOI and the pro­po­sed form of the EOI, rai­sing con­cerns both in sup­port of an in oppo­si­ti­on to pro­cee­ding with the EOI;

Whe­re­as, on 10 March 2010 the Govern­men­tal Advi­so­ry Com­mit­tee (GAC) issued the “GAC Com­mu­ni­qué – Nai­ro­bi” ques­tio­ning the bene­fits of pur­suing fur­ther a sepa­ra­te EOI as it could dis­tract atten­ti­on and resour­ces from fina­li­zing the New gTLD Program;

Whe­re­as, the Board has careful­ly con­side­red all public comm­ents recei­ved on the EOI;

Whe­re­as, the Board has deter­mi­ned that the poten­ti­al bene­fits of pro­cee­ding with an EOI were out­weig­hed by the cos­ts of poten­ti­al delay to the New gTLD Pro­gram, the lack of cer­tain­ty about the date when the over­ar­ching issues would be resol­ved to the satis­fac­tion of the Board, the con­se­quen­ti­al dif­fi­cul­ty of syn­chro­ni­zing the launch of the New gTLD Pro­gram with the pro­po­sed EOI, and pre­fer­ring to focus staff resour­ces on resol­ving the remai­ning issues; and

Whe­re­as, the staff and com­mu­ni­ty work on the issues out­stan­ding in the New gTLD Pro­gram con­ti­nue to progress.

Resol­ved (2010.03.12.14) the Board with­draws the Expres­si­ons of Inte­rest pro­po­sal from consideration.

Resol­ved (2010.03.12.15) the Board directs the CEO to con­ti­nue to work towards the launch of the New gTLD Program.

Resol­ved (2010.03.12.16) the Board thanks the com­mu­ni­ty for all of its work on the Expres­si­ons of Inte­rest pro­po­sal, inclu­ding the col­la­bo­ra­ti­ve com­mu­ni­ty work to initia­te the Board’s con­side­ra­ti­on of the proposal.

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