Happy New Year to all!  As you know, we are rapidly anticipating the opening of the gTLD application process on Jan. 12th, and there are going to be no more delays!  As reported by .Nxt, the ICANN chairman, Steve Crocker, has indicated that while ICANN will meet at the board level this week, no delays are anticipated, nor limited rollouts, or new pilot programs.  It is full speed ahead for perhaps hundreds of new gTLDs, including the anticipated delegation of our own dotShop. 

This month Commercial Connect LLC will be in attendance at Retail's Big Show 2012 in NYC where our team will make a presentation to the Shop.org board on new gTLDs and dotShop.  We look forward to other opportunities at the event to discuss our approach and the future of dotShop with retailers.  If you are interested in a one-to-one meeting opportunity, please contact Founder Jeff Smith of Commercial Connect, regarding dotShop, by Jan. 14th at jsmith@dotshop.com.  

In addition, in late February, we anticipate launching educational webinars with Shop.org and the National Retail Federation to educate and inform on new gTLDs and the value of dotShop activity and related initiatives.   Stay tuned as the webinar calendar will be fine-tuned this month! 

Commercial Connect continues to welcome your support for our efforts toward delegation for dotShop, and invites you to show that support via our website here.   We encourage you to send a link to your friends who are shoppers and retailers of our website (www.dotshop.com) to generate interest.  We will be updating our website with a new information in a new interface by February, so visit often.

We welcome Chairman Emeritus of Shop.org Richard Last, our newest board member, to our dedicated efforts  and we will have a few more announcements in the weeks ahead on those supporting our mission and vision!

 

 

During a special meeting, the Board approved a plan to dramatically increase the number of Internet domain name endings -- called generic top-level domains (gTLDs) -- from the current 22, which includes such familiar domains as .com, .org and .net.

"ICANN has opened the Internet's naming system to unleash the global human imagination. Today's decision respects the rights of groups to create new Top Level Domains in any language or script. We hope this allows the domain name system to better serve all of mankind," said Rod Beckstrom, President and Chief Executive Officer of ICANN.

 

New gTLDs will change the way people find information on the Internet and how businesses plan and structure their online presence. Internet address names will be able to end with almost any word in any language, offering organizations around the world the opportunity to market their brand, products, community or cause in new and innovative ways.

 

"Today's decision will usher in a new Internet age," said Peter Dengate Thrush, Chairman of ICANN's Board of Directors. "We have provided a platform for the next generation of creativity and inspiration."

 

The decision to proceed with the gTLD program follows many years of discussion, debate and deliberation with the Internet community, business groups and governments. The Applicant Guidebook, a rulebook explaining how to apply for a new gTLD, went through seven significant revisions to incorporate more than 1,000 comments from the public. Strong efforts were made to address the concerns of all interested parties, and to ensure that the security, stability and resiliency of the Internet are not compromised.

 

ICANN will soon begin a global campaign to tell the world about this dramatic change in Internet names and to raise awareness of the opportunities afforded by new gTLDs. Applications for new gTLDs will be accepted from 12 January 2012 to 12 April 2012.

 

 

Points of Interest:

ICANN's Board of Directors is taking a special retreat, tentatively scheduled for September 2010, to try to sort out the remaining gTLD issues. This was publicly announced by Chairman Peter Dengate-Thrush and much discussed during the Brussels meeting. This shows that the Board is taking their task seriously and we can expect the final revisions very soon.

 

The ‘.XXX’ gTLD was approved and will be allowed to submit their application.

 

The Vertical Integration Policy Development Process (VI PDP) is not going to delay new gTLDs. That doesn't mean the results won't affect new gTLDs, but it's not going to slow things down.

 

The final shape of the applicant guidebook is becoming clear. Problems are visible in outline and in many cases in great detail. There are several efforts underway, including the Board retreat and various hurry-up working groups, to get the new gTLD program to the finish line and will hopefully do so at the next ICANN meeting in early December 2010 in Cartagena, Colombia.
 

Last Friday (6/25/2010) ICANN made the controversial decision to accept the application of the top level domain name .xxx.  The .xxx TLD was first introduced 6 years ago by ICM Registry to "provide a place online for adult entertainment providers and their service providers who want to be part of our voluntary self regulatory community," according to the company's own news release.

 

While many think that this could very well help organize the internet and provide a better filtering process making adult-content easier to block; others, including religious groups, think that it would give more legitimacy to the adult entertainment industry.  There is some speculation that this .xxx domain name could eventually be mandatory for any adult content based web site.

 

ICM has already taken over 110,000 pre-reservations for domain names.  They expect it to be up and running early 2011, if not sooner.

 

What are your thoughts?  If the '.xxx' TLD is approved and initiated, do you think this will provide for better regulation concerning pornography and the Internet?  Or will this only lead to more porn web sites and increased revenues for the porn industry?  Is this good or bad in your opinion?  Before you answer consider this: the pornography industry has larger revenues than Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo, Apple and Netflix combined.  Also, over 25% of search engine requests are porn related (for more interesting statistics about online pornography click here.)

 

 

The Commercial Connect, LLC and dotShop quest continues as the company sponsored the largest e-Commerce convention in the nation last week in Chicago, IL.  There were approximately 7,000 attendees as it was the show's largest year.  People from all over the world attended to see the lastest and greatest in e-Commerce.  dotShop did not disappoint with it's amazing booth and great staff.  Also attending were over 175 guest speakers from large companies such as Google and Amazon.  It was a great place for Commercial Connect to continue to promote dotShop and was overall a huge success.  We all had a blast and hope the next one will be bigger!  Not to mention Commercial Connect hosted and got to talk with Tony Little (yeah the Gazelle guy).

 

 

Check out more pics here