• In Focus
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December 2007

• ICANN has retained Deloitte Audit & Enterprise Risk Services from Belgium and Interisle Consulting Group from the United States to develop in detail important portions of the Request for Proposals (RFP) for the new gTLD process. These parties have begun work (at ICANN direction and using product developed by staff to date) on technical and business criteria, criteria for resolving confusing similarity, and development of a comparative evaluation process. (ICANN issued a Statement of Work on 6 September 2007 and received eleven expressions of interest and seven proposals from candidates in Australia, Europe, the Middle East, South America, and the United States. (21 December 2007)
• Draft standards and procedures have been developed for policy recommendations relating to resolving dispute arising from objections to proposed TLDs based on morality or public order, and legal rights of others. ICANN has engaged counsel from numerous international jurisdictions to inform the development of standards that could be applied to the GNSO recommendations and used by the Dispute Resolution Service Provider(s). It is anticipated that standards and procedures will be finalized in coordination with the selected Dispute Resolution Service Provider(s). (See ICANN’s call for expressions of interest from Dispute Resolution Provider(s) [PDF, 25K] (21 December 2007)
• ICANN staff has created the draft requirements document describing the program interface that will be developed in the coming months. The program interface is the web-based system to be used to receive and manage incoming applications. (21 December 2007)
• Collaboration on the global communications plan and strategy continues within cross-functional teams at ICANN. A draft communications plan to address GNSO implementation advice has been completed. (21 December 2007)
• ICANN has developed a draft position paper regarding the policy recommendation concerning DNS stability. ICANN expects to post the paper for public comment early 2008. (21 December 2007)

September 2007

• The Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) completed its policy development work on new gTLDs and approved a set of recommendations, by a supermajority vote, at its meeting on 6 September 2007 .