.TO Relaunched As Option For Toronto

A canny marketing idea for the .to ccTLDs sees it being pushed as an alternative for residents and businesses in Toronto in the same way that .la has been geared towards Los Angeles

A canny marketing idea for the .to ccTLDs sees it being pushed as an alternative for residents and businesses in Toronto in the same way that .la has been geared towards Los Angeles.

The .to ccTLD is for the Kingdom of Tonga located deep in the Pacific with a population of 106,000 meaning that Tongans are unlikely to make a high demand on its domains.

And while registrations of .to domains have been available to registrants worldwide since 1995, it is only now that Tonic, the registry operator, has pushed .to as an alternative for Toronto.

The ccTLD is also getting in early ahead of the release of new gTLDs, although there was no application for .toronto.

“Comparatively  speaking, .TO is wide open”, observed Eric Lyons, of Tonic – the .TO registry operator in a news release. “There are thousands of generic keywords and highly brandable names available for registration that are already taken under .COM or .CA”

“It’s basically a one-stop shop for getting a business, a portal or a call-to-action page online”, added easyDNS CEO Mark Jeftovic. “We’ll do all the heavy lifting for you technically and all you have to do is say the word ‘go'”.

ICANN: CEO to Prioritise Agreement with Registrars and Establishment of Trademark Clearing House

[ICANN news release] ICANN President and Chief Executive Officer, Fadi Chehadé says he is prioritising efforts to reach a resolution with domain name registrars in the on-going negotiations to achieve a Registrar Accreditation Agreement.

[ICANN news release] ICANN President and Chief Executive Officer, Fadi Chehadé says he is prioritising efforts to reach a resolution with domain name registrars in the on-going negotiations to achieve a Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA).Chehadé said he will also become personally involved in ICANN’s efforts to establish a Trademark Clearing House prior to the introduction of new generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) in 2013.”I’m going to be inserting myself personally in both these issues,” said Chehadé. “I’ve already discussed this with the community and there’s frankly universal agreement that if I participate personally in these activities, I could help us come to hopefully reasonable conclusions that we can all bank on in moving forward to next year and with the new gTLDs”The chief executive made the comments during a video interview at the close of the organisation’s 45th public meeting in Toronto. 1,800 People from around the world registered for the meeting, making it the second largest in ICANN history.The meeting began only a few days after ICANN announced a plan to use a draw, or drawing, to determine which gTLD applications would be prioritised. This system would be used as a way to equitably schedule the release of initial evaluation results, pre-delegation testing, and contract execution.When asked to characterise the reaction he had received to the plan for a draw Chehadé said, “There is a collective sigh of relief that we have a mechanism that is equitable, that is fair, that is very transparent and simple in many ways and which allows us to move forward.”During the same video interview, Board Chair Dr. Stephen Crocker said his take-away from the Toronto meeting was “progress across every front.”ICANN’s next public meeting will be 7-11 April 2012 in Beijing.
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To view the video interview with the CEO and Board Chair, go here: www.icann.org/en/news/press/kits/toronto45/video-post-meeting-19oct12-en.htm

Pre-Toronto ICANN Policy Update Webinar Invitation

ICANN logoWhether you plan to participate in the upcoming ICANN meeting in Toronto remotely or in person, you’re invited to an update on the background and current status of each major policy issue currently under discussion in ICANN

ICANN logoWhether you plan to participate in the upcoming ICANN meeting in Toronto remotely or in person, you’re invited to an update on the background and current status of each major policy issue currently under discussion in ICANN.

The ICANN Policy Staff will provide a briefing on Thursday 4 October at 12.00 UTC and Thursday 4 October at 19.00 UTC, summarizing policy issues across the different ICANN Supporting Organizations, namely the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO), Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO) and Address Supporting Organization (ASO). Amongst other topics, updates will be provided on:

  • Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy
  • WHOIS
  • RAA Improvements
  • Protection of International Organization Names
  • Consumer Choice, Competition and Innovation
  • Study Group on Use of Names for Countries and Territories
  • Framework of Interpretation Working Group for the delegation and re-delegation of ccTLDs
  • Joint DNS Security and Stability Analysis Working Group
  • Participation and Engagement activities in Toronto

In addition, staff will provide a briefing on the ALAC‘s activities related to current policy development issues of the Supporting Organizations.

The two sessions are duplicates, scheduled to accommodate different time zones. Each session, scheduled to run for 90 minutes, will be conducted in English only. The meeting will be run in Adobe Connect with a slide presentation along with a dial-in conference bridge for audio.

Participants will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of each session. During the course of the webinar, questions may be submitted using the chat function of Adobe Connect. If you are not able to participate in either of the live sessions, the recording of the session will be made available shortly after the meeting. The policy staff is always available to answer any questions that you email to policy-staff@icann.org.

In order to participate, please RSVP via email to the GNSO Secretariat (gnso.secretariat@gnso.icann.org) to receive the call details. Please indicate which call you would like to join, Thursday at 12.00 UTC or Thursday at 19.00 UTC (to convert those times into your local time, see: www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedform.html). We will send you an e-mail reminder before the event with log-in and dial-in details. Please DO NOT RSVP to any other ICANN staff members e-mail address.

In order to participate, please RSVP via email to the GNSO Secretariat (gnso.secretariat@gnso.icann.org) to receive the call details.

This ICANN announcement was sourced from:
www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-07sep12-en.htm

ICANN: Hotel Booking Links Now Open for 2012 Meetings in Prague and Toronto

ICANN Prague meeting logoICANN recently opened the hotel booking link and conference registration link for its upcoming 44th public meeting to be held 24-29 June 2012 in Prague, Czech Republic at the Hilton Prague Hotel. Additional information about the meeting, as well as ICANN group hotel rates is now available on the Prague Meeting Website

ICANN Prague meeting logoICANN recently opened the hotel booking link and conference registration link for its upcoming 44th public meeting to be held 24-29 June 2012 in Prague, Czech Republic at the Hilton Prague Hotel. Additional information about the meeting, as well as ICANN group hotel rates is now available on the Prague Meeting Website.

ICANN‘s 45th public meeting will be held 14-19 October 2012 in Toronto, Canada at The Westin Harbour Castle Toronto Hotel. ICANN group hotel rates are available. Reservations can now be made through the ICANN Meetings Website.

More information about supporting hotels, transportation, and the meeting agenda for both Prague and Toronto will be posted as it becomes available.

ICANN meetings are held three times each year in different regions of the globe to enable attendees from around the world to participate in person. These meetings are free for anyone who wishes to attend, and offer a variety of sessions such as workshops, open forums, and working meetings on the development and implementation of Internet policies.

We also offer several tools for remote participation such as streaming live audio and video, chatrooms, and online question boxes.

This ICANN announcement was sourced from:
www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-2-03apr12-en.htm

ICANN October 2012 Meeting To Be Held in Toronto, Canada

For those wanting to plan ahead, ICANN have announced their meeting to be held in October 2012 will be held in Toronto, Canada.

For those wanting to plan ahead, ICANN have announced their meeting to be held in October 2012 will be held in Toronto, Canada.The announcement skips meetings scheduled for October 2011 (Africa), March 2012 (Latin America) and June 2012 (Europe), all of which have not had their locations announced to date.The meeting in Toronto will be held from 14 to 19 October and hosted by the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA).The meeting will be held at the Westin Harbour Castle Hotel. Additional details will be posted on the ICANN Meetings website in the coming weeks.