The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers (ICANN) published a revised schedule for the
migration of .org to its new owner Thursday evening, a
delay that poses problems with the registry’s current
and succeeding operators.
According to one of the bidders vying for ownership of
the popular domain extension, a lengthy delay in the
process could spell the end for many of the 11 bidders
seeking ownership on Jan. 1, 2003.
ICANN’s review committee missed a self-imposed
deadline when it failed to publish an initial report
Monday to the general public on the merits of the 11
competing .org bidders and whom it was considering as
VeriSign’s successor to the .org
registry business.
Instead, the report won’t be published until Aug. 19,
pushing back the date of a final decision by the ICANN
board of directors to late September.
According to Mary Hewitt, ICANN spokesperson, the many
ICANN members required to review the 11 applications
are causing the delay.
“There’s a lot of people who need to see it, and a lot
to read through,” she said. “It’s taken longer than
we anticipated.”
It seems everyone on the ICANN payroll, and even some
volunteers, are part of the process. There are four
separate teams looking at three different sets of
criteria for each applicant. Ostensibly, the ICANN
staff is conducting a general overview and integrating
the other team’s reports into one complete whole.
According to Jonathan Wales, president of bidding .org
company Register ORGanization, Inc., any more delay
puts a majority of the bidders out of contention for
the domain extension.
The time crunch comes from the contract signed between
ICANN and VeriSign, which ends Dec. 31. On Jan. 1,
2003, a new registry operator needs to be in place; if
ICANN’s replacement doesn’t have enough time to put
its operation in place, it could give VeriSign grounds
to renegotiate its existing deal.
It also opens the door for VeriSign to renegotiate on
its pledge to provide $5 million to the winning
registry to help pay for the migration. Though the
money isn’t given as a lump sum on day one, many of
the bidders are depending on the deferred payments to
get the business running.
Though Wales isn’t worried about his company, which
has more than enough funds to pay for the .org
migration, a majority of the other bidders don’t have
the money to get off the ground.
“Many applicants will have problems, because they
really need the time to work out how they are going to
run with (their business plan) and a majority need the
$5 million endowment from VeriSign,” he said.
“Without that $5 million, they don’t have the funding
to even start the process.”
VeriSign officials had no comment on the
“hypothetical” situation of renegotiating on its .org
contract by press time.
ICANN has been reviewing .org proposals for the past
couple months. The original deadline for applications
ended June 18, with applicants making presentations at
ICANN’s Bucharest meeting June 26. The applicants had
15 minutes to prove to officials they met the criteria
for:
- Preserving a stable, well-functioning .org
registry and a game plan for migrating more than 2.7
million domain owners. - the ability to comply with ICANN policies.
- enhancing registrar competition.
- meeting and promoting the needs of the
established, non-commercial interests of the Internet
community (in recent years, .org has become the de
facto extension for non-profit organizations and
associations). - matching or improving the current level of .org
services.
