.ASIA Sunrise & Registrar Accreditation.ASIA Sunrise & Registrar Accreditation

Registrar Constituency, March 27, 2007, ICANN Lisbon

Leona CHEN leona@dotasia.org

Ching CHIAO chiao@dotasia.org

Edmon CHUNG edmon@dotasia.org

OverviewOverview

• The DotAsia Organisation• Sunrise Policies• Target Launch Schedule• Registrar Accreditation Process• Marketing Brief

The DotAsia OrganisationThe DotAsia Organisation

• The Sponsoring Organisation / Registry Operator of .ASIA sTLD– Not-for-profit bottom-up community-based

organisation incorporated in Hong Kong

– “Owned” by Pan-Asia and Asia Pacific Internet community:

• Sponsor Members: ccTLDs in AP Region (20 members currently)

• Co-sponsor Members: Regional based Internet/IT/Telecom groups and other relevant community organizations (3 members currently: APNIC, APNG and PAN)

Current Sponsor Members (20 ccTLDs)Current Sponsor Members (20 ccTLDs)• .AF - Afghanistan Network

Information Center (AFGNIC)• .BT - Bhutan Communications

Authority• .CN - China Internet Network

Information Center (CNNIC)• .ID - Country Code Top Level

Domain Indonesia (ccTLD-ID)• .IN - .IN ccTLD Registry, India• .IR - .IR ccTLD Registry, Iran• .JP - Japan Registry Service Co.,

Ltd. (JPRS)• .KH - .KH, Cambodia• .KR - Korea Network Information

Center (KRNIC)• .KZ - Kazakhstan Network

Information Center• .MN - .MN ccTLD Registry,

DataCom Co., Ltd., Mongolia

• .MO - Macau Network Information Center (MONIC)

• .NU - Internet Users Society - Niue (IUSN)

• .NZ - The Internet Society of New Zealand (InternetNZ)

• .PH - PH Domain Foundation, Philippines

• .SG - Singapore Network Information Centre (SGNIC)

• .TJ - Information Technology Center, .TJ ccTLD Manager, Tajikistan

• .TW - Taiwan Network Information Center (TWNIC)

• .UZ - Computerization and Information Technology Developing Center, .UzInfoCom., .UZ ccTLD

• .VN - Vietnam Internet Network Information Center (VNNIC)

GovernanceGovernance

• Board of Directors– 11 members

• 8 sponsors (ccTLDs)• 2 co-sponsors (regional organisations)• 1 CEO

• Advisory Council– 1 representative from each co-sponsor– Other experts appointed by the Board

• Proceeds Steering Committee– appointed by Board– selects community projects to fund for surplus

proceeds and special allocations

Some History (2000-2006)Some History (2000-2006)• 2000: first discussion about an Asia focused TLD at ccTLD

meetings• 2002: 2 Initiatives were started (merged into one in early 2004)• Dec 2003: ICANN sTLD RFP• Feb 2004: Formal and Informal Discussions at APRICOT, AP*,

APTLD, APNG, etc.• Mar 2004: ICANN Rome informal gathering• Mar 2004: Submission of proposal to ICANN• July 2004: Inaugural Board meeting at ICANN Kuala Lumpur• Mar 2005: 1st Informal meeting with GAC members from AP (Mar

del Plata)• Jun 2005: GAC Chair and Secretariat assists in formally contacting

GAC members to introduce the .ASIA initiative

Some History (continued)Some History (continued)• Jul 2005: Outreach from DotAsia Organisation to AP GAC members

to explain .ASIA initiative• Jul 2005: 2nd Informal meeting with GAC members from AP

(Luxembourg)• Nov 2005: 3rd Informal meeting with GAC members from AP

(Vancouver)• Dec 4, 2005: ICANN Board resolution on .ASIA approving the

DotAsia TLD Application to enter into discussion of commercial and technical terms with effectively a unanimous vote

• March 2006: 4th Informal meeting with GAC members from AP (Wellington)

• Jun 2006: 5th Informal meeting with GAC members from AP (Marrakech)

• Oct 18, 2006: Approval of .ASIA Registry Operator Contract• Dec 6, 2006: Signing of Contract with ICANN

Draft Sunrise PoliciesDraft Sunrise Policies

• Sunrise 1: Governmental Reserved Names• Sunrise 2: Registered Marks• Sunrise 3: Registered Entity Names (i.e.

company names, etc.)

Sunrise Policies DevelopmentSunrise Policies Development

• Extensive discussions with registrars and IPR community– Learning from recent experience of .EU and .MOBI– Learning and participating in GNSO RN & PRO WG

• Community & Industry Drafts (February)– Went through 3 Community Drafts (0.1, 0.2 and 0.3)– Incorporated comments from the ICANN community,

technical community, IPR community– Version 1.0 (Industry Draft) circulated to ICANN

registrars, IP Constituency Members– Posted Publicly online

Sunrise Policies DevelopmentSunrise Policies Development

• Final Draft– Current Version 1.5 (Final Draft)– Posted publicly online– Circulated to community and registrars

• Finalization of Sunrise Policies– Presentation at ICANN GAC, RC and IPC– Conclusion of solicitation of feedback by the end of

the first week of April– Finalized version to be posted mid-April

Target Launch ScheduleTarget Launch Schedule

• March 21 2007 – Pre-Sunrise• June/July 2007 – Sunrise 1: Governments• Sep 2007 – Sunrise 2: Registered Marks• Oct / Nov 2007 – Sunrise 3: Entity Names• Feb 2008 – Landrush• Mar 2008 – Live FCFS registrations

Pre-Sunrise and Sunrise 1Pre-Sunrise and Sunrise 1

• Pre-Sunrise:– Solicitation of reserved names from governments

(through ccTLDs and GAC representatives in the community)

– Commenced as of: March 21, 2007– 5-month period (ending August 21, 2007, overlapping

with Sunrise 1)

• Sunrise 1:– Government bodies to activate the reserved names– Domains must be “activated” (i.e. registered) via an

ICANN registrar

Refinement of Sunrise 2Refinement of Sunrise 2

• SR2a: Early-Bird Sunrise– Mark applied for before March 16, 2004 (issued and

valid at point of domain registration application)– Certified documents showing that Mark has been

used in Class Registered

• SR2b: Registered Marks– Declaration of Mark Information via EPP– Mark applied for before December 6, 2006

• SR2c: Extended Protection– Registered Mark + Words in Class description– E.g.: “ABC” => NICE Class 1 “Chemicals” =>

“ABCchemicals.Asia”

Acceptable MatchAcceptable Match

• Exceptions for spaces and special characters– May be omitted or replaced by hyphen

• Exceptions for accented characters– May be replaced by “base character” (i.e. without the

accent)

• Exceptions for type identifiers– E.g. ®, TM, SM, Ltd., PTE, Inc., … May be omitted

• Exceptions for the term “Asia”– May be omitted: e.g. “ABC Asia” => “abc.asia”

• Transliterations not accepted– “ö” may not be replaced by “oe”, “中文” may not be

replaced by “zhongwen”

Sunrise 3Sunrise 3

• Registered Entity Names (i.e. Company names)– Registered within the DotAsia Community– Domain Name Applied For must match registered

entity name (with acceptable match exceptions)

• Unverified– Declaration of business registration via EPP– Electronic copy of Certification of Incorporation (or

equivalent) uploaded and Posted publicly– Challenge process to be developed

Multiple Applications for a DomainMultiple Applications for a Domain

• Sunrise 1– First-Come-First-Served

• Sunrise 2, Sunrise 3 and Landrush– All applications during each particular sunrise period

are considered to be received at the same time– If domain has only one successful application, it is

allocated accordingly– If domain has more than one successful application,

auction is held between the successful applicants

AuctionsAuctions

• General Process– Prior to auction being held, successful applicants will

be provided information of other bidders– English auction (each bid being higher than the

previous bid, and each bidder able to observe each bid price)

• Concept– Fair allocation (instead of lottery-like situation at initial rushes)– Encourage usage (highest bidder more likely to use domain)– No need to wait for FCFS live registrations (if domain has only

one application it will not go to auction)– Sizeable portion of proceeds will be specifically set aside for

community initiatives (mandate for DotAsia Organisation)

Charter Eligibility RequirementCharter Eligibility Requirement

• Any one of the associated domain contacts (Registrant, Admin, Tech, Billing) must be a legal entity in one of the jurisdictions in the DotAsia Community– Legal Entity: Natural Persons, Corporations or Companies,

Cooperatives, Partnerships or Collectives, Government Bodies, etc.

• Registered Domain Holder for a .ASIA domain is considered to be the collective of the Registrant Contact and the CED (Charter Eligibility Declaration) Contact associated with the domain.

• Both entities are jointly responsible for the domain registration (i.e. disputes)

• Operating Contact remains Registrant Contact (i.e. for transfers, etc.)

Draft Technical FrameworkDraft Technical Framework

• EPP Extensions:– IPR Extensions (domain object) for Sunrise

applications– CED Extension (domain & contact objects) for charter

eligibility declarations– Operations & Notifications (OPN) Contact Extensions

(domain object) for designating a special contact for Sunrise documentations and auctions (Registrar may act as the OPN Contact)

EPP Domain Object Extensions (Draft)EPP Domain Object Extensions (Draft)

• IPR Extensions– <ipr-name>– <ipr-num>– <ipr-cc-locality>– <ipr-applied>– <ipr-registered>– <ipr-class>– <ipr-type>

• CED & OPN Extensions– <ced-id>– <opn-id>

EPP CED (Contact) Extensions (Draft)EPP CED (Contact) Extensions (Draft)

• <ced-cc-locality>• <ced-locality> (OPTIONAL: City/Province/State)• <ced-type>• <ced-type-other> (Required only if ced-type=other)• <ced-id-type>• <ced-id-other> (Required only if ced-id-type=other)• <ced-id-num>

.ASIA Registrar Accreditation Package.ASIA Registrar Accreditation Package

• RRA and Forms ready:– .ASIA Appendix to ICANN RAA– .ASIA RRA– Registrar Data Form– Registrar Financial Information Form– Confidentiality Agreement– Fax Authorization Form– Registrar Authorization Form

• Pick up the .ASIA USB Package & .ASIA Shirt

Marketing BriefMarketing Brief

Action ItemsAction Items

• Development of launch activities PR Partner– Positioning for local markets– Events at various cities– Press relations

• Working with Registrars– Joint press events– To develop marketing materials– To develop promotion programs

• Market Research• What else should we be doing to help you

market the .ASIA domain?

Brief Market ResearchBrief Market Research

• General directions of research:– Natural usage of the word “Asia”

• Company names / Trademarks / Brands• Domain names / search terms• Regional Media / Conferences / Sporting events / Initiatives

– Identifying with Asia• Market preference of identifying with and identifying as Asia

– Asia Market in General• Internet penetration / E-commerce / Online activities• Investment into/from/within Asia / General economy growth• IDN and language related information

– Value of “Asia” in a Domain

The Big Picture - Asia and Australia / OceaniaThe Big Picture - Asia and Australia / Oceania

Most Popular Sites on the Web TodayMost Popular Sites on the Web Today

• Global Top Sites Visited Already 1/3 from Asia

• www.Baidu.com• www.qq.com• www.yahoo.co.jp

• Source: http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_sites?ts_mode=global&lang=none

“Asia” Keyword Search - February 2007“Asia” Keyword Search - February 2007• Related Searches that include Asia• Estimated number of times Asia related terms were

searched in February 2007

• 309,369 searches for terms containing Asia / Asian in one month

• for Comparison’s Sake

• 69,584 searches for terms containing EUROPE

• 14,706 searches for terms containing EU

http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

NoteworthyNoteworthy

• There are estimated 25 million Blogs in the Asia Pacific region.The Blog Herald http://www.blogherald.com/2005/05/25/world-wide-blog-count-for-may-now-over-60-million-blogs/

• Over 92,178 Blogs found on Technorati have tags with the word “Asia” or “Asia” related terms

http://www.technorati.com/tag/Asia

• “The mature market segment of Asia/Pacific and Japan will continue to account for nearly 40% of worldwide broadband connections. In this region, Gartner predicts that ¾ of households will have broadband connections by 2010 compared with around half of North American and Western European households.” (Gartner Inc., February 2007)

New Media Reveal from the European Travel Commission http://www.etcnewmedia.com/review/default.asp?SectionID=10&OverviewID=8

The Asia Domain MarketThe Asia Domain Market

http://domain-suggestions.domaintools.com/?q=Asia

http://www.buydomains.com/find-premium-domains/search-results.jsp?cm_mmc=dnj-_-home-_-150x240-_-d7&keywords=asia&x=0&y=0

We Seek Your Valuable InputWe Seek Your Valuable Input

• What are the challenges for promoting the .Asia domain to your customers? What can we provide to assist?

• What type of research will be valuable for your marketing efforts?

• How could we help drive usage of the .Asia domain?

• Our team is here in Lisbon now, but we are only an email / phone call away anytime.

Thank YouThank You

• Leona CHEN leona@dotasia.org• Ching CHIAO chiao@dotasia.org• Edmon CHUNG edmon@dotasia.org