ICANN Pledges to Adopt Unspecified New Domain Name Selection Process
At its meeting in Tunisia, ICANN voted to create a streamlined process for creating new Top Level Domains (TLDs). ICANN President Paul Twomey was quoted as saying that the "expectation is that we would be moving to some regime that is a more open process -- a more continuous process." According to BizReport, President Twomey's view is that the new process will be a "contrast to the idea of a beauty contest." Furthermore, Twomey indicated that the new process would "create a more objective set of criteria for creating new domains." A critic of ICANN's domain name selection process, Michael Froomkin, a law professor at the University of Miami, noted that it is too soon to judge whether the new system will actually work as promised. However, he supported ICANN's call for less subjective system. Professor Froomkin's view is that the new process "should be mechanized. The process should be something anyone can look at and say 'do I qualify?'" Although promising, two key issues remain unclear: 1) the new process for creating new TLDs; and 2) ICANN's procedures, process and standards for developing the new TLD creation process. Until there is transparency in ICANN's internal decision-making processes, it will be difficult for the organization to quiet the sceptics.