This is to inform you that due to technical problems with the .ASIA registry system, the processing of Landrush applications that are intended to go to auction has not been completed. Allocation of single applications is complete except for those waiting on the processing of prior Sunrise applications. Should you require assistance on confirming the domains allocated, please let us know.

The registry understands the urgency of the issue and is working hard with our registry services provider to resolve it as soon as possible.
We will provide another update as soon as information is available to keep you informed of our progress and provide an estimated date for completion.

We are also working closely with our auction services provider on preliminary scheduling of Landrush auctions as soon as possible, and will provide updates shortly.

source DotAsia

Please be advised that the process for allocation of Landrush applications had started as planned on March 18 but was suspended. The allocation process will resume on March 20, 2008 at 21:00 UTC.

The owners of the .travel gTLD, The Globe, announced they will sell the Tralliance registry to The Registry Management Company LLC, a privately held entity controlled by Michael S. Egan, theglobe.com’s Chairman, CEO and controlling investor.

However Edward Hasbrouck has been digging around, and reports on his blog on the impending sale and says the pending sale raises “renewed questions about Tralliance’s compliance with its contractual commitments to ICANN as well as about the lack of transparency of ICANN’s decision making and ICANN’s compliance with its own bylaws.”

Hasbrouck goes on to note “ICANN delegated .travel to Tralliance only on condition that the TTPC would have actual authority over .travel policies. If it’s been reduced to a purely advisory role, that’s a violation of the agreement between Tralliance and ICANN.

“The sale of the .travel registry business may also be a violation of the contract by which ICANN delegated .travel to Tralliance.”

However Bret Fausett does not agree, saying he does not “think this poses any overarching ICANN policy issues — you can sell a company and keep its current bundle of contractual relationships intact — but I do wonder about the business decision.”

Bret is also intrigued as to why the business is not a good one. He cannot understand why they do not make money with 28,529 names under management, with 26 different registrars that they resell for about $99 Bret notes from the the October 2007 Registry Report to ICANN.

Source DomainNews

AFNIC have announced they will discontinue their service of publishing the list of newly registered .fr domain names as of February 19, 2008 as per the news release below.

Since 2000, the AFNIC publishes on its website the list of .fr domain names registered in the last 30 days. This list initially thought to inform has been used in different ways that must be supervised legaly.

For this reason, the list will no longer be published on the AFNIC website starting February 19th, 2008.

The Whois Data Access Qualified Service

On the other hand, the AFNIC offers a new service, the Whois Data Access Qualified Service, to third parties that wish to build services with added value around the list of registered .fr domain names.

This access will be subject to the signature of a specific contract, and subject to AFNIC’s approval of the access application.

All .fr domain names that are published via the Whois directory (www.afnic.fr/outils/whois) will be concerned.

Holders have the possibility of requesting that their domain name(s) be removed from the communicated list, if they can prove that the communication of the existence of said domain name(s) could create a risk for the bodily safety of a person or a dangerous risk to national security.

This request for removal is to be sent as soon as possible to the registrar in charge of the domain name, who will transfer the request to AFNIC’s Legal Department.

With these new modalities, the AFNIC wishes to create an efficient and pragmatic balance around .fr between the protection of people’s personal data and the protection against infringements of third party rights.

The Whois Data Access Qualified Service: www.afnic.fr/outils/acces-donnees.

To see this announcement on the AFNIC website, see www.afnic.fr/actu/nouvelles/general/NN20080201_en for the English version and www.afnic.fr/actu/nouvelles/general/NN20080201 for the French version.

Source DomainNews

Executive Summary
Growing at 31 percent over the same quarter last year, the third quarter of 2007 ended with a total base of 146 million domain name registrations worldwide across all of the Top Level Domain Names (TLDs). This represents a six percent growth over the second quarter which is slightly slower than the quarterly growth in the first two quarters but in line with the seasonality that traditionally impacts the third quarter. The total base of Country Code Top Level Domain Name (ccTLD) registrations was 54.6 million, a six percent increase quarter over quarter and a 38 percent increase year over year.
Reviewing the total base of registrations in both global TLDs and ccTLDs, .com has the highest base with the next two spots remaining unchanged with .de (Germany) and .net rounding out the top three. This quarter, .cn (China) moved solidly to the fourth
spot. This leaves the fifth spot to be shared by .uk (United Kingdom) and .org with approximately the same number of total domain name registrations.

Industry Growth and Composition
Growth
During the third quarter, registrants registered approximately 12 million new domain names. New registrations declined slightly, seven percent, from the record pace set in the second quarter but grew 25 percent over the third quarter last year.2 When looking at quarter over quarter changes, many of the TLDs experienced a slower rate of new domain name registration growth in the third quarter. The exceptions included .cn, .com, and .net. Together, new .com and .net registrations grew six percent in the third quarter over the second quarter.

Some growth was driven by consumers as domain name registrars targeted consumers with their marketing efforts and expanded product functionality aimed at making domain names more attractive to consumers including tools to enable consumers to publish their own podcasts, as well as, add custom calendars and personal portal pages.

ccTLD Breakdown
The total base of ccTLD domain name registrations grew to 54.6 million by the end of the third quarter 2007. The overall ccTLD domain name base experienced six percent quarter over quarter growth and 38 percent year over year growth.
All of the largest ccTLDs saw growth in the third quarter with .cn driving the largest growth at 20 percent quarter over quarter and .ru (Russian Federation) driving the next largest growth at 12 percent quarter over quarter. The Russian TLD (.ru) growth was
likely driven by the overall growth of the Russian economy and the increased number of Internet users. The Chinese TLD (.cn) continued its rapid growth in the third quarter with a 467 percent increase year over year.3 This growth resulted in China moving up to become the second largest ccTLD, surpassing .uk which has held that position for several years.
The largest ccTLD continues to be .de in terms of the total base of domain name registrations with .cn and .uk as the next largest ccTLDs. Together, .de, .cn and .uk represent 45 percent of the ccTLD base with the growth rates of three percent, 20
percent and four percent in the third quarter 2007 over the second quarter 2007, respectively. In terms of absolute volume growth, the top ccTLDs with the largest growth include .cn, .ru, .de, .uk, .nl (Netherlands) and .eu (European Union).

Com/.Net Dynamics
VeriSign processed a peak of nearly 32 billion Domain Name System (DNS) queries per day in the third quarter of 2007. The VeriSign DNS continued to maintain operational accuracy and stability for 100 percent of the time during the third quarter of 2007 as it has for the past nine years.
The .Com and .Net Base and New Registrations
The overall .com and .net domain name adjusted base increased by five percent quarter over quarter resulting in 77 million .com and .net domain name registrations at the end of the third quarter. This represented a 25 percent increase year over year.4 New .com and .net domain name registrations were added at an average of 2.5 million per month in third quarter 2007 for a total of 7.5 million new registrations.

Renewals
In the third quarter of 2007, the registry renewal rate for .com and .net was 74% percent.5 Renewal rates have been in the mid- to upper 70 percent range over the last few years. Quarterly renewal rates may deviate one to two percent in either direction
each quarter based upon the composition of the expiring base and the contribution of specific registrars.

Whether a domain names resolves to a Web site is a key factor in the high renewal rates since domain names that resolve to Web sites are more likely to be renewed. VeriSign estimates that 87 percent of .com and .net domain names resolve to a Web site,
meaning that an end-user visiting that domain name would find a Web site.

Internationalization of Domain Names
Since 2000, the Internet community has worked towards providing non-English speakers a way to navigate the Internet in their own language through the use of Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs). IDNs are domain names represented by local language characters using scripts beyond ASCII characters.6 The domain name using local language characters is followed by an ASCII TLD like .com or .net. IDNs are primarily intended for use in places where English and other Latin-based languages are not the primary language. However, IDNs are available to be registered in all character sets or scripts including Extended Latin characters as identifi ed in Unicode which means that registrants can register IDNs in scripts that represent more than 350 languages.7
Recently, there has been growing interest in the Internet community to fully localize IDNs such that the entire domain name, including the TLD, would be in local language characters. For purposes of this brief, such IDNs shall be referred to as Internationalized TLDs. The domain name industry is developing the processes and policies for the introduction of new TLDs, including internationalized TLDs as well as sponsoring a test to ensure that internationalized TLDs will operate correctly in the DNS and the root zones. These internationalized TLDs will include scripts beyond the basic Latin characters (ASCII) familiar to most
Internet users in Web addresses - therefore the entire TLD is in a non-ASCII script.

The potential for internationalized TLDs to truly internationalize the Internet is promising, but it must be done right or there is a high risk of failure over technical and business issues including:
� End-User Experience: The internationalized TLD framework must provide unambiguous access to Web sites using domain names regardless of geographic location. Businesses and consumers who desire a global Internet experience will expect Web addresses to function the same no matter what country you are in when using the Internet. Thus, it is important for domain names to be accessible globally, that is, by users both inside and outside the country. The current framework raises questions about and global access as well as a consistent end-user experience.
� Security and Stability: internationalized TLDs will require client-side applications to be updated to accommodate these new TLDs. In addition, the use of domain names including commingled scripts within domain name labels could cause user confusion or contribute to other nefarious activities.

TOP CCTLD REGISTRIES BY DOMAIN NAME BASE, THIRD QUARTER 2007
1. .de (Germany)
2. .cn (China)
3. .uk (United Kingdom)
4. .nl (Netherlands)
5. .eu (European Union)
6. .ar (Argentina)
7. .it (Italy)
8. .us (United States)
9. .br (Brazil)
10. .ch (Switzerland)
Source: Zooknic, October 2007.

Source Verisign

At the 31 October meeting in Los Angeles, the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) Council voted to conduct several studies of the WHOIS system, concluding that a comprehensive, objective and quantifiable understanding of key factual issues regarding the gTLD WHOIS system will benefit future GNSO policy development efforts. Before defining the details of these studies, the Council is soliciting suggestions from the community for specific topics of study on WHOIS that community stakeholders recommend be conducted. Possible areas of study might include a study of certain aspects of gTLD registrants and registrations, a study of certain uses and misuses of WHOIS data, a study of the use of proxy registration services, including privacy services, or a comparative study of gTLD and ccTLD WHOIS.

If you would like to offer suggestions about topics of study on WHOIS, please do so by completing the online form available by clicking on the following link: http://forms.icann.org/cgi/study-suggestions. Please submit a separate online form for each study that you recommend should be conducted and answer all questions with as much detail as possible. Please limit your online answers to 1-2 paragraphs per question. Additional detail and any supporting materials may be emailed to: whois-comments-2008@icann.org. You are also encouraged to comment on proposed studies that have already been posted. To do so please reference the specific proposal you are commenting on. Lastly, you may also provide input via email, instead of posting online via the form provided. To do so, please send email to whois-comments-2008@icann.org.

More information about policy activities related to WHOIS can be found at: http://gnso.icann.org/issues/whois-privacy/.

Source ICANN Press Announcement - 8 January 2008

Experts debated what 2008 will mean for the domain name industry at last month’s registrar conference held by .uk registry Nominet, predicting strong growth for the suffix. There were also warnings from some quarters over the continued rise of the practice of domain tasting, and firms were urged to tightly manage their domain name portfolios.

Lesley Cowley, chief executive of Nominet, predicted the UK top-level domain would reach 10 million subscribers next year, but she added that trust and security would increasingly be differentiators for registrars as they seek to retain customers.

The issue of trust is going to be a key factor in this industry over the next year, and something we will continue to monitor, added Nominet chairman Bob Gilbert.

A new domain name industry report from Nominet also pointed to strong growth in the industry, with 60 per cent of businesses surveyed for the research saying they supported a .uk domain. In addition, firms were urged to ensure they have a clear timetable for registration of their domains, because any lapsed names could be snapped up by domain tasters.

Domain tasting is the practice of registering domain names immediately after they have expired, monitoring how much traffic they receive and then either dropping them before the five-day grace period expires and therefore avoiding a fee, or taking them up and monetising the site through advertising.

The practice is widespread in the .com domain, although Nominet said it has taken measures to prevent registrars doing this with .uk names. Nominet’s Phil Kingsland warned that roughly seven per cent of .com and .net names are subject to domain tasting, which amounts to around six million names at any one time.

Also at the event, Cowley predicted that proposed generic top-level domains (gTLDs) for geographic regions and cities could soon become a reality as Icann looks to liberalise the industry laws governing the creation and running of these domains.

There have already been thousands of applications for new gTLDs, including .lat for Latin America and .london, explained Cowley. I think [the domain] will probably happen because there’s sufficient demand, she added.

Jonathan Robinson, chief operating officer for internet services firm Group NBT, highlighted the role of domain names as central to the success of the internet.

They are at the heart of every single e-commerce and email interaction � a vital link between the online and offline business and a system that has remained remarkably stable, he added.

But internet consultant Jarrod Robinson argued that the proliferation of web search tools on users’ desktops means that many now bypass domain names completely when trying to find a business or service provider.

There was also apprehension among the registrar community about the possibility of Google, Yahoo and Microsoft beginning to offer domain name services. Group NBT’s Robinson encouraged registrars to find niches to operate underneath the web giants, in order to differentiate themselves.

Source: Phil Muncaster, IT Week - 29 Nov 2007

Starting today, November 27th, 2007, new domain names is now published in the DNS five times a day. This is at the following times: 4 am - 7 am - 12 pm - 5 pm - 11 pm.

As reminder, registration and publication of data via the Whois domain name service is now available round the clock, seven days a week. In operations that do not require human intervention, the ticket workflow continues uninterrupted until the ticket is closed, regardless of the time slot.

The following schema sums the main differences between “Before November 15th”, “From November 15th to November 27th” and “After November 27th”:
http://www.afnic.fr/data/divers/prive.isp/ouverture-chaine-enregistrement-afnic.pdf

The AFNIC may set aside a time slot for service interruptions required for management or maintenance. A daily closing time slot is set up between Midnight and 4am.

Some adjustments may be made within one month after this date.

Source AFNIC

Nominet has released their first �Domain name industry report’. The key themes examined in the report are: an analysis of global domain name statistics; registrant statistics and trends within the UK and a close look at the UK registrar market.

The findings of the report show that the domain name industry both globally and in the UK is healthy. The report demonstrates the extent of the uptake of the Internet in the UK. It reveals areas of potential future growth and gives pointers as to current trends in domain name registration and the changing nature of the UK registrar market.

Some interesting points in the report, many of which are republished elsewhere, are:

* most popular and successful of the gTLDs is.com which enjoys a 48% share of the whole market
* sTLD market share is currently negligible at less than 0.5% of the market, or 650k domain names, with 568,000 of these registrations for .mobi
* domain tasting - Nominet has introduced a policy to prevent domain tasting that has led to a reduction in registrations attributed to domain tasting dropping from around 2% of new registrations cancelled prior to invoice payment in August 2006 when the policy was introduced to just 0.38% now
* ccTLDs account for 36% of global domain name registrations
* top 20 ccTLDs account for 83% of all ccTLDs and 30% of global registrations
* top 5 ccTLDs (Germany, China, United Kingdom, Netherlands and European Union) account for 55% of all ccTLDs and 20% of global registrations
* movement within the top 20 ccTLDs is dominated by domain name growth in emerging economies such as China, Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation
* the introduction of .eu in December 2005 saw almost 2.5 million domain names registered in the first year, however, this growth has not been sustained with 2007 growth currently only at 1.25% suggesting registration was a �virtual landgrab’ motivated by defensive registrations to protect existing brands within this new TLD space
* ccTLD registrations correlate closely to GDP, however, a number of countries significantly �punch above their weight’ e.g. Netherlands ranking 4th in domain name volume yet 16th in GDP and Argentina 7th in domain name volume and 31st in GDP while Japan, Canada and France underperform in registrations versus GDP
* the countries of Northern Europe dominate in terms of market penetration by population, with five countries achieving more than 100 domain name registrations per 1,000 inhabitants
* there are 23 domain names per 1,000 inhabitants of the entire planet
* British Internet users are six times more likely to choose a .uk rather than .com address when looking for information via an Internet search engine
* a higher proportion of the domain names registered for personal use were used for email only than those used for commercial web sites and email
* renewal drivers - 60% of renewals were triggered by a reminder from the registrar, 22% of renewals are automatic and the fewer domains someone is managing, the more they rely on their registrar
* Registrant location - the vast majority (92.4%) of .uk domain name registrants are based at a UK address, with the largest proportion of registrants based outside the UK being in North America
* Re-registration of domain names - currently over 25% of cancelled domain names are re-registered within a day of cancellation, and 7% are re-registered within 10 seconds of cancellation
* Secondary Market - around 50 registrants hold more than 3,000 domain names accounting for just under 5% of the total .uk domain name space
* the median length of a domain name is 11 characters while domain names over 30 characters account for less than 0.5% of registrations
* the most popular letter to start a .uk name is S, followed by C and T
* a number of key words have been analysed, the most popular being net and then home - the only two featuring in over 1% of names
* top 20 registrars manage 67.9% of .uk domain names (4.3 million) with this figure likely to increase as a result of mergers and acquisitions, and through 79% of new registrations being made through the top 20 registrars compared to 74% two years ago
* the number of very large registrars (with a portfolio of over 100,000 names) has grown by 71% over the past two years.

The full report is available from Nominet’s website at www.nominet.org.uk/digitalAssets/26156_Nominet_Domain_name_industry_report_2007.pdf

The Department of Information Technology, Government of India, along with the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) is pleased to host a meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in New Delhi, India from 10-15 February 2008.

Pre-registrations can be done here. Details about the schedule and agenda can be found here.

ICANN is currently finalising hotel rates for participants at for the New Delhi Meeting. As soon as the rates are available to participants, the information will be posted on the official event web site.

Foreign Nationals desirous of coming into India are required to possess a valid passport of their country and a valid Indian Visa. They are very easy to obtain and the application is very straight forward and can easily be obtained from your nearest Indian Mission (Embassy, consulate or high commission).

India is one of the oldest civilizations with a kaleidoscopic variety and rich heritage.

Twenty Eight States and Seven Union Territories span the length and breadth of the Country, marked by diversity in culture and geography but bound together by a common chord of Nationalism. There are 604 Districts in India administered by their respective State/UT Government.

New Delhi has two airports catering to domestic and international flights. The international airport is Indira Gandhi International Airport and is situated 20 Km from the city center. Palam Domestic Airport handles all domestic flights and is located 17 Km from the center of town. Average Flight Times from Major Regions of the World:

Europe (London, Paris, Vienna, Frankfurt, Geneva) 8-10 hours
North America (New York) 14-20 hours
South America (Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Mexico) 18-22 hours
Middle East 4-6 hours
Southeast Asia 4-6 hours
Far East Asia 8 hours
Australia 10-14 hours
African Region 10-15 hours

CLIMATE

September to March is the best season to visit Delhi. During the winter temperatures in Delhi have the following ranges: High 93?F (33.7?C), Low 44?F (6.8?C). The average temperature of New Delhi in February is 62?F.
Current Temperature:

CURRENCY

The Indian Rupee (INR) is the country’s national currency. Current exchange rates are approximately 39.00 INR = 1.00 USD, and 57.00 INR = 1.00 EUR.

ELECTRICITY AND VOLTAGE

Electricity in India is 240 Volts, alternating at 50 cycles per second. In case the devices you are carrying do not accept 240 volts at 50 hertz, you will be required to carry a voltage converter. There are three basic types of voltage converters available and adaptable to the Indian voltage.

Resistor-network converters: 50-1600 Watts
Can be used for appliances like hair dryers and irons.
Transformers: 50-100 Watts
Can be used continuously for items like battery chargers, radios, laptop computers, cameras, MP3 players and camcorders.
Combination converters: Has a combination voltage of resistor network and transformers. One can switch from one mode to another by a switch provided for this purpose.
Outlets in India generally accept the following types of plug:

Two round pins
Three round pins arranged in a triangle
If your appliances plug has any other shape, you will need a plug adapter.

LANGUAGE

The Indian Constitution recognises Hindi in Devan?gar? script as the official language of central government India.
However, English is the principal spoken and written language of the city. Other languages commonly spoken in the city are Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu. Linguistic groups from all over India are well represented in the city; among them are Maithili, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Bengali and Marathi.

SAFETY AND SECURITY

Personal Safety

As in any other big city, it is important to consider personal safety. For this reason:

Keep an eye on your luggage. Use large and colorful labels to identify them easily on airport conveyor belts or delivery balconies.

Change your money only in exchange houses or authorised bank agencies. Do not accept help from strangers like luggage porters and agents in airports.

Only use official taxi stands or taxis from the cooperatives indicated by the event organisation.

Always keep your belongings in sight, especially in open areas like restaurants, snack bars, parks, and even in the event’s venue. Don’t leave backpacks, purses, bags, photo or video cameras hanging on chairs or on the floor.

Don’t wear expensive looking jewelry and watches.

Try not to carry large amounts of cash.

Don’t disclose your personal data to unknown persons and avoid carrying passports and travel checks when you go for a walk or a drive.

In case of loss, theft or robbery, report the fact immediately to the local police.

For your peace of mind, use the hotel’s safe to keep valuable objects, your documents, passport and airplane tickets, and use photocopies of your documents when you go out.

If you go out for a walk or to public and open areas, keep your belongings near to your body and avoid going out alone. It’s recommended to avoid going out carrying your laptop or other electronic devices.

If you need to go to a cash machine, preferably use those located in malls (shopping centers) or banks. Avoid cash machines on streets or dark places. If you need help, always ask an employee of the bank.

Be Careful about Food and Water. Diseases from food and water are the leading cause of illness in travelers. Follow these tips for safe eating and drinking:

Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially before eating. If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand gel (with at least 60% alcohol).

Drink only bottled or boiled water, or carbonated drinks in cans or bottles. Avoid tap water, fountain drinks, and ice cubes. This includes water used for brushing your teeth.

Do not eat food purchased from street vendors.
Make sure food is fully cooked. Avoid dairy products, unless you know they have been pasteurized.
Diseases from food and water often cause vomiting and diarrhea. Make sure to bring diarrhea medicine with you so that you can treat mild cases yourself.

Prevent Insect Bites
Many diseases are spread through insect bites. One of the best protections is to prevent insect bites by:

Using insect repellent (bug spray)
Wearing long-sleeved shirts, long pants, and a hat outdoors.
Spraying rooms with products effective against flying insects, such as those containing pyrethroid.

Source DomainNews