If there is significant demand for the documents in German however, we would certainly review the request. As you know, Dirk, German is one of the 10 languages that ICANN supports (although not one of the five that we typically translate into).

Kieren

For any interested party we made a German summary at:

http://www.citytld.com/pdf/Fakten-zu-den-neuen-Top-Level-Domains.pdf

If they do that, then you as a consumer may be able to register the domain “startrek.future” for roughly $6. The name “future” might just be exciting enough for someone to put in the time and resources needed to get it and run it, but I fear that even if “.future” is created, you are going to have a very hard time getting hold of “startrek.future”.

As for “rushlimbaugh.ignoramus”, I am afraid you are going to have to let this particular dream go. Not that there aren’t enough ignoramuses in the world for it to herald enough demand, but I just have the feeling no one is going to be in a rush to go through the application process for a word whose meaning can be much more effectively portrayed with a shorter, punchier piece of English.

As for “joemescher.genius”. Well, that’s a 50-50. There may well be enough people willing to have their statuses immortalised online that this is viable. If it ends up a community top-level domain, if you want “joemescher.genius” you may need to prove your super-high intelligence in order to be allowed it – but I have no doubt being a genius that you have already got that covered.

The serious point of course is that this process is not just a matter of typing a domain into a box and clicking “register” if it’s available.

In many ways, the simplicity of registering a domain these days makes it all look too easy. (That simplicity, incidentally, comes a result of the competitive market measures that ICANN introduced and has overseen for a decade.) But there are enormously complex systems and thousands of highly-trained personnel at work behind the scenes.

Running a part of the Internet addressing system is not for the faint-hearted. It is a serious and complex endeavour. But, hopefully, there are some people out there who think it is worth it. People who understand that with the responsibility and complexity comes the opportunity to help define the next revolution of the Internet and with it, define our future as a race on this planet.

Kieren

Can’t wait to register ‘www.joemescher.genius’.

This is in reference to a posting and comment on Circle ID (http://www.circleid.com/posts/20081024_verisign_tiered_domain_pricing_soon/)

I’ll post the same comment here as there: my response to you was only with regard to your specific comment about price controls on sponsored and unsponsored TLDs.

As to your wider question about whether the wording could in future allow for existing registries to ask for changes in their contracts, well that’s what this public comment period is for.

You are raising a theoretical future possibility based on draft documents. The answer to that is always going to be: raise it as part of the public comment process and the community can discuss it.

As you know, since I can see you have already posted your point there (thank you btw), as your point concerns the draft base agreement, the best email address for sending a public comment is gtld-transition@icann.org and you an view all comments on this issue at http://forum.icann.org/lists/gtld-transition/.

Thanks again George, this sort of review where not only the documents themselves but also the potential future impacts of what they contain are discussed is exactly the sort of thing that this public comment period hopes to elicit.

Kieren