ICANN Extends New gTLD Auctions Proceeds Comment Period As Majority Support Global Awareness Fund

ICANN has extended the public comment period for the Initial Report of the New gTLD Auction Proceeds Cross-Community Working Group by 2 weeks to 11 December 2018. To date there are 21 comments with the vast majority supporting a proposal from the .CLUB operator to “earmark a portion – 15% of the total auction funds – to support an education campaign to promote Universal Awareness of the uses of the Domain Name System and all TLDs in general.”

Currently ICANN has $233,455,563 in their kitty – $240,590,128 from the auction proceeds of new generic top level domains less costs of $7,134,565.

Supporters of the .CLUB idea are Radix, .GLOBAL, TLD Registry Limited, Dominion Registries, Dominion Registries, Uniregistry, authenticweb.com, Top Level Design, Donuts, Domain Name Association, GMO Registry, Neustar, ZDNS, .LOVE, Knock Knock WHOIS There (.BLOG) and Nominet. Another, Top Level Spectrum, supported a global awareness campaign but with “50% of the auction funds be used for awareness campaigns.” Another, .BEST supported a global awareness campaign with no specified amount.

In their submission that has gained much support, .CLUB says:
The Auction Proceeds Global Awareness Campaign should incorporate the following themes from the 2011Global Awareness Campaign, which the ICANN Board has already vetted and approved:

• “consumers and end-users [should be the] primary target” (2011 Global Awareness Campaign).
• “gTLDs are a platform [as a] innovation.”(2011 Global Awareness Campaign).
• “The landscape of the Internet is changing” (2011 Global Awareness Campaign).
• The “promotion of competition in the domain name market while ensuring Internet security and stability.” (2011 Global Awareness Campaign).
• The Auction Proceeds Global Awareness Campaign should not favor any single TLD, to the exclusion of the others, in alignment with the 2011 Global Awareness Campaign recognition of its “role as stewards, not advocates” and therefore being “neutral”. This follows the CCWG recommendation that “projects should avoid ‘marketing’ any particular option, but help to highlight how the DNS works, and how to use a domain name, generally.”