This blog has often been silent for long periods while I’m working hard on something. This time I think it was worth it. With a few good friends, I’ve started Minds + Machines, and from now on most of my posting is happening on the Minds + Machines blog. While I was searching for a regis...

As my 350 closest friends are aware, I have been pursuing .NYC hard for over a year, and in fits and starts since 2000, in conjunction with my friend Bill Semich, who manages .NU. dotNYC is the company behind our latest (and now it appears final) effort to get New York City to get behind the .NYC to...

Bart Lieben is an intellectual property attorney who has become the go-to guy for trademark verification for top-level domain Sunrise periods. In my interview with Bart, he talks about how he does his job, with some tantalizing hints about a system he’s developing to make the whole trademark v...

A cranky letter from the NTIA to ICANN (PDF), submitted in late December during ICANN’s comment period for new top-level domains, has encouraged the awkward coalition of those opposed to new TLDs. The NTIA (National Telecommunications and Information Administration), a division of the Departme...

I’ve put together a permanent page of resources for ICANN new TLD applications. These materials can be hard to locate; I originally put this together for myself because of that problem. I’m also hosting any documents, because of the exasperating slowness of ICANN’s site. All releva...

ICANN has just published a new explanatory memorandum in connection with new gTLD applications, this one called “Morality and Public Order Objection Considerations in New gTLDs.” The issue is difficult; the memo is tortured. The memo (Oct 29, PDF, 6 pages, 130KB) is a twist on the twiste...

So, Paris has been the domain names capital for a few days. Hail to those I met at the ICANN meeting, or during "off-ICANN" conferences on domain names. Now this is all over, what's left? 1. New TLDS, of course, have been the hottest topic. A topic that will probably cool down very quickly.First, no...