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ICANN Delays Naming .org Successor
July 26, 2002
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) published a revised schedule for the migration of .org to its new owner Thursday evening, a delay that poses problems with the registry's current and succeeding operators.
According to one of the bidders vying for ownership of the popular domain extension, a lengthy delay in the process could spell the end for many of the 11 bidders seeking ownership on Jan. 1, 2003.
ICANN's review committee missed a self-imposed deadline when it failed to publish an initial report Monday to the general public on the merits of the 11 competing .org bidders and whom it was considering as VeriSign's (Quote, Company Info) successor to the .org registry business.
Instead, the report won't be published until Aug. 19, pushing back the date of a final decision by the ICANN board of directors to late September.
According to Mary Hewitt, ICANN spokesperson, the many ICANN members required to review the 11 applications are causing the delay.
"There's a lot of people who need to see it, and a lot to read through," she said. "It's taken longer than we anticipated."
It seems everyone on the ICANN payroll, and even some volunteers, are part of the process. There are four separate teams looking at three different sets of criteria for each applicant. Ostensibly, the ICANN staff is conducting a general overview and integrating the other team's reports into one complete whole.
According to Jonathan Wales, president of bidding .org company Register ORGanization, Inc., any more delay puts a majority of the bidders out of contention for the domain extension.
More at: http://www.internetnews.com/xSP/article.php/1433501
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