COMMENT FROM BC CHAIR: RE: http://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-14apr12-en.htm On April 14, the following announcement appeared on ICANN, and was transmitted to various lists. It is copied in complete form below, followed by a comment by the BC Chair.

From ICANN's announcements: "TAS Interruption - Update (14 April 2012 06:50 UTC)14 April 2012Statement by Akram Atallah, COOAs we have reported, ICANN has learned of a technical issue with the TLD application system software, or TAS, that allowed a limited number of users to view some other users' file names and user names in certain scenarios. We temporarily shut the system down on 12 April 2012 to protect applicant data, and to look into the technical issue and fix it.As part of that process, we are sifting through the thousands of customer service inquiries received since the opening of the application submission period. This preliminary review has identified a user report on 19 March that appears to be the first report related to this technical issue.Although we believed the issues identified in the initial and subsequent reports had been addressed, on 12 April we confirmed that there was a continuing unresolved issue and we shut down the system.We are still aggressively looking into the issue, and we will publish additional information as soon as it can be confirmed. We recognize the importance of reopening the application system as soon as possible. We will announce no later than 23:59 GMT/UTC on Monday, 16 April, whether we will be able to reopen on Tuesday, 17 April 2012.Thank you for your patience as we work to resolve this issue." Chair's comment: If members who are following this topic, or are engaged in applying for, or supporting an applicant wish to comment on the BC list, I ask that you use the following Subject for such posts: Subject: Comments on new gTLD TAS. I ask that because many members are interested, or concerned about how ICANN deals with failures in a major system within the new gTLD process, even if not an applicant, but not all on the BC list want to deal with details on the application process itself. Use of a standard Subject line will help the BC members as they prioritize other posts regarding urgent BC items, such as SSR comments; planning for Prague, etc. thanks, Marilyn Cade, Chair, BC Chair