Hello, I was working through various folks to try to get my comment posted. This conversation began way back on Nov. 27 and so this comment should not be too late to post. Thank you, ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Andrew Merriam <andrew@toplevel.design> Date: Tue, Dec 11, 2018 at 11:30 AM Subject: Re: FW: [Ext] Auction Proceeds Comment [ ref:_00D616tJk._50061SFmqJ:ref ] To: ICANN Global Support Center <globalsupport@icann.org> Cc: <policy-staff@icann.org> Hi Shawn, Policy team, Please post my comment as is. The direction you give me only routes me through a Terms of service page before opening up an external mail app. I cannot use the external mail app on my computer. Therefore, I cannot follow your instructions. It is surprising that there is only one way to submit a comment and that this would logically create barriers for more than just myself. If it is simply the terms of service you need acknowledged then allow me to manually note that *I accept the privacy policy, terms of service of submitting a comment on icann.org <http://icann.org> but am not able to technically follow the process as laid out.* Please do not close this case and submit my comment - *I note the deadline is today and I originally submitted on Nov 27.* Repeating and adding to comment below, please submit, thank you, -A -- Hello, Please accept the below as an official comment from Top Level Design LLC for the purpose of the public comment period on the *Initial Report of the New gTLD Auction Proceeds Cross-Community Working Group*: We support the detailed proposal submitted by .Club Domains, LLC and are in favor of using 15%, *at a minimum*, of the total auction funds to support a Global Awareness Campaign as detailed in the .Club comment. Adoption and user-awareness are the biggest obstacles to the competition and diversity in the domain industry that ICANN is mandated to oversee. For ICANN to resist an effort to expand consumer awareness for any reason would be an abdication of its important role in securing and promoting the future of the DNS. We also think the focus of the campaign should be on new TLDs, or TLDs introduced since the sponsored round, since legacy options do not suffer from issues of consumer awareness and the revenue in question was generated during the *new *TLD program. Thank you -AM On Wed, Dec 5, 2018 at 9:32 PM ICANN Global Support <globalsupport@icann.org> wrote:

Dear Andrew Merriam,

Thank you for your message.

I understand you would like to post an official comment for the purpose of the public comment period on the Initial Report of the New gTLD Auction Proceeds Cross-Community Working Group.

We would need your help to take the following steps to submit your public comment.

1. Click on the link to the Initial Report of the New gTLD Auction Proceeds Cross-Community Working Group public comment page ( https://www.icann.org/public-comments/new-gtld-auction-proceeds-initial-2018... ) or from the open public comment page: https://www.icann.org/public-comments#open-public

2. Click on the "Submit Comment"

I would like to share that submitting comments requires adherence to ICANN’s Expected Standards of Behavior. For more information about our public comment rules and procedures, please see the following page: https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/rules-procedures-2014-03-17-en.

You may sign-up and log-in to icann.org to receive public comment updates about when proceedings open and close for comment and when staff summary reports are posted.

If you believe an error has been made in a public comment summary report, please send an email to public-comment@icann.org identifying the proceeding, explaining the nature of the error, and recommending an appropriate remedy.

I hope this information was of assistance to you. I will now resolve this case.

Please contact us if you need further assistance or clarification.

Kind Regards, Shawn Seah Global Support Analyst II ICANN Global Support Team

*From:* Andrew Merriam <andrew@toplevel.design> *Sent:* Tuesday, November 27, 2018 4:07 AM *To:* Policy Staff <policy-staff@icann.org> *Subject:* [Ext] Auction Proceeds Comment

Hello, Please accept the below as an official comment from Top Level Design LLC for the purpose of the public comment period on the *Initial Report of the New gTLD Auction Proceeds Cross-Community Working Group*:

We support the detailed proposal submitted by .Club Domains, LLC and are in favor of using 15%, *at a minimum*, of the total auction funds to support a Global Awareness Campaign as detailed in the .Club comment. Adoption and user-awareness are the biggest obstacles to the competition and diversity in the domain industry that ICANN is mandated to oversee. For ICANN to resist an effort to expand consumer awareness for any reason would be an abdication of its important role in securing and promoting the future of the DNS.

Thank you

-AM

--

Andrew Merriam

Director of Business Development

Top Level Design, LLC

toplevel.design [toplevel.design] <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__toplevel.design_&d=DwMFa...>

@TLD [twitter.com] <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__twitter.com_TLD&d=DwMFa...>

Check out our .design Community Stories video! [youtu.be] <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__youtu.be_OyQuLC5nvUg&d=...>

ref:_00D616tJk._50061SFmqJ:ref

-- Andrew Merriam Director of Business Development Top Level Design, LLC toplevel.design @TLD <https://twitter.com/TLD> Check out our .design Community Stories video! <https://youtu.be/OyQuLC5nvUg> -- Andrew Merriam Director of Business Development Top Level Design, LLC toplevel.design @TLD <https://twitter.com/TLD> Check out our .design Community Stories video! <https://youtu.be/OyQuLC5nvUg>