[To: council[at]gnso.icann.org; liaison6c[at]gnso.icann.org] [To: ga[at]gnso.icann.org; announce[at]gnso.icann.org] [To: regional-liaisons[at]icann.org] http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-16oct07.htm ICANN Establishes Forum on Allocation Methods for Single-Letter and Single-Digit Domain Names 16 October 2007 (Comment period extended 7 November 2007). As recommended by the GNSO Council, ICANN is commencing a forum on potential allocation methods for single-letter and single-digit domain names at the second level in gTLD registries. Examples include a.com, i.info, 4.mobi, 8.org. Since revenue will result from this allocation, comments regarding the potential uses for this revenue are also requested. ICANN intends to synthesize responses to the forum and present proposed methods for allocation of single-letter and single-digit domain names at the second level for community consideration. To be considered by ICANN, ideas on potential allocation methods should be submitted to allocationmethods@icann.org. Comments may be viewed at http://forum.icann.org/lists/allocationmethods/. **ICANN is extending the comment period until 23:59 UTC 15 December 2007 on the forum for potential allocation methods for single-letter and single-digit domain names at the second level in gTLD registries. There has been interest in providing additional time so that members of the Internet community that have not previously commented on ICANN topics may do so. 17 comments have been provided to date. The GNSO Council asked ICANN to initiate a forum on this issue after considering a report of the Council's Reserved Names Working Group (RN-WG), which recommended that “single letters and digits be released at the second level in future gTLDs, and that those currently reserved in existing gTLDs should be released. This release should be contingent upon the use of appropriate allocation frameworks. More work may be needed. In future gTLDs we recommend that single letters and single digits be available at the second (and third level if applicable).” The GNSO is one of ICANN's primary stakeholder-populated policy making bodies. The recommendations of the RN-WG can be found at http://gnso.icann.org/issues/new-gtlds/final-report-rn-wg-23may07.pdf [PDF, 713K]. -- Glen de Saint Géry GNSO Secretariat - ICANN gnso.secretariat[at]gnso.icann.org http://gnso.icann.org