Cross-posted with permission from The WHIR

Adam Eisner, Director, Domain Services for OpenSRS is in Sydney, Australia attending ICANN’s 35th International Meeting. While he’s there, Adam will be writing regular reports for The Web Hosting Industry Review (The WHIR). Thanks to The WHIR for letting us cross-post Adam’s entries here.

Original article

I’ve arrived in Sydney safe and sound following a grueling two-leg, 21-hour flight from Toronto. The conference is now in full swing, and close to one thousand attendees from countries worldwide are discussing a wide range of Internet-related issues.

So far, as expected, one of the most popular discussion topics around the conference has been new Generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs), and the impact they will have on the domain industry and the Internet in general. As ICANN gets closer to accepting applications for new gTLDs (currently expected to begin in Q1 2010), all sorts of proposals for new extensions are emerging. Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck has been spotted here signing autographs in support of the bid for .FOOD. A video has popped up featuring basketball superstar Shaquille O’Neal, who is adding his support to a bid for .BASKETBALL. And with many applicants still holding their cards close to their chest, expect even more bids and celebrities to come out of the woodwork in the coming months.

Today I’m spending the entire day in the meeting of the Registrar Constituency, a group within one of ICANN’s supporting organizations comprised of ICANN-accredited registrars both large and small. Today’s discussion topics will include ICANN’s budget, registrar compliance issues, domain name security and stability and more. It’s a great opportunity to discuss issues that are important to registrars as a whole, and to try to help influence the decision making process regarding key issues at ICANN.

The conference runs until Friday, and the rest of my week is jam-packed with sessions and meetings. Stay tuned for more updates, including a coming update to ICANN’s Registrar Accreditation Agreement that will impact many web hosting companies.