I’m back from ICANN’s 34th international meeting, held this week in Mexico City. Every ICANN meeting is a busy one, and this one was no exception. Among the ‘hot button’ topics which were discussed at length:

• New gTLD applications will likely not be accepted until late 2009 or early 2010. The gTLD applicant guidebook, which describes the process of applying for and securing a new gTLD, is going to undergo another revision based on community feedback.
• Paul Twomey, ICANN’s President and CEO, announced he will move on from ICANN at the end of 2009. He has been President and CEO since 2003.
• A wide range of amendments to the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) were approved by the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) council. The RAA binds registrars like Tucows to various terms and conditions outlined by ICANN. We had a great deal of input on the revisions to the RAA, particularly as they applied to resellers. Stay tuned for more information on how and when these revisions will be implemented.

You can also check out ICANN’s briefing note from the meeting.

I expect there will be further review and discussion of all these topics and much more at the next ICANN international meeting, to be held in June in Sydney, Australia. You can find more information on June’s meeting at http://syd.icann.org.

Adam Eisner, our Product Manager, Domains, has been in Mexico City all week for ICANN 34. The folks at Dynamic Network Services Inc. have been doing a great job providing video coverage of the happenings at ICANN 34 and they tracked down Adam this morning to get his thoughts on the meeting so far and what’s been happening at ICANN from a Registrar’s perspective. Check it out:

This week I’ll be in Mexico City, attending ICANN’s 34th international meeting.

Like the previous meeting in Cairo, a great deal of discussion is likely to center on new gTLDs. Based on continued feedback from a wide variety of parties, the application process continues to be refined, and there is sure to be a great deal of discussion on current plans. I intend to sit in on at least a couple of the multiple sessions being held on the topic, as well as the day-long Registrar Constituency meeting, where a wide range of issues pertaining to registrars like Tucows are discussed.

But aside from policy, one of the most important reasons I attend meetings like these is to get together with all of the registries we currently work with. We offer close to 30 TLDs and ccTLDs via OpenSRS, and most of those are operated by different vendors and technology providers. ICANN meetings allow me to sit down with all of them at once to discuss upcoming plans, promotions and features. It also gives me a chance to look at new products and services that may be emerging in the domain name space.

I’ll have more on the meeting next week. In the meantime, you can learn more about the Mexico City conference here: http://mex.icann.org/.