dotGAL's 2nd draft Applicant Guidebook Comments
*PuntoGAL’s 2nd Draft Applicant Guidebook Comments* DotGAL (PuntoGAL in the Galician language) is the proposed string for a new cultural and linguistic TLD for the Galician Cultural and Linguistic Community. Such TLDs are not geographic, but represent communities which share a common language and culture. In the case of DotGal, this community has approximately 4 million speakers spread around the world. Cultural and linguistic communities merit a domain of their own in order to create greater diversity and contribute to a more democratic and multicultural Internet, which is one of ICANN’s aims. We thank ICANN once more for all the work and effort put into developing this 2nd draft. We especially appreciate the detailed analysis of the comments to the 1st draft Applicant Guidebook, which proves that ICANN really intends to develop a democratic process by analysing and considering the feedback received so far. We’re also pleased to see that one of our petitions was added to this new draft, lowering the annual fees to a minimum of 25.000 USD, also requested by many other communities, individuals and entities. Despite the progress on the new draft, we still believe there are a few aspects of the draft applicant guidebook that ICANN should reconsider. 1. TIMELINE As we already stated in the public forum in the last ICANN’s International Meeting in Mexico, PuntoGal Association, a non-profit organization, has invested a lot of time, money and human resources in the initiative since it’s creation in 2006. Extending the process any longer will be detrimental for all non-profit initiatives, particularly those representing small communities, and will be harmful for longstanding applicants with limited resources. Many individuals and entities belonging to the widespread Galician cultural and linguistic community are waiting for the .GAL. We have given them the time lines that ICANN provided in several International Public Meetings (Los Angeles, Paris, Cairo), only to find that these have been repeatedly postponed. What we wou*ld like is to give a once and for all answer to that recurring question from our community “WHEN will we have a dotGAL?” We urge ICANN to confirm a definitive date for the opening of the process*. 2. APPLICATION FEE ICANN has established a 185,000 USD application fee to recover costs associated with the new gTLD programme. We still think this amount of money is too high if you take into account that many applications are from non-commercial, non-profit making organizations. Such is the case of cultural and linguistic TLD applicants, which are economically viable, but nevertheless may have limited funding. Considering that we’ve already spent a significant amount of money on following the process and that our main purpose is essentially cultural, *We ask ICANN to reduce the application fee for cultural and linguistic TLDs to 50,000 USD*. -- Asociación PuntoGal www.puntogal.org prensa@xxxxxxxxxxxx Tlf. 0034 670226268 Attachment:
DotGAL2ndDraftComment.pdf |