Comments DAG5

[Oliver Süme <sueme@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear ICANN team,


The .hamburg top-level domain initiative founded in 2007 is an association
open to any Hamburg associated institution, organization and individual.
With .hamburg we are aiming to create a unique identity for all Hamburgers.
For the gTLD Applicant Guidebook (proposed final version) we have the
following comments and change requests: 

RE: 1.1.1 Application Submission Period

The German cityTLDs including dotHamburg started already back during 2005 to 
2007 with
their projects to launch new top-level domains. Since that time, the topic
of new gTLDs for cities and regions was on the agenda of the Association of
German Cities and Regions. In that extent, he opportunities and risks of 
creating
and operating a cityTLD became aware to all German regional authorities very 
early. A
resolution of the German Parliament based on the cityTLD movement made the
topic even more prominent and official in 2008. Meanwhile the same awareness 
occurs
in many countries worldwide, where local GeoTLD initiatives and GAC
representatives created awareness, discussion and even workinggroups on this
topic. 

For the reason of a long lasting and broad discussion on GeoTLDs we
think a 30-days application window should be more than sufficient,
especially if the next application opportunity arises a year later.

RE: 1.1.2.8 String Contention

During a Community Priority Evaluation ICANN will submit the comments
received during the public comment period to the evaluators with
instructions to take the relevant information into account in reaching their
conclusions. 

We are concerned that this provision could lead to thousands of
comments on behalf of a particular applicant in order to score higher in a
Community Priority Evaluation or in opposite to impair a particular
application. We ask ICANN to clarify which kind of comments and information
submitted is really relevant and will be considered by the evaluators and
how it will be ensured that the pure quantity of comments will not
necessarily lead to a better scoring.

Best regards,

Oliver Sueme
CEO / Founder

_____________________

Initiative dotHamburg e.V.
Gertigstr. 28
D-22303 Hamburg

www.dothamburg.de
sueme@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
_____________________