[tld-acceptance] Universal acceptance of all TLD names

["Tina Dam" <dam@xxxxxxxxx>]

Welcome to the discussion list concerning universal acceptance of all TLD
names.

Top-level domains (TLDs) have typically been added to the domain name system
(DNS) based on proposals that are periodically solicited by ICANN. New TLDs
were last added in 2000 
<http://www.icann.org/announcements/icann-pr16nov00.htm>.

More recently, on 15 December 2003, ICANN opened an application period for
new sponsored top-level domains (sTLDs)
<http://icann.org/tlds/stld-apps-19mar04/stld-public-comments.htm>.   

As ICANN contemplates incorporation of additional TLDs into the root, a
central and authoritative source for information on TLDs becomes
increasingly important.  ICANN receives frequent inquiries regarding whether
a given TLD is "real" or not.  The current listing of gTLDs recognized by
ICANN is available at http://www.iana.org/gtld/gtld.htm.  This page also
references and provides contacts for the organization responsible for each
gTLD.    

In order for new TLDs to be widely accepted and used, cooperation among the
registry operators, ISPs, and others who deal with domain names on a regular
basis is key.  

To facilitate and foster cooperation among these groups, this discussion
forum on the topic of universal acceptance of all TLDs has been opened by
ICANN.  

The archives of this forum will be publicly available at
http://forum.icann.org/lists/tld-acceptance . To join this discussion list,
simply send a message to <majordomo (at) icann.org> with the words
"subscribe tld-acceptance" (or "unsubscribe tld-acceptance" if you wish to
be removed) in the body of the message.

Participation in this forum is open to any interested person.

Kind regards,
Tina Dam
Chief gTLD Registry Liaison
ICANN