ICANN Starts Batching and Publishes Batching Criteria

Today new gTLD batching has started.

Due to more than 1,900 applications ICANN has to determine which applications are being processed first. Possible allocation criteria like submission time, random elements or monetary contributions (auction) have been ruled out by ICANN. Instead ICANN introduced a controversial system that is compared to a game of digital archery. The applicant has to set a future time target and "hit" that target at the selected time. The absolute difference between the time set and time clicked is the applicant's score and determines in which batch the application is going to be processed.

These are the criteria ICANN has set forth for batch placement:

1. Opt-out preference: Parties may opt-out of digital archery and will automatically be placed in the last batch.

2. Time stamp and geographic region: The secondary timestamp score derived through digital archery is not the only decisive factor. ICANN will compose batches by picking the best performing applicants of each of the five geographical regions: Africa, Asia/Australia/Pacific, Europe, Latin America/Caribbean islands and North America. The best timestamp score from each region is selected, one region at a time, on a rotating basis. If a chosen region has no applications left an applicant from the next remaining region is chosen (see Round Robin). This process continues until a batch of 500 applications is formed. This favors applications from regions with few applications, notably Africa.

3. Contention bonus and batch size: A regular batch contains no more than 500 applications. Nevertheless, a single batch may contain more that 500 applications due to similar or identical TLD being moved to the earliest batch achieved by a competing TLD. Applications in contention are pulled into the best batch regardless of the applicant's batching preference or performance. An example:

i). .web (applicants: company A) - Timestamp results in Batch 2 placement

ii). .web (applicants: company B) - digital archery opt-out

iii). .web (applicants: company C) - Timestamp results in Batch 1 placement

This results in all .web applications being moved in batch 1. Consequently a batch may have more than 500 applicants, especially batch 1. The good news is that does not lead to a demotion of other applications. Applications are not being pushed into a later batches.

ICANN has not yet commented on the maximun duration of a batch and if consecutive batches may start even when previous batch applications are still being processed (i.e. extended evaluation, objection procedures etc.).

Important Batching Dates:

1. 8 June 2012 - online batching system will launch.
2. 28 June 2012 - applicants must have completed digital archery
3. 11 July 2012 - publication of batching results

Sources:

ICANN Batching FAQ, Batching User Guide and Batching Details