Digital Archery

Digital Archery is a mechanism developed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers to determine the processing time or batch slots of every gTLD application using the "target time variance." The digital archery was approved by ICANN during a special meeting of the ICANN Board on March 28. 2012.

Applicants must follow the four steps in the digital archery batching process:

• Step 1- Applicants will enter their batching preference (target date and time) in an online batching system. For example: Target Date: 11 June 2012 and Target Time: 08:00:00 EST
• Step 2- Applicants must re-enter the online batching system to generate the message sent by the system indicating their target time and date. The online batching system will then record when the message was received. For example: Message Received Date: 11 June 2012 and Message Received Time: 08:00:03)
• Step 3- The secondary time stamp will be calculated by the system using the time variance between step one (when the applicant entered his/her target time) and step two (when the message received date/time was generated/recorded). The example shows that the secondary time stamp between step one and step two is 3 secs. An application will be included in an earlier batch to be processed if the time stamp is closer to 0- if an applicant selected to participate in the earliest batch to be processed.
• Step 4- The batching selection process will combine the applicant's batching preferences, the secondary time stamp and the geographic region of a specific new gTLD application to determine its batch sequence.

Complaints Against Digital Archery

Criticisms from ARI Registry Services

Adrian Kinderis, CEO of ARI Registry Services criticized the digital archery describing it as a feeble solution to a problem. He said, "Batching is a solution to a problem that I’m not sure exists any more. ICANN has a large number of single applicants going for a large number of domains, and that has to create some operational efficiencies." He said that he is in talks with some of the big registries and they are waiting for ARI Registry's move and they will join the bandwagon to stop the digital archery. The Intellectual Property Constituency is also against the digital archery.

Melbourne IT Requests for Delay

Theo Hnarakis, CEO of Melbourne IT also asked ICANN to delay the implementation of the digital archery to give time for the community to review the published applications of new gTLDs and the implications of the batching method. In a letter sent to ICANN Hnarakis enumerated some implications such as the possibility of putting the most contentious strings in the first batch, the gap of the processing time between the first batch and the last batch might take 2 years or more and the possibility for brand owners to be forced to create second level registrations until their own TLD becomes operational.He encouraged ICANN to accept suggestions from the community to improve the batching process. In an interview with Domain Incite, Hnarakis said, "There seems to be a broad sentiment that this isn’t the best method, but people don’t want to rock the boat because they don’t want to see any further delay. I don’t care if there’s any further delay, I just want to make sure… it’s done in a way that’s fair for all parties, brand holders particularly and that ICANN comes out of it with some credibility."

NetNames Opposition

Stephane Van Gelder, General Manager of NetNames, a subsidiary of Group NBT also requested ICANN to delay the digital archery until a new solution for the evaluation process has been determined. In a letter to ICANN he described the digital archery as a "contentious system that seems to favour those with in-depth knowledge of the second-hand domain industry and more specifically, its drop-catching techniques." He believed that the method has been approved without formal community input.

Antony Van Couvering (TLDH)Criticism

Antony Van Couvering, CEO of To Level Domains Holding strongly criticized ICANN's digital archery describing the system as "deeply flawed" and encouraged ICANN to scrap its implementation. Couvering said that the [Batching|batching]] system artificially creates losers and winners, it is a game of chance rather than skill, unfair to poorer applicants, certain regions and non-generic applicants.He also presented some interesting evidences of errors on the TLD Application System (TAS). After conducting tests on the TAS, Couvering theorize that the system's software is recording a "wrong seconds value, but with the right milliseconds value" when an applicant clicks the button prior to the target time. He encouraged ICANN to investigate the issue.

Digital Archery Service Providers

There are several companies offering digital archery service including:

• Pool.com
• Digital Archery Experts
• Key-Systems
• Knipp Medien und Kommunikation GmbH

The companies promise that they can secure a slot in the first batch of applications that will be initially evaluated by ICANN.

Under Pool.com's Digital Archery Engine, the fee will be $25,000 if the company will be able to secure a spot in the first batch, $10,000 for spot in the second batch and there will be no fee if the spot secured for a client falls under batch 3 or lower.

On the other hand, under Digital Archery Experts' Batch One Bullseye offering, the company is accepting clients on a first come per serve basis and they will only pay if they are included in the first batch. The company partnered with Sedari, a gTLD business management firm in offering the Batch One Bullseye digital archery service to its clients.

Meanwhile, Key-Systems is offering its digital archery service to new gTLD applicants for €15,000 ($18,800) through its wholly-owned subsidiary KSRegistry. According to Alexander Siffrin, CEO of the company, his team was able "hit the specified time exactly in the testing system – matching even the millisecond." The company will only charge for applications that will hit the first batch of ICANN's initial evaluation process.

Knipp Medien und Kommunikation GmbH is the fourth company offering digital archery through its First Come First Serve service. The company's service fee is the cheapest so far with the $7,500 "early bird" promotion for new gTLD applicants who will sign-up on or before June 20, 2012. The regular service fee after June 20 is $12,500. Applicants will only pay for the service fee if they get a slot in the first batch of ICANN's initial evaluation process.

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