ICANN has recently posted an Interview with ICANN Chief Security Officer, Jeff Moss, about the the glitch responsible for taking the TLD Application System (TAS) offline nearly two weeks ago. 

According to the interview, ICANN is taking an extremely cautious approach in getting the system back online.

Jeff Moss stated that ICANN will be able to identify the affected applicants with with significant accuracy. Check out the video above or read through the FAQ for more details.

ICANN has published a new site for New gTLD Applicants in an effort to ramp up it's four month communication outreach before applications are accepted in January 2012.  

As I was reviewing some of the details of ICM Registry's Sunrise Launch Policy, I noticed that they have put up a nice video that does a great job of explaining the Sunrise process for .XXX

Check it out.

Is ICANN ready for the implementation of New gTLDs? According to ICANN CEO, Rod Beckstrom, and newly appointed Chairman of the ICANN Board, Stephen Crocker, YES!

When asked if ICANN was ready, Beckstrom responded with a resoundingly confident "sure."  Beckstrom followed with;

We have built an excellent executive management team. We have been preparing for this moment for years as an organization; certainly all two years since I have been here. The program has already been under development so, software systems, management teams, still a lot of work to do and, you know, it is a tight schedule. We are ready to move along with the program so long as we keep it as we’ve defined it and don’t start changing and expanding the scope.

What is Beckstrom's single greatest fear in properly implementing the program?

The natural pressure from this community is always to iterate, change and refine and so we are going to have to resist that temptation while we execute the first round.

When asked how many applications ICANN expects, Rod stated that they do not speculate or tally, rather, their job is just to be prepared to "handle the applications in an orderly and professionally fashion to protect the security and stability of the root of the Internet."

Read more about ICANN 41 and about the New gTLD approval and implementation process on our blog:

ICANN 41 Report: ICANN Votes to Expand TLD Space

ICANN 41 Report: The Course is Set for New gTLD Implementation