18(b) How do you expect that your proposed gTLD will benefit registrants, Internet users, and others?

Prototypical answer:

i.) What is the goal of your proposed gTLD in terms of areas of specialty, service levels, or reputation?

It is our expectation that .photography will be primarily used by professional photographers, photo enthusiasts, and companies. We do not intend to limit the gTLD to a specific community within the international photography scene. We believe that “photography” is a widely understood word and concept, and that the average Internet user will understand that the content of a .photography domain will be geared towards the expression and pursuit of photographic endeavors.

We hope to create an esteemed reputation throughout the various parts of the photography world by garnering the support of prominent photography organizations, schools, photographers, galleries, and other cultural institutions involved in the production, dissemination, and appreciation of photography. This will be achieved before and after our launch and as an aspect of a comprehensive marketing strategy. By securing endorsements from these organizations, and by getting them to create an online presence in the .photography TLD, we hope to solidify a positive and recognizable reputation as the best TLD option for those involved in photography. However, while we firmly believe that these endorsements may help our marketing efforts, what ultimately matters most is the reputation created throughout the entire photography industry, and not with specific well-known members. Thus, we will focus on creating a safe and secure space that is targeted at all relevant users and not some sections thereof; we believe that pursuing this bottom-up model is not only in the best interest of the productive development of the .photography TLD, but that it also further underscores the importance of the bottom-up, multi-stakeholder model of Internet governance.

ii.) What do you anticipate your proposed gTLD will add to the current space, in terms of areas of competition, differentiation, or innovation?

A .photography TLD will allow continued growth and innovation within the online photography world and more generally within the photography industry as a whole. It will allow individuals and companies whose primary online interests revolve around photography to create a clear and meaningful distinction between this activity and their domain name. The .photography TLD will create a space that is entirely devoted to the appreciation, discussion, and dissemination of photography.

Implementing .photography into the root zone is not only necessary due to the scarcity of desirable domains in the Internet’s most prominent TLDs, but further necessitated by the size and diversity of the international photography market. Photography does not cleanly fit into any of the current gTLDs: for example, it is not necessarily a “commercial,” “organized,” “informational,” or “business” endeavor. Further, given that photography can transcend national boundaries, it also does not fit well into the purview of ccTLDs. Thus, the .photography TLD will provide a competitive alternative for those with the primary interest of making, appreciating, or facilitating photography; these companies and individuals will no longer have to choose a domain due to necessity and constraint but will have the chance to create a meaningful association between their domain name and its photography-related content. We also believe that creating a .photography TLD will facilitate more dialogue and educational opportunities than any other current TLD.

This does not mean we expect that all photography-centric sites will want to move to a .photography extension. Many companies and professionals may think that their commercial photography business is better served by .com, or that their non-profit photography program is at home in .org. Consequently, by adding a .photography to the root zone, ICANN will be improving existing TLDs by allowing them to become more focused on their intended significance, while simultaneously providing a differentiated and specific extension for those who identify first with photography. This will certainly facilitate more TLD competition, and allow the current offerings to become significantly more differentiated than they currently are.

iii.) What goals does your proposed gTLD have in terms of user experience?
Top Level Design, LLC believes the .photography extension is largely self-explanatory and its content is readily apparent to both potential registrants and end-consumers. We hope that the Internet experience of both types of users will therefore be enhanced and simplified by the implementation of .photography into the root zone. Registrants will have the opportunity to clearly, and we hope proudly, identify themselves as a photographer, a photo specialist, or photography enthusiast. Internet users browsing and using sites with a .photography extension will be confident that the website they are navigating will be related to photography. We hope that this interaction between content providers and content consumers will allow the Internet’s photo-centric userbase to work in greater concert and to strengthen their connections globally.

We will create a safe and secure TLD, and believe that this is the most important way to ensure that our users have positive experiences when using .photography.

iv.) Provide a complete description of the applicant’s intended registration policies in support of the goals listed above.

We intend to offer .photography domains through ICANN-accredited registrars, using an open registration policy that requires no verification of any certification, training, or other quantifiable measure of merit. Through targeted marketing efforts and niche pricing levels, we expect to see that a large majority of the domains registered will be by those with plans to develop sites related to photography. In this way, we are insuring the .photography TLD will be open to all individuals and companies that identify through photography, while still maintaining a strongly delineated space.

We will fully implement the requirements made by the ICANN Board with regards to the Trademark Clearinghouse, URS, Trademark PDDRP, RRDRP, and UDRP. We believe the these measures have been suitably developed to prevent defensive registrations, bad faith registrations, and other malicious registrations.

v.) Will your proposed gTLD impose any measures for protecting the privacy or confidential information of registrants or users? If so, please describe any such measures.

As per the current requirements in Section 4 of the Registry Agreement, we will implement all necessary thick WHOIS services. We recognize how imperative it is for each registry and ICANN-accredited registrar to be in full compliance with ICANN’s current WHOIS standards, and we plan to update our policy in accordance with any future measures taken by the ICANN Board in regard to the continuous work by the GNSO’s WHOIS Task Force and other recommendations from the SOs. We have no plans to implement any privacy or confidential measures other than fully implementing any and all such measures as required by ICANN.

Similar gTLD applications: (2)