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

Prototypical answer:

The proposed .CAREER gTLD will benefit registrants, Internet users and others by, among other reasons, promoting competition and consumer choice in the namespace by providing marketing opportunities and domain names for registrants to promote and provide career, job, human resources and employment-related information. The proposed .CAREER gTLD will further benefit registrants, Internet users and others by promoting consumer trust by providing a gTLD operated in a professional and commercially reasonable manner by an experienced management team and powered by a world-class back end registry provider.

Registration and use of .CAREER will be complimentary to other gTLDs such as .COM, .ORG and .JOBS, and will provide potential registrants with domain name options not practically available in other gTLDs. As the term “career” connotes human resources, employment and job-related information, DC believes that potential registrants will be able to benefit from second-level domains in .CAREER by providing content related to the career, job, human resources and employment-related industries. Users who seek such information will benefit from the expanded options such registrants gain via domain availability in the .CAREER gTLD. Awareness of the existence of the .CAREER gTLD will also benefit Internet users -- such awareness will create new choice within the DNS for how to access and locate career, job, human resources and employment -related information, and the goods and services associated with such industries.

DC believes that employers will particularly benefit from the .CAREER gTLD, and particularly employers who employ .CAREER second-level domains to provide access to job listings. Many employers prefer to market their employment listings to job seekers as “career” opportunities rather than “job” listings, believing the term “career” provides a layer of meaning, permanence and distinction above and beyond the term “job”. DC believes the .CAREER gTLD will provide such employers with topical and relevant domain name registration options.

1. The goals of the .CAREER gTLD in terms of areas of specialty, service levels and reputation.

As a standard gTLD with an inherent meaning related to the career, job, human resources and employment industries and related information, DC believes that registrants and users alike will likely associate .CAREER with the specialties of careers, jobs, human resources and employment. While it is DC’s belief that the inherent meaning of the term “career” will foster this association with potential registrants, it is not DC’s intent to provide any registrant or user restrictions with regard to such specialties. Rather, DC views the inherent meaning of the term “career” as a powerful incentive to motivate potential registrants towards this goal. A further factor in achieving this goal is the inherent meaning the term “career” has for users. DC believes that users will generally associate the meaning of “career listings”, “job listings” and⁄or “career-related information” with the term “career”, and that potential registrants will likely share such a belief. In this light, it becomes beneficial for potential registrants and users alike that domains within .CAREER relate in some manner to the career, job, human resources and employment industries. DC firmly believes that the generic term “career” cannot qualify as a community-based gTLD under ICANN’s community criteria. However, in the spirit of promoting competition and user choice as set forth by ICANN, and given the limited available constructs provided by ICANN in this gTLD expansion round (i.e., standard or community), DC believes that market forces, as compared to registration and use restrictions, are the most efficient and commercially reasonable drivers of such goals.

In terms of service level goals, it is DC’s goal for users to experience robust DNS industry standards for technical back-end operations, including but not limited to near 100% uptime; timely zone file dissemination; searchable WHOIS capabilities; and additional security measures such as for DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC).

In terms of reputation, it is DC’s goal to provide a gTLD operated (and recognized as being operated by users) in a professional and commercially reasonable manner by an experienced management team and powered by a world-class back end registry provider.

2. What the .CAREER gTLD will add to the current space in terms of competition, differentiation and innovation.

Creation of .CAREER will provide competition to existing TLD’s in the form of a new name space for registration of career, job, human resources and employment -related domain names.

Over time, DC anticipates a single dedicated name space under the unique .CAREER gTLD, in combination with the inherent meaning of the term “career”, will resonate with potential registrants and users of the Internet alike to create differentiation that otherwise could not exist in current gTLD’s. DC anticipates that association of the term “career” in the minds of consumers with careers, jobs, human resources and employment-related information will differentiate .CAREER from other TLD’s which do not benefit from such consumer association with the descriptive nature of the TLD itself, or by association of the TLD with products and⁄or services unrelated to the career, job, human resources and⁄or employment industries. Registrants of .CAREER domain names providing use which does not relate to the inherent meaning of the term “career” will likely produce marginal value, resulting in little end-user participation and⁄or repeat visitation, which DC believes will provide little incentive, and even less repeat incentive, on the part of such registrants to so act.

While it is difficult to predict in exact terms what future innovation may occur as a result of the existence of the .CAREER gTLD, DC expects to demonstrate the same capacity to innovate and adapt to new media as has been done with the .JOBS gTLD. For example, DC intends to consider the potential of the use of a first come, first serve (at a higher fixed annual fee) basis to determine string allocation in appropriate circumstances, such as in allocating any premium names.

3. User experience goals of the .CAREER gTLD.

A goal of .CAREER is for users to experience robust DNS industry standards for technical back-end operations, including but not limited to near 100% uptime; timely zone file dissemination; searchable WHOIS capabilities; and additional security measures such as for DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC).

Over time, an additional goal is for users to experience .CAREER websites as sources for information related to the career, job, human resources and employment industries. DC believes that, over time, registrants will recognize the association by users with the inherent meaning of the term “career” and register, and use, domains in the .CAREER gTLD accordingly.

4. Intended registration policies in the .CAREER gTLD in support of the goals listed above.

In support of the goals and the mission⁄purpose set forth above for the .CAREER gTLD, DC will implement registration policies required to comply with any applicable ICANN Consensus Policies, ICANN’s registry agreement, any applicable rules of law, any policies implicated for compliance with DC’s response to Questions 28 and 29 related to mitigation of abusive registrations and rights protection mechanisms, and any policies implicated for compliance with DC’s response to Question 23 as such relates to allocation⁄launch⁄premium names. Beyond that, DC does not intend to have any additional registration policies, believing that market forces, consistent with ICANN’s mandate to promote competition and choice, are the most efficient and commercially reasonable drivers of the stated goals and mission⁄purpose in light of the inherent meaning appurtenant to “.CAREER” along with registrant and user recognition thereof.

DC does, however, reserve the right to create, implement and enforce any registration policy(ies) to further the mission⁄purpose of .CAREER and the goals of .CAREER, so long as any such policy is consistent with the stated mission⁄purpose of the gTLD. DC further reserves the right to determine how domains in .CAREER may be used.

During initial operation of the .CAREER gTLD, DC may elect to adopt more restrictive registration policies, such as additional rights protection mechanisms that may be provided pursuant to this new gTLD round, and to provide other policies and practices relating to registration and use of domains in .CAREER, which are reasonably necessary for the management, operations and purpose of the gTLD, so long as any such restrictions, policies or practices are consistent with the mission⁄purpose of .CAREER and any other restrictions on registration set forth above. This will allow DC the ability to explore and implement user experience goals noted above and to find ways of achieving the missions⁄purposes identified above.

5. Measures for protecting the privacy and confidentiality of registrants and users.

Applicant does not at this time propose any measures for protecting the privacy of confidential information of registrants or users of .CAREER domain names, outside of what is required under applicable statute, contract or law.

6. Outreach and communications which will help achieve projected benefits.

The primary outreach and communications that will occur for .CAREER will be through registrar promotions and promotional activities by DC, in DC’s sole discretion, based upon DC’s determination of registrant and user adoption of .CAREER, furtherance of the mission⁄purpose of .CAREER and progress towards meeting the goals stated above. DC will consider a combination of one or more radio, television, print and Web advertisements to produce widespread awareness for .CAREER.

Similar gTLD applications: (1)