20(b) Explain the applicant's relationship to the community identified in 20(a)

Prototypical answer:

* RELATIONSHIP TO COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS *

The applicant, TLDDOT GmbH, is a member of the community since it is registered as a GmbH with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Berlin (IHK zu Berlin) with the registration number HRB 124498 as mentioned in the applicant profile.

TLDDOT GmbH is also member of the largest association representing the interests of GmbH companies, the BVMW (The German Association for Small and Medium-sized Businesses). The Berlin-based BVMW is a politically independent association which caters for all commercial branches and professions, and represents the interests of small and medium- sized businesses in politics, with administrative authorities, with trade unions and
with major companies. The BVWM has around 80.000 GmbHs as members.

By this the applicant, TLDDOT GmbH, is a member that is eligible according to the GmbH Community criteria.


* RELATIONSHIP TO THE COMMUNITY PARTS *

The applicant, TLDDOT GmbH, has a relationship to all layers of the GmbH Community structure as described in #20a.

1. TLDDOT GmbH maintains a long-standing relationship to the governments in Austria, Germany and Switzerland via the members of the Governmental Advisory Committee at ICANN (Liechtenstein is represented by Switzerland), and has consulted with them on the creation of the .GmbH namespace. TLDDOT GmbH has various other contacts to governmental representatives. The government of Germany has already pre-reserved several names for its reserved names list under .GmbH.

2. TLDDOT GmbH and its managers maintain also relationships to other organizations representing GmbH companies, such as the Deutsche Industrie- und Handelskammer (www.dihk.de), Wirtschaftskammer Österreich (www.wko.at), Association of Berlin Merchants and Manufacturers e.V. (www.vbki.de), medianet Berlin-Brandenburg e.V.
(www.medianet-bb.de), Unternehmerverband Berlin-Brandenburg e.V. (www.uv-berlin.de), eco Verband der deutschen Internetwirtschaft e.V. (the association for the German Internet economy, www.eco.de), BITKOM - Bundesverband Informationswirtschaft, Telekommunikation und neue Medien e.V. (the German association for information technology, telecommunications and new media, www.bitkom.org).

3. TLDDOT is a GmbH itself.


* ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISMS *

1. Advisory Board
The applicants advisory board will be set up in 2012, it has a consultative and supporting position for the approval activities and for the subsequent operation of the top-level domain .GMBH. The advisory board also helps to anchor, in a socially responsible way, the top-level domain .GMBH in the GmbH Community made up of political, commercial, cultural, social and individual interests. It also advises the Registry on policies such as the issuing of domains, taking account of the various interests fairly and transparently. The heterogeneous composition of the advisory board can make use of a variety of experience, knowledge and contacts. The advisory board includes (in
alphabetic order):

- Ruediger Eisele – In-house counsel of the BVMW (German Association for Small and
Medium-sized Businesses)
- Dr. Hagen Hultzsch – Former ICANN director and former member of the management board of Deutsche Telekom AG
- Hans-Joachim Reck – Managing Director of the VKU (Association of municipal Companies in Germany)

2. Annual Reports
The Registry will publish annual reports on operations of the .GMBH top-level domain and inform the public on other relevant developments in the .GMBH name space.

3. Ombudsman
The Registry will establish an ombudsman.

4. Education
The Registry will publish educational papers, speeches and other public awareness creating measures (already ongoing).


* DISCLOSURE *

Shareholder of the applicant is the ICANN accredited Registrar PSI USA Inc⁄InterNetX GmbH.

Similar gTLD applications: (1)