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?”

IEEE Global’s goal for the .IEEE gTLD in terms of areas of specialty is to present IEEE-sponsored content of interest to IEEEʹs members and the global technology community.

Content associated with domain names in the .IEEE gTLD – on websites or otherwise – must be in furtherance of the IEEE community’s purposes, as provided in Article I, § 2 of the IEEE Constitution, or in furtherance of IEEE as an organization, including, without limitation, information about becoming a member of IEEE, or its organizational units and the benefits of same, news about IEEE such as elections of leaders, and sales of IEEE-branded products and services.

(Article 1, § 2 of the IEEE Constitution provides that “[IEEE’s] purposes are: (a) scientific and educational, directed toward the advancement of the theory and practice of electrical, electronics, communications and computer engineering, as well as computer science, the allied branches of engineering and the related arts and sciences; means to these ends include, but are not limited to, the holding of meetings for the presentation and discussion of professional papers, the publication and circulation of works of literature, science and art pertaining thereto and any other activities necessary, suitable and proper for the fulfillment of these objectives; (b) professional, directed toward the advancement of the standing of the members of the professions it serves; means to this end include, but are not limited to, the conduct and publication of surveys and reports on matters of professional concern to the members of such professions, collaboration with public bodies and with other societies for the benefit of the engineering professions as a whole and the general public, and the promotion of ethical conduct. The IEEE shall not engage in collective bargaining on such matters as salaries, wages, benefits, and working conditions, customarily dealt with by labor unions.”)

IEEE Global’s goal is to register thousands of domain names in its first five years of operation.

With regard to service level goals, IEEE Global, through its selected registry services provider, Neustar, intends to provide a high level of service, and will meet or exceed all of the ICANN Performance Specifications as specified in the Registry Agreement.

In terms of reputation, the goal of the .IEEE gTLD is to enhance the IEEE community’s already exceptional reputation. IEEE journals are consistently among the most highly cited in electrical and electronics engineering, telecommunications and other technical fields. IEEE is a leading developer of international standards that underpin many of todayʹs telecommunications, information technology and power generation products and services. Pursuing innovation in the new gTLD space will help enhance IEEE’s stature as a leading educational and scientific organization and community.

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

The .IEEE gTLD will protect the goodwill associated with the IEEE brand as the world’s largest educational and scientific organization dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity. Maintaining a strong brand helps IEEE to differentiate its products and services – including scientific publications and conferences and technical standards – from those of other organizations, thus preventing consumer confusion.

Brand-oriented gTLDs have never existed on the internet before. Their addition to the current space will provide a new way for internet users to interact with brand owners online. The opportunities for innovation in this new space are endless and include: giving users a unified online space in which to find information about an organization’s services; providing users with a greater degree of certainty about the source of a website; and allowing for development of elegant website architecture design in connection with sub-groups, interest areas, languages, and international scope.

“iii. What goals does your proposed gTLD have in terms of user experience?”

IEEE Global plans for both internal and external users to benefit from an improved user experience and greater usability of IEEE-branded web sites. These goals will be met through website addresses and URLs that are friendly, distinctive and memorable, and which tie closely to IEEE organizational units, products, and services. The online presence of the IEEE community will be more unified, organized, and easy to use due to IEEE Global’s ability to design a naming structure based on the new gTLD.

In addition, IEEE Global expects that its ownership and control of the gTLD will help improve the security and protection of users. When users see a website address ending in .IEEE, they will eventually understand that the content comes from the IEEE community. This control will help minimize the risk of unauthorized or fraudulent use of the IEEE trademark and will help protect users from the risks in connection with using an unauthorized or fraudulent website.

Finally, because the IEEE community is spread throughout the world, the gTLD will allow portions of the community to have a global association with IEEE while also supporting second-level domain names in local languages. This global⁄local combination could provide a great benefit to users and members of the IEEE community.

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

IEEE Global is committed to employing policies and enforcement mechanisms that will support the community-based purpose of the .IEEE gTLD. The essence of IEEE Global’s policies is that all domain name registrations in the gTLD will be registered to and maintained exclusively by IEEE Global, and IEEE Global will only transfer use of registrations in the gTLD to affiliates of IEEE Global – namely, IEEE itself, its subsidiaries, and the technical Societies, Geographic Regions, and other organizational units of IEEE that are, or may become, the constituent parts of the IEEE community.

More specifically, the .IEEE gTLD Community-Based Policies are described in the response to Question 20 of this gTLD application.

“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.”

The only registrant will be IEEE Global. IEEE Global will use standard contacts for all information shown in the whois database, which should significantly minimize the disclosure of private information, if any. IEEE Global will protect its own confidential information, so there will no need to impose measures, such as through registration policies, for protecting the privacy or confidential information of IEEE Global.

Per the .IEEE gTLD Community-Based Policies, IEEE Global will consider requests from IEEE, its subsidiaries, and its organizational units, to associate domain names in the .IEEE gTLD with particular content. IEEE will not solicit or accept any request containing the personally identifiable information of any individual, except to the limited extent necessary for that purpose. IEEE Global will thus protect most forms of private and confidential information simply by not obtaining them. To the extent IEEE Global obtains email address, personal addresses, or telephone numbers for the purpose of communicating with individuals responsible for content to be associated with domain names in the .IEEE gTLD, such information will be subject to reasonable assurances of confidentiality, if it is necessary to share such information with business partners providing outsourced technical services, or other professionals, for the purpose of assisting with the operation of the gTLD.

Users visiting websites or otherwise interacting with content associated with domain names in the registry will have their privacy protected as described in the privacy policies and practices associated with each website within the new gTLD. An example of a current IEEE privacy policy is: http:⁄⁄www.ieee.org⁄security_privacy.html?WT.mc_id=hpf_priv

“vi. Describe whether and in what ways outreach and communications will help to achieve your projected benefits.”

Outreach and communications will contribute to achieving the benefits of the .IEEE gTLD. IEEE will use such means as its website, publications, and conferences and meetings to inform its organizational units of the opportunity to associate content, such as the organizational units’ websites, with the .IEEE gTLD (pursuant to the terms of the .IEEE gTLD Community-Based Policies).

Outreach and communications will not be needed in terms of new registrants, since all registrations will be owned by IEEE Global.

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