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?
Style is understood everywhere. It has become both an expression of individuality and a key national export. It is linked to self-esteem and self-reliance. It is a reflection of heritage and a glimpse into the future.
The goal of the .STYLE registry is to give this subject of such substance its own name space.
As already stated, our mission is to give consumers, entrepreneurs and institutions committed to adding style to daily life a new address and new tools to make it happen even as the registry gives assurances to those looking that they have found a set of resources that can be trusted.
Our registry will benefit registrants, Internet users and others because, despite the consistent definition of style, there are thousands of ways it can be expressed. And no place for it all to come together – until now.
Most websites devoted to style are sprinkled across the .com registry. So is everything else.
By offering a subject-specific name-space, the community can coalesce in new and innovative ways. A focused registry will make it easier for people to enter the industry, interact with its innovators and acolytes, identify meaningful partnerships, promote style as a personal and cultural expression and, ultimately, create a more vibrant market place.
A centralized and focused name space will make it easy to create style-centric resources that will gain credibility and visibility as it grows. Those who want to learn how to express their own style, those who want to publicize and promote their sense of style and those who want to find new customers and markets for their lines will all find a home at .STYLE.

ii. What do you anticipate your proposed gTLD will add to the current space, in terms of competition, differentiation, or innovation?
Right now there are thousands of websites devoted to style – from educational opportunities (like those at http:⁄⁄www.theschoolofstyle.com⁄) to journalism and blogging (as at http:⁄⁄www.theschoolofstyle.com⁄) to fashion (as can be found at http:⁄⁄bananarepublic.gap.com⁄) and finally to every part of daily life (just as described at http:⁄⁄www.lff.com⁄).
Most websites devoted to style are sprinkled across the .com registry. So is everything else.
As noted, by offering a subject-specific name-space, the community can coalesce in new and innovative ways. A focused registry will make it easier for people to enter the industry, interact, identify meaningful partnerships, create a more vibrant market place and promote style as a personal and cultural expression.
The .STYLE registry seeks to give a subject-specific platform for more and new voices. In this way the registry can help create the opportunity to find encouragement, endorsement and accelerate both the dialog and the development of new products and services driven by the insights of its registrants.

iii. What goals does your proposed gTLD have in terms of user experience?
Let’s begin with the value of serendipity.
Rather than needing to know a specific URL to find a certain company, institution, media platform or educational institution, there will be opportunity for serendipity.
A registry devoted to the health and well-being of a specific industry has the opportunity to be more than a logical place to open a store-front on the Internet. It has the chance to give those with an interest in the subject to find what they are looking for before they even knew they were looking. That’s serendipity.
It is our hope that just as people now bookmark certain websites in their browsers; those with an interest in style will come to view the domain name extension as a bookmark of its own. It will seek to be immersive in its experience; we will encourage registrants from every corner of the practice and the globe to be a part of the registry.
Style is, after all, spoken in every language on the planet, yet with a singular definition. It is our hope that .STYLE will be the address for those languages and that definition.
It is our belief that the focus of the registry, the value of single name-space for the diversity of style and the expectations we have come to know of how digital technologies have changed the lives of consumers and companies alike all will combine to deliver a meaningful, responsive and amplified community.
By establishing certain registration policies (discussed below), it is our intent to keep registrants focused on delivering a platform for consistency and commitment to the pursuit and business of style.
We believe that given the white board of the .STYLE registry, registrants and Internet users will find their voices and their styles.

iv. Provide a complete description of the applicant’s intended registration policies in support of the goals listed above.
In introducing the registry, there will be a number of restrictions on the names that can be registered in .STYLE. Some of these are contractual requirements from ICANN, but others are a matter of registry policy. In addition, reserved are the names of territories, distinct economies, and other geographic and geopolitical names, as required by ICANN.
The registry also has a small list of names that it has reserved for itself. Some will be offered via an RFP process aimed at generating important services in support of the registry, some will be retained by the registry (this is a confidential list) and others will be offered to strategic partners.
As our mission is to enhance the global conversation among companies, their customers and those who aspire to promote their own style, certain policies will be implemented to guard against diffusing this mission. To that end, we will have a rapid takedown procedure to deal, at least, with these two (2) potential scenarios:

- Cyberbullying: If a complaint is made that any DotSTYLE site engages in cyberbullying of a minor (as defined by http:⁄⁄www.stopcyberbullying.org), and that complaint is proved, the site will be the subject of rapid takedown policies.
- Pornography: Registrants who host pornographic content will similarly be subject to rapid takedown should a complaint be filed and upheld.
In support of the registry’s commitment to transparency, we intend to host a thick and verified WhoIs database of registrants.
The tactical approach to releasing .STYLE names will reinforce these values and follow this path:
An RFP process will begin immediately to help establish the market for the registry’s names and services in support of it.
A Sunrise period will ensure the protection of rights holders. Each will have the opportunity to register protected names in advance of the General Availability. These names will be subject to annual renewal.
Then a Landrush will open for all. Competition for the same names in both the Sunrise and Landrush periods will be sent to an auction.
Finally, General Availability will open.

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.
All registrants will be encouraged to balance the privacy needs of individuals and the necessary public nature of a productive dialog. From the point-of-view of the registry, the sites created on .STYLE ought to be focused on facilitating such a dialog about style.
The diversity of approaches to meeting that goal will likely be a wide as the range of sites created in the registry’s name space. It is our plan, by our marketing and our operating principles, to encourage registrants to make a similar commitment.
The registry’s decision to host a thick and verified WhoIs database is one instance where it will seek to lead by example. Privacy and transparency are not mutually exclusive values; each is totally appropriate. So, too is accountability.

vi. Describe whether and in what ways outreach and communications will help to achieve your projected benefits.
Style has long been the subject of media attention. It is our plan to introduce the registry to those magazines, blogs, reporters, editors and others who have made the story of style their life’s work. Some of these people may be invited to participate in an advisory board we may create.
The story of style is also told in the halls of academia. There are many style-specific institutions (from hair styles to fashion styles to automobile styling) and more general institutions of higher education that offer the subject as a general course. It is our plan to engage educators at the local level.
Finally, the registry will become a story in itself. The sites built by its registrants, their scope and insight, will create a recurring wealth of promotion that will likely draw others to participate.
The fact that right now there is no centralized, town square, open 24-hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week, 365-days-a-year means the energy behind style is disparate, with every website needing to stand on its own. The .STYLE registry will seek to make the energy of the sum greater than its parts.
A registry that can align, organize and encourage interaction will draw the attention of those players who now have no one address. We will employ the full range of public relations, marketing and advertising to accomplish this goal.

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