Version 3 of the draft application guide for new the gTLD is out.
Read all about it here
Thankfully, there is enough breathing space to absorb before ICANN Seoul.

World Domain Cup offered by Interlink Japan, is open for ideas (string) to anyone who is interested to share their gTLD ideas with Interlink and if Interlink accepts their idea, the winner will get :-

USD 10,000; and
USD 1 per domain name.

What’s even more interesting, internet users will vote and decide which string to go ahead [...]

Here is a poll from Advertising Age, on what marketers think about the new gTLD.
The poll above is referred from here.
What do you think?

Pingdom recently came up with a statistic of the domain name industry for 2008 and Internet numbers for 2008. Fantastic analysis on the subject which triggered me to ponder what will happen in the next 5 years generally for ccTLD and gTLD. Moreover, the first round gTLD submission is expected to be open Q1 09.
Let [...]

Today ICANN released the second version of the gTLD RFP draft application guide, one week before ICANN Mexico begins in hope to make full use of the public comment periods during the meeting.
Public comments begins on 19 Feb 2009 and closes on 13 April 2009.
There is also a detailed analysis on the public comments by [...]