Arguments in favour or against the use of categories in the new gTLD program 
have been exchanged for more than two years without any significant progress. 
Following intense discussions on that topic during the ICANN meeting in Nairobi, 
including in the Public Forum, a Birds of a Feather (BOF) meeting was convened 
on Thursday March 11, 2010 to explore possible ways forward.

The 90 minutes open meeting gathered more than 30 people from the different 
Supporting Organizations and Advisory Committees and confirmed the interest of 
the participants in a cross-community group (CCG) to to explore further the 
concept of categories (in all its ambiguities and dimensions) and study its 
usability / usefulness in the new gTLD program. 

The group is open to all interested participants from the ICANN community, 
whether they support the use of this notion or not, in order to take all perspectives 
into account. The group, however, is not convened to discuss in general whether 
there should be categories or not. It is a fair question, but not the one the group 
will focus upon . 

In view of the preliminary discussions in the Nairobi BOF, the group's purpose is to :

1. clarify the terminology, as considerable ambiguity remains on the notion,
2. identify the various objections to this idea (in order to address them as fairly as 
possible), and 
3. document the possible benefits it could bring in the development of the gTLD 
program (including finalization of the DAG, organization of the application round(s) 
and ulterior operations)

This mailing list is established to allow discussions on the topic and feed into the 
preparation of a report to be presented at the latest one month before the ICANN 
meeting in Brussels. 

In view of the limited timeframe, and in order to facilitate the iterative drafting 
of the report, a first small group of volunteers has been formed in Nairobi to 
kick-start the process and structure discussions. Working methods will be further 
refined as needed. 

The archive of this list can be fond at http://info.n4c.eu/sympa/arc/icann-ccg-101