New gTLD registration stats stuck because zone files are not available

The Centralized Zone Data System (CZDS) that is the system that provides all the New gTLD zone files is down for the past 36 hours. ICANN send an email yesterday informing CZDS users that there is some “potential” technical problem and that they are working to restore access to the CZDS:

On 29 April 2014 we were notified of a potential technical problem in the Centralized Zone Data System (CZDS).  We are working quickly to restore access to the CZDS, and will let you know when this occurs.
Thank you for your patience.

What this means is that no one has access to the New gTLD zone files so the registration numbers reported at various stats websites such as ntldstats.com are stuck on the numbers reported on the 29th of April. ICANN didn’t give an estimated time of restored access. This does not affect the new gTLD domain name registrations in any way. This is what you now see at CZDS:

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced on the 17th of April the beginning of a transition to a new ICANN.org website. I am not sure if this had anything to do with this downtime. A user reported that the new ICANN whois webpage was not returning any results yesterday but now ti works ok.

This was the announcement that was made by ICANN on the 17th of April about the new website transition:

“We had three objectives for the new site: improve transparency of ICANN by making information easier to find, make it effortless for people to join the community and engage in the work, and lastly, to continue to support the established community with new tools,” said Chris Gift, Vice President of Online Community Services.

“The new site is intended to allow those new to the organization to discover ICANN, the work being done and our role in the Internet governance ecosystem, as well as to allow those same people the opportunity to get involved in the ICANN community,” said Gift. “With easier navigation, improved access to information, and new tools we can better support the organization’s policy discussions. These new stakeholders and the established community have a site that is easier to navigate with accessible information and tools to support the organization’s policy discussions.”

Over the coming days, a percentage of ICANN.org users will be redirected to the new site and as the next two weeks progress, the number of users redirected will increase until all users are sent directly to the new site.

“We have thought through the process and we’re being cautious in the way we move forward,” said Chris Gift. “We will increase the amount of traffic to the new site roughly every other day until we are fully crossed over.”

The new website was launched in beta relatively early in its development to encourage the ICANN community to become part of the development process. ICANN‘s development team adopted agile and lean development practices throughout the building stage – where ideas were built then tested by users and their feedback fuelled the next iteration.

Please join Chris Gift and Anil Podduturi, Principal at Neo, on Thursday, 24 April at 18:00 UTC for a demonstration of the new ICANN.org. The public webinar will also include a Q&A session at the end.

To visit the new ICANN website, go to new.icann.org.