The draft gTLD Registry Failover Plan has been updated (see http://www.icann.org/registries/failover/draft-plan-27nov07.htm.pdf). The public comment announcement is at http://www.icann.org/public_comment/#registry-failover-plan. This will be tested in January and reported to the community for the ICANN meeting in Delhi.
Take a straw poll of the general public and many will believe that ICANN’s primary role is that of an ombudsman, overseeing the security of their domain registrations. In my view there are few higher callings than registrant security. It’s nearly 2008 and the broader namespace has evolved dramatically over the past 7 years. Many of today’s registrants have significant capital invested in their domain names. Given this new leveraged environment, it’s surprising how little insurance registrants have that nothing will go fundamentally wrong at their registrar.. While it’s not possible to mother the inner workings of every registrar, it “is” possible to build a safety net in case the unthinkable happens at one or two of them.. kudos to ICANN staffers for working to fashion said net.