I came across my first newTLD today. What I mean is, during the regular course of careening about the Internet, I came across a resource that is using a dotINFO domain. I wasn't prompted to go there because of something I had read (ie - registry propaganda), I wasn't merely typing in an address to see if it worked (ie - nic.info) and I wasn't using a resource that belonged to me (ie - rader.info). This was a real live, flesh and blood resource that was sitting out there waiting for someone like me to use it¹.
Now, I don't know if this means that the new TLDs are taking hold or whether this was the result of some statistical phenomena (someone who uses the Internet as much as me was bound to come across a website using a newTLD sooner or later) but it does show me that there are regular Internetizens that have adopted a newTLD to hang their shingle on. A lot of people put a lot of extraordinary time and effort into seeing that the concept of newTLDs became reality - its cool to finally see that it is paying off.
¹Now that I think of it, TR's blog was probably the first newTLD that I came across, but Thomas is part of the loop, so I can't in good conscience count him as a "regular" Internetizen. Sorry T. :)