Featured Blogs

SpaceX Satellite Internet Project Status Update

I've been following the efforts of SpaceX and OneWeb to become global Internet service providers using constellations of low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites for some time. Launch times are getting close, so I'm posting a status update on SpaceX's project... The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation held a hearing titled "Investing in America's Broadband Infrastructure: Exploring Ways to Reduce Barriers to Deployment" on May 3, 2017, and one of the expert witnesses was Patricia Cooper, SpaceX Vice President, Satellite Government Affairs. more

Aviation: The Dirty, Not-So-Little Secret of Internet Governance

Almost a year ago, I began writing about the relationship between the Internet/information and communications technologies (ICTs), the environment, and sustainability. One of the points I made in my first article on the subject is that there is much more we as a community can do to reduce our ecological footprint and enhance the sustainability of the Internet... This necessity combined with the ever-growing urgency to act hit hard when I recently read a New York Times article about how bad flying is for the environment. more

Should the EB-5 Investor Visa Program Recognize Cyber Workers?

The EB-5 Investor Visa Program was created by Congress in 1990 to "stimulate the U.S. economy through job creation and capital investment by foreign investors." The program, administered by the Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), provides that entrepreneurs (and their spouses and unmarried children under 21) are eligible to apply for a green card (permanent residence) if they make the necessary investment in a commercial enterprise in the United States; and plan to create or preserve 10 permanent full-time jobs. more

Supporting New DNS RR Types with dnsextlang, Part II

Previous article introduced my DNS extension language, intended to make it easier to add new DNS record types to DNS software. It described a new perl module Net::DNS::Extlang that uses the extension language to automatically create perl code to handle new RRTYPEs. Today we look at my second project, intended to let people create DNS records and zone files with new RRTYPEs. more

Is a New Set of Governance Mechanism Necessary for the New gTLDs?

In order to be able to reply to the question of whether a new set of governance mechanisms are necessary to regulate the new Global Top Level Domains (gTLDs), one should first consider how efficiently the current Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has performed and then move to the evaluation of the Implementations Recommendations Team (ITR) recommendations. more

Where to Search UDRP Decisions

Searching decisions under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) is important - for evaluating the merits of a potential case and also, of course, for citing precedent when drafting documents (such as a complaint and a response) in an actual case. But, searching UDRP decisions is not always an easy task. It's important to know both where to search and how to search. Unfortunately, there is no longer an official, central repository of all UDRP decisions that is freely available online. more

Broadband Providers: What are the Implications of Virtual Reality?

Broadband service providers take note, personal virtual reality (VR) platforms are going to reshape the industry sooner than you think. We've seen a constant stream of VR-related news coming from major industry tradeshows, online broadband publications, and even broadband CEO blog posts. I'll try to generalize their comments succinctly: personal VR platforms are expected to bring massive sales, huge increases in bandwidth consumption, and dramatic shifts in subscriber quality expectations. more

Supporting New DNS RR Types with dnsextlang, Part I

The Domain Name System has always been intended to be extensible. The original spec in the 1980s had about a dozen resource record types (RRTYPEs), and since then people have invented many more so now there are about 65 different RRTYPEs. But if you look at most DNS zones, you'll only see a handful of types, NS, A, AAAA, MX, TXT, and maybe SRV. Why? A lot of the other types are arcane or obsolete, but there are plenty that are useful. more

Wireless Innovations for a Networked Society

Last week, I had the honor of moderating an engaging panel discussion at Mozilla on the need for community networks and the important role they can play in bridging the digital divide. The panel highlighted the success stories of some of the existing California-based initiatives that are actively working toward building solutions to get under-served communities online. more

Cuban Professors Get Laptops But No Wifi Capabilities

Late last year, we learned that China's 90,000 employee Haier Group would be producing laptops and tablets in partnership with GEDEME, a Cuban manufacturer that will assemble the machines using Haier parts, equipment, and production processes. Last week, a friend who is a professor at the University of Havana told me that he and other professors have been given GDM laptops. more

Renewed Internet.nl Website: Modern Standards Need to be Used for a Free, Open and Secure Internet

Modern Internet Standards provide for more reliability and further growth of the Internet. But are you using them? You can test this on the Dutch website www.internet.nl (also available in English and Polish). Recently the website was renewed. Not only the style has been adapted, but also the way the tests are performed and the test results are shown. A lot of additional information has been added, so that even the tech savvy internet users can find an explanation underpinning the test results. more

When a Domain Name Dispute is ‘Plan B’

While having a backup plan is usually a good idea, it's often not an effective way to obtain someone else's domain name - at least not when Plan B consists of a company filing a UDRP complaint with the hope of getting a domain name to which it is not entitled and could not acquire via a negotiated purchase. "Plan B" as a derogatory way of describing an attempted domain name acquisition usually arises in the context of a domain name that is not protected by exclusive (or any) trademark rights, or where the complainant clearly could not prevail in a UDRP proceeding. more

Unlocking the Hidden Value Within Your IT Organization

Many C-level executives are unaware their IT organizations could be sitting on a lucrative sellable supply of unused IPv4 addresses. Assessing and executing on the opportunity takes planning, but there's a clear path for getting it done. In 2014 and 2015, buyers had their pick of large block holders with millions of available and unused numbers. This surplus allowed large buyers to shop around for the lowest offer and, as a result, drive prices down to a low of $4/number. more

Slovaks Worry About the Future of Their Country’s .SK TLD

Almost every country code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD) has had some kind of rough and clumsy start at its sunrise. Internet was young, everything was new, and whoever took the national TLD first, got power over it. The situation eventually sorted out, and now most ccTLDs are drama free, well-operated for the benefit of people and the Internet communities in those countries. Unfortunately, not in Slovakia. more

IGF’s Brexit Moment

When people feel powerless, they sometimes push for change at any price, and in the absence of a guillotine reach for institutions instead. This makes some sense: at worst it feels good, and at best if you believe things can't get any worse, then what's to lose by shaking them up? ... Normally potent members of ICANN's community -- people and entities for whom the sensation of powerlessness is largely unfamiliar -- are nonetheless feeling that way in respect of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF). more