Featured Blogs

Connectivity Policy and the Open Internet

The goal of public policy for connectivity should be to assure access to our common facilities as a public good by adopting sustainable business models that don't put owners and users at odds with each other. Such balances are typically difficult to achieve which is what makes connectivity so unusual - we can achieve both once we fund the facilities as a public good apart from the particular applications such as telephone calls and cable content. more

France Wants IGF Replaced by World Internet Council

Last week, the French Senate unveiled a proposal which, if enacted, would bring sweeping changes to the Internet Governance landscape. A Senate working group worked on the proposal for 6 months. Although it is not only focussed on IG, the report can be seen as a further indictment of ICANN, following French Secretary for the Digital Economy Axelle Lemaire's claim that the organisation is no longer the right place to discuss IG. more

Cloud Computing Struggles: Prevent and Overcome

By 2018, the private cloud market will be worth almost $70 billion, according to a report from Technology Business Research and reported by eWeek, while cloud-based security services are predicted to reach more than $3 billion in 2015. Despite these gains, however, there are struggles: Information Management points to research that found that 88 percent of companies adopting the cloud experienced at least one "unexpected challenge," and on average survey respondents used three cloud vendors to find the right mix of pricing and services. more

Live Video Stream of IGF-USA On Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Coming up on this Wednesday, July 16, 2014, the 2014 Internet Governance Forum - USA (IGF-USA) will take place at George Washington University in Washington, DC. I'm told by one of the people involved that there are around 500 people currently registered to attend. The agenda looks quite amazing... If you are, like me, unable to attend in person, the good news is that we can follow along through a live video stream... more

Breaking It Down: the IANA Transition in Practical Pieces

As a Regional Internet Registry, APNIC has a strong interest in the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), and the services it provides. We have followed the progress of IANA carefully, in particular through the evolution of ICANN, and the various steps taken by the US Government to reduce its level of oversight. Along with other RIRs, through the NRO, we have made several public statements about the IANA and its future development, mostly in response to US Government enquiries. more

Where Are the Registrars With New gTLDs on the Mobile Web?

As mobile usage of the Internet continues to increase, I'm anticipating that new gTLDs will provide a better link (pun intended) from an ad to the web, from the offline to the online, when people see a meaningful domain name that they can remember to lookup on the go via their smartphone's mobile web. The mobile web is great for that instant real-time response to an ad's call to action. more

Inter Mundos: ICANN’s Accountability is a Matter of Human Rights

The debate over the IANA Functions transitions has captivated the minds of all stakeholders. The U.S. Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has announced that they intend to transition key Internet domain name functions to the global multistakeholder community. Thus, we find ourselves in the midst of a transition between worlds. All stakeholders are pondering the following questions: what should be the appropriate transition? What should be our goal? more

Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Botnet Takedowns (July 15, 2014)

The background is of course quite interesting, given how soon it has followed Microsoft's seizure of several domains belonging to Dynamic DNS provider no-ip.com for alleged complicity in hosting trojan RAT gangs, a couple of days after which the domains were subsequently returned -- without public comment -- to Vitalwerks, the operator of No-IP. This is by no means a new tactic for Microsoft, who has carried out successful seizures of various domains over the past two or three years. more

Want to Make a Difference in Internet Governance? Just Show Up

It was 20 years earlier than ICANN, and 25 years ahead of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) that Woody Allen said "80 percent of life is just showing up," but he could have just as easily been talking about our current multistakeholder policy situation. The emergence of powerful multistakeholder governance and engagement models has fundamentally changed the way we do Internet policy, and the roles that companies, organizations and individuals play in the process. more

Now Available - A Trend Chart Tracking DNSSEC Validation Globally

How can we track the amount of DNSSEC validation happening globally? Is there a way we can see the trend over time to (we hope!) see validation rise? At the recent excellent DNSSEC Workshop at ICANN 50 in London Geoff Huston let me know that his APNIC Labs team has now created this exact type of trend chart. more

Outcome of UK IGF 2014 As I Saw It

The UK IGF was held on 1st July 2014 at St. Ermin's hotel, London, England. The Nominet Chair Baroness Rennie Fritchie gave the sponsor's welcoming remarks. She said "The IGF provides an opportunity for discussion, dialogue, divergent views, and encourages people to speak-up". The event had about 50 participants. The Minister for Culture, Communication and the Creative Industries Hon. Ed Vaizey, MP gave his keynote speech and fielded questions from participants. more

Thank You GNSO - From the SHE.africa

The recent announcement at the ICANN 50 London, by all stakeholder groups and constituencies comprising of ICANN's Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) to endorse a joint statement in support of the creation of an independent accountability mechanism "that provides meaningful review and adequate redress for those harmed by ICANN action or inaction in contravention of an agreed upon compact with the community" is a very welcome development to the Multistakeholder framework. more

What if France Had Applied for a .WINE New gTLD?

Would the French Government or any other French Private company -- such as a French Vineyard -- had applied to the .WINE Top-Level Domain, one could wonder what would the situation be today. Well... the situation would be the exact same -- the applicant would be in front of three other .WINE applicants with this exact same question: how do I win the auction? more

It’s Time to Talk Solutions on Mass Surveillance

The public discussion of surveillance one year on from the Snowden revelations remains a search for the biggest sinner. New stories 'outing' countries and companies are great transparency and essential for healthy societies but they have a side effect that isn't so benign: they create an evergreen source of new justifications for security services to demand more money for a surveillance and counter-surveillance arms race. more

Painting Ourselves Into a Corner with Path MTU Discovery

In Tony Li's article on path MTU discovery we see this text: "The next attempt to solve the MTU problem has been Packetization Layer Path MTU Discovery (PLPMTUD). Rather than depending on ICMP messaging, in this approach, the transport layer depends on packet loss to determine that the packet was too big for the network. Heuristics are used to differentiate between MTU problems and congestion. Obviously, this technique is only practical for protocols where the source can determine that there has been packet loss. Unidirectional, unacknowledged transfers, typically using UDP, would not be able to use this mechanism. To date, PLPMTUD hasn't demonstrated a significant improvement in the situation." Tony's article is (as usual) quite readable and useful, but my specific concern here is DNS... more