Featured Blogs

The Christmas Goat and IPv6 (Year 14)

A new year and a new goat with new conditions, the goat was slowly eaten by jackdaws, and in the end, almost only the frame remained. This was really slow TV for the devastation… You can read more on Wikipedia about the devastating jackdaws and the straw... 36% IPv6 is equal to last year, and I had high hopes as Telia (AS3301) has made great progress in IPv6 and that Sweden should be the dominant country.  more

DNSSEC Workshop on March 26 to Be Streamed Live from ICANN 49 in Singapore

If you are interested in DNSSEC and how it can make the Internet more secure, the DNSSEC Workshop at ICANN 49 in Singapore will be streamed live for anyone to listen and view. One of three DNSSEC-related technical events at ICANN 49, the DNSSEC Workshop takes place on Wednesday, March 26, from 8:30am - 2:45pm Singapore time. more

New gTLD Retrospective at ICANN 50

On Wednesday June 25th from 10-12am in the Sovereign Room applicants and key community members will debate what worked, what didn't and what's next for new gTLDs. The event has been organized by the RySG & NTAG as the first community led dialogue on the 2012 new gTLD round since 'reveal day' two years ago. Rather than have panelists deliver presentations, the session will be an open dialogue both between panel members and the audience. It is split into two fifty minute discussion sessions. more

The Price of Lack of Clarity

As anyone reading this blog, assuredly knows, the world is in the grip of a deadly pandemic. One way to contain it is contact-tracing: finding those who have been near infected people and getting them to self-quarantine. Some experts think that because of how rapidly newly infected individuals themselves become contagious, we need some sort of automated scheme. That is, traditional contact tracing is labor-intensive and time-consuming - a time we don't have. more

ICANN’s Two Decades of Evolution

In the fall of 1998, I was present at the first meeting of the ICANN Board which was then made up of very senior, prominent parties from a broad spectrum of sources. Much to her credit, Esther Dyson accepted the position as the first Chair of the ICANN Board for the newly birthed organization. I was in attendance in support of the nomination of Michael Roberts as the first ICANN CEO. It was a time of uncertainty. more

ACCC Loses Court Case: Google Not Responsible for Content Paid Adds

In a court case running since 2007 Australia's High Court judged Google not responsible for the content of paid ads it presented after an end user's search request. In the example Reuters gives a car sales company presented itself under the name of a car brand, thus misleading the end user. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) deemed this misleading advertising by Google and stared a court case. The High Court judged differently. more

Success Factors for New gTLDs Program

The success of the new gTLDs program depends on the actions of the winning registries and on ICANN's allocation policies for the second round of applications. A successful landscape would be dominated by only a few registries but would be less confusing for users. The major players: businesses and Internet users who drive the demand for the gTLDs; the registries who own and run the gTLDs; and ICANN, which sets the rules for determining a winner for each new gTLD. more

FISMA Standards Could Have a Major Impact on the Private Sector

The public is taking an increasing interest in ensuring that IT assets of federal agencies are protected from cybersecurity attacks. FISMA is addressing this concern, in part, by initiating a standard setting process for continuous monitoring. The actions taken by NIST for the federal sector could have a very significant impact on the private sector because pending legislation would provide the federal government with the authority to mandate cybesecurity measures on the private sector. more

WHOIS Detractors and Advocates: Today’s Viewpoints Post-GDPR

Opposing parties continue to debate whether WHOIS should stay after the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) took effect across the EU in May 2018. While the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which oversees WHOIS, is looking for ways to be GDPR compliant, experts from various fields are contemplating the problems pointed out by officials. more

Developing Models for the Prediction of Domain Name Renewal Rates

One of the key issues for the Domain industry is how to accurately predict year-on-year how many customers will renew their domain names. It's fairly common that a registry in the first year has around a 60% renewal rate, and following the first year, that increases to around 80 and 85 percent on the remaining domain names. But how can we understand better why this is so, how can this be more accurately predicted, and what can be done to help maximize these opportunities? more

Review Your Email Forwarding Practices

As unusual as it may be for a lawyer to speak at a IETF meeting, Ian Walden gave a lecture on Data Protection Directives and updates thereof. He said they affect some 90 jurisdictions. A difference between email addresses and cookies - the latter are the main subject of the January 2012 update of the directives - is that after more than a decade of enforcement, specific browser extensions may allow users to browse what cookies they have, while no record states whom they conferred their email addresses to. more

Outcome from NETMundial Meeting in Brazil Largely Seen as Positive for Business

Last Month at the NETMundial meeting in Brazil, representatives from governments, private sector, civil society, the technical community and academia met to debate the key principles on which the Internet should evolve. The meeting culminated in a supporting the principles of a decentralized and multistakeholder (ie: non-governmental) driven Internet ecosystem, committed to principles of openness, fairness, accessibility, security and safety. more

Will ICANN’s gTLD Flood the Sub-Domain Registrations?

Obviously, the market will explode if there were a few hundred new gTLDs creating global excitement and building new platforms on ecommerce and cyber-branding. The media hype and breakaway stories will create a boom to the traffic; all types of new and old names will be registered under current and re-registered under new gTLDs wherever possible. more

Could This Be the Silver Bullet for Cloud Computing

This article on cloud appeared in the Economist.com on April 12th 2001 titled "The Beast of Complexities" Stuart Feldman of IBM, mentions these examples. Quote 'Picture yourself as the product manager of a new hand-held computer whose design team has just sent him the electronic blueprint for the device. You go to your personalized web portal and order the components, book manufacturing capacity and arrange for distribution. With the click of a mouse, you create an instant supply chain that, once the job is done, will dissolve again." unquote. ...In the same article he also lamented that so far, nobody has found a silver bullet to kill the Beast of Complexity. more

The 2023 IPv4 Market in North America

In 2021, the story was price. In 2022, the story was price and large block supply. The story in 2023 is decline -- but with a notable caveat. Spurred by unprecedented unit pricing, the North American IPv4 market in 2022 experienced its second-best year in terms of overall traded volume, and in both 2022 and in 2023, large block market activity was as robust as ever, with sellers trading large blocks at over $50 per number. more