Domain Pulse, the yearly get-together of the German-speaking registries of nic.at (Austria), Denic (Germany) and SWITCH (Switzerland) is happening on February 21 and 22 in Vienna. The conference alternates between the countries—last year it was Switzerland, this year Austria and next year Germany.

The conferences attract a wide variety of people, primarily from the host countries, but also from wider afield throughout Europe and some from further afield. Domain Pulse is the most important annual event in the domain name calendar in central Europe.

Domain Pulse covers everything in the domain name arena from management of the DNS, what’s happening in each of the ccTLDs, after market and domaining, security threats to the DNS and internet as well as wider issues affecting the internet’s development such as internet governance. Also included are this year’s internet addiction and Kieran McCarthy’s sex.com.

“We’ve had an excellent response, and there are no spaces left for attendees. Registration has vastly exceeded our expectations. However we will be making all presentations available on the Domain Pulse website,” said Richard Wein, CEO at nic.at, who is looking forward to the conference.

Some of the key presentations this year are The DNS and the Next Generation Internet by Michael R. Nelson, who teaches and researches on the Future of the Internet, cyber-policy, and technology policy at Georgetown University in Washington DC. Prior to this he was the Director of Internet Technology and Strategy at IBM and Director for Technology Policy at the Federal Communications Commission. Other presentations are by Wolfgang Kleinwächter (Internet Governance: A map of activities) who is a Professor for Internet Politics and Regulation at Aarhus University.

Another interesting story will be Kieran McCarthy’s story on sex.com - “Money-making on the internet—the sex.com story”. It is an intriguing story and Kieran’s book has received great reviews.

The majority of presentations are in German, but there is simultaneous translation into English, and vice versa, there is translation into German for presentations in English.

For more information on Domain Pulse, including the program, see http://www.domainpulse.at/en/dp_start/.