Internet Governance

Portrait of a Single-Character Domain Name

Let's take some crayons and draw a picture of the current state of affairs regarding single-character domain names (SCDNs), and specifically O.COM. During the public comment period for the current O.COM RSEP, ICANN's own Intellectual Property and Business constituencies recommended implementation of rights protections mechanisms (RPMs) for intellectual property, including Sunrise and Priority Access periods. It is curious that such hard-won protections are being so easily set aside by Verisign and ICANN.

ICANN Chair Elections Test Its Institutional Integrity

The ICANN Board will soon be considering candidates for election to the position of ICANN Chairperson and Vice Chair, which compels me to remind both the Board and the ICANN community of the fact that one of the members pursuing the Chairmanship is the subject of an on-going Australian Freedom of Information Act, which was initiated by the irregularities that brought about this individuals dismissal from the .au Domain Administration.

Putting Cyber Threats Into Perspective

As society uses more digital technologies we are increasingly also faced with its problems. Most of us will have some horror stories to tell about using computers, smartphones, and the internet. But this hasn't stopped us from using the technology more and more. I believe that most people would say that their lives would be worse without technology -- in developed countries but equally in the developing world.

Facebook and Privacy

Mark Zuckerberg shocked a lot of people by promising a new focus on privacy for Facebook. There are many skeptics; Zuckerberg himself noted that the company doesn't "currently have a strong reputation for building privacy protective services." And there are issues that his blog post doesn't address; Zeynep Tufekci discusses many of them While I share many of her concerns, I think there are some other issues - and risks.

Supporting Dot Amazon Strengthens Global Internet Cooperation

With the backlash against tech companies gaining steam, we've seen certain contrarian members of the media taking indiscriminate aim at companies and issues without due cause. This is what happened when Financial Times columnist Gillian Tett, in a paywalled March 7th editorial, inaccurately portrayed a process involving the Amazon's gTLD application for .AMAZON, an issue the i2Coalition has been engaged in for years.

Community New gTLD Applications: The Wrong Choice

Community new gTLD applications were one of the three options offered by version one of ICANN new gTLD applicant guidebook. It was also possible to submit a "generic" or a "geographic application." I dug the ICANN website and found out that, in the end - and according to me only - it was a bad choice to submit such application...
I went through the 52 delegated applications to investigate which ones have lots of domain name registrations and which ones don't.

ICANN LAC-i Roadshow Stirs “High Interest” in Caribbean ccTLDs

The Caribbean can create a unique flavour on the Internet by using effectively managed and financially stable Country Code Top-Level Domains. Speaking after ICANN's first Caribbean edition of its Latin American and Caribbean Internet Roadshow (LAC-i Roadshow), recently held in Turks and Caicos Islands, Albert Daniels said the event yielded "very high interest" in the management and operations of the local ccTLD, .tc. Daniels is ICANN's senior manager of stakeholder engagement in the Caribbean.

The 50th Anniversaries of the Moon Landing and First ARPANET Message

The anniversaries of these milestones remind us of the economic and social returns we have seen from ambitious Federal research and development programs. These events were milestones... the manned spaceflight program and the development of digital telecommunication networks from Morse's telegraph to early electronic digital computers and telemetry experiments, the SAGE early-warning system and eventually the ARPANET and the Internet.

As We Head to ICANN64 in Japan, Let’s Pay Attention to National and Global Context of the Region

Soon it'll be time again for some of us to pack our bags and head for the ICANN64 meeting in Kobe, Japan. Even if you plan to stay at home, it still will be helpful to understand the national and global context in which the meeting is taking place. One way to do that is by looking at Japan's Prime Minister's Shinzo Abe recent Keynote Speech at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, (Jan 23rd, 2019) entitled: "Toward a New Era of "Hope-Driven Economy"

Banning 5G Equipment is a Foolish Strategy

It has become popular today around Washington and the venues of its coerced allies to issue threats to ban telecommunications equipment from certain countries - especially equipment intended for 5G use. The guise is vague assertions of "national security." It is an old tactic dating back to the turn of the last century and recurrent for decades. A combination of treaty instruments and collaborative industry standards activity several decades ago largely put an end to the banning tactic - significantly benefitting the entire world.