The internet affects every individual in this world whether directly or indirectly. For example, a medical professional somewhere in Goma, Congo might access the internet to read and post reviews to current medication available and this might have an impact on the kind of medication that he/she recommends to the patient, whether the patient has access to affordable internet or not. Since the internet affects everyone, Africans citizens who are aware of internet governance discussions, expect African stakeholders to engage in these discussions. more
Somalia's internet connection was finally restored on Monday after weeks of outage due to a severed undersea cable. more
A fourth draft of ICANN's New gTLD Draft Applicant Guidebook has been released. In addition to the Applicant Guidebook, ICANN has also published summaries and analysis of the public comment period. The latest version includes... more
It is not uncommon for government agents to force technology companies to create or install malicious software in products in order to help them with surveillance. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has released a guide for developers that is intended to help preserve security and customers' privacy. more
A report calling for reforms to Canada's Human Rights Commission is calling for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to form their own monitoring body to more speedily deal with hate material hosted on their servers. The report calls for the Human Rights Act to be amended to remove provisions that have the government body censor hate speech, while at the same time calling for ISPs to invoke their terms of service to knock down hate websites. more
Before the American Registry for Internet Numbers' 40th Public Policy Meeting closed last week, members were reminded that the elections for two seats on its Board of Trustees was an opportunity for needed change. The opening of polls last Thursday marked the end of an era. The clue was the candidates. For the first time in ARIN’s history, at least one seat on its board would not be filled by an elected white male. more
Traditional cable providers in the United States continue to lose cable TV customers at the same fast pace as the second quarter of the year. In the third quarter, the cable companies list 1.68 million customers after losing over 1.65 million customers in the second quarter. These numbers come from Leichtman Research Group, which compiles most of these numbers from the statistics provided to stockholders, except for Cox, which is privately held and estimated. more
U.S. federal court issues preliminary injunction, holding that enforcement of Canadian order requiring Google to remove search results would run afoul of the Communications Decency Act... Canadian company Equustek prevailed in litigation in Canada against rival Datalink on claims relating to trade secret misappropriation and unfair competition. After the litigation, Equustek asked Google to remove Datalink search results worldwide. Google initially refused altogether... more
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
The number of RIPE NCC members [also referred to as Local Internet Registries (LIRs)] that have an IPv6 allocation continues to grow -- in absolute terms as well as in percentages. 46% of all RIPE NCC members have one or more IPv6 RIPEness stars. ... Do new members pick up IPv6? Are older members with more experience, well-established businesses and customer base dominating IPv6 RIPEness scores? And what about the size of a member? Are small and large members adopting IPv6 in equal proportions? In this article we look into answering these questions. more
Hundreds of country and territory domain names are likely to be finally released this year based on the new resolution that calls for ICANN to take "all steps necessary" to do so. more
Different media are reporting that Internet and other forms of electronic communications are being disrupted in Egypt. Presumably after a government order in response to the protests. Looking at BGP data we can confirm that according to our analysis 88% of the ‘Egyptian Internet’ has fallen of the Internet. In this post I’ll share some observations I made with regards to the reachability of Egyptian networks and providers. more
Transparency and accountability are embedded in ICANN's core values. Indeed, ICANN's Bylaws mandate that "ICANN and its constituent bodies shall operate to the maximum extent feasible in an open and transparent manner ...". Public Interest Registry believes that a dedication to transparency is fundamental to the strength and continued effectiveness of ICANN's multistakeholder model. more
Google Inc. today announced via its official blog that the Chinese government has renewed its license and that it will continue to operate in China. Google further notes: "We currently automatically redirect everyone using Google.cn to Google.com.hk, our Hong Kong search engine. This redirect, which offers unfiltered search in simplified Chinese, has been working well for our users and for Google. However, it's clear from conversations we have had with Chinese government officials that they find the redirect unacceptable -- and that if we continue redirecting users our Internet Content Provider license will not be renewed (it's up for renewal on June 30). Without an ICP license, we can't operate a commercial website like Google.cn -- so Google would effectively go dark in China." more
A shift has occurred in agriculture: farmers are not only relying on clouds but increasingly, on the cloud. With the click of a mouse, farmers can find out which fields need water and chemical inputs in real time. The use of this technology, called precision agriculture, is helping farming become more productive, environmentally friendly and is revolutionizing how our food is cultivated. more