ICANN Extends Chehadé‘s Contract by Two More Years

ICANN today announced that its Board has extended the contract of Fadi Chehadé, President and Chief Executive Officer, by two more years. "I'm glad to be able to expend my energy and passion towards ICANN's noble mission and great public responsibility," said Chehadé. more

Worldwide Smartphone Shipments Grow 23.1% Year over Year in 2nd Quarter of 2014

The worldwide smartphone market grew 23.1% year over year in the second quarter of 2014 (2Q14), establishing a new single quarter record of 295.3 million shipments, according to preliminary data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. more

“Requiescat in Pace” - the new .RIP Generic Top-Level Domain

I thought "RIP" stood for "Rest In Peace". I thought it was an acronym used in English only and a TLD that would be understood by the next generation; because no one would ever register such a domain name ending in .RIP today. When you say "RIP", it makes you think of death... I have also said that such a TLD was something... typically American and that no other culture would consider buying such domain names because promoting death online is something a bit odd. more

New Internet Domain Names Need a Backstory to Succeed

If web address registrations are any indication (and they may not be), the hundreds of new Internet domains (where .guru competes with .com and .berlin intrudes on .de) are seeing slow, but steady success. By one count, there are about 2 million new online addresses. Slow and steady may wind up being the best business model, but if the effect of the top level domains is to be felt in business, culturally and socially, there needs to be more done than create the opportunity to register a new name... more

Mix It Up: Key Ingredients of Successful Cloud Management Systems

The cloud cuts both ways; while the ability to spin up compute power on demand has empowered even small businesses to compete on a global scale, this same flexibility has led to a significant amount of "cloud sprawl." According to Tech Radar, 61 percent of companies surveyed said cloud sprawl - both from employees using unauthorized services and not fully utilizing approved resources - is responsible for business-wide inefficiencies. Bottom line? more

A Financial Back-Up to Win .WINE?

Still want to protect wine Geographical Indications (GIs)? A hot potato! Where the bucket ends is still to be found and the launching of both .WINE and .VIN new gTLDs is still an issue. At least some of the three applicants are following the ICANN new gTLD applicant guidebook, working with parties interested in bringing better protection mechanism to protect wine GIs. There seems to have been an attempt which has not worked... more

EURid Compensates Carbon Emissions With Wind Turbines

European TLD registry, EURid has announced that it is the first TLD Registry in Europe to be registered by the EU Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS). "EURid has taken an environmentally responsible approach to operating .eu for many years. Our environmental policy is based on the principle of 'reduce, reuse and recycle' and provides a framework for making sustainable choices." more

Some Internet Measurements

At APNIC Labs we've been working on developing a new approach to navigating through some of our data sets the describe aspects of IPv6 deployment, the use of DNSSEC and some measurements relating to the current state of BGP. The intent of this particular set of data collections is to allow the data to be placed into a relative context, displaying comparison of the individual measurements at a level of geographic regions, individual countries, and individual networks. more

Simple Overview of ICANN and the IANA Transition by Vint Cerf

Google has released a Doodle Video Animation of its VP and Chief Internet Evangelist, Vint Cerf, explaining inner workings of the Internet, formation of ICANN and the IANA transition. more

What Should PGP Look Like?

Those who care about security and usability - that is, those who care about security in the real world - have long known that PGP isn't usable by most people. It's not just a lack of user-friendliness, it's downright user hostile. Nor is modern professional crypto any better. What should be done? How should crypto in general, and PGP in particular, appear to the user? I don't claim to know, but let me pose a few questions. more

Netflix Passes 50M Subscribers Worldwide

The gains announced Monday include an additional 570,000 U.S. subscribers, slightly more than Netflix's management predicted. The quarter is typically the company's slowest of the year, as people spend more time outdoors instead of watching video. Netflix ended June with 36.2 million subscribers in the U.S. and another 13.8 million customers in roughly 40 other countries. The Los Gatos, California, company picked up 1.1 million subscribers outside the U.S. in the second quarter, a figure that also topped management's projections. more

Impartiality of Dot Pharmacy TLD Questioned

Catherine Saez and William New reporting in Intellectual Property Watch: "New generic top-level domain names seem set to be a constant source of discussions and dissension. The domain '.pharmacy' has been awarded to a United States pharmacy association with industry backing, stirring concerns among civil society and others. But the association insists it will work in an impartial manner to ensure safety of online pharmaceutical sales..." more

AXIS - The Fulcrum of Africa’s Internet Success

The Internet Society (ISOC) has been working with the African Union (AU) to facilitate the African Internet Exchange System (AXIS). This AXIS project funded by the EU-Africa Infrastructure Trust Fund and the Government of Luxembourg will help keep Internet traffic in Africa internal to the continent and avoid expensive international transit costs and delay latency in routing Internet traffic through other continents. more

Watch LIVE: Edward Snowden at HOPE-X Today at 2:00pm EDT (18:00 UTC)

Whether you view Edward Snowden as a criminal or a hero, or somewhere in between, you cannot dispute that his revelations about pervasive surveillance have changed the discussions about the Internet on both technology and policy levels. If you are interested in hearing what Edward Snowden has to say himself, he is scheduled to speak today, Saturday, July 19, 2014, at 2:00pm US EDT at the HOPE-X conference in New York City. more

A Great Bit of DNSSEC and DNS at IETF 90 Next Week

For those people tracking the evolution and deployment of DNSSEC or who are just interested in "DNS security" in general there is a great amount of activity happening next week at IETF 90 in Toronto. I dove into this activity in great detail in a recent post, "Rough Guide to IETF 90: DNSSEC, DANE and DNS Security", and summarized the activity in a Deploy360 post... more