United Nations vs. ICANN: One ccTLD At A Time

What happens if ICANN fails? Who will run the DNS then?

Of course to many, ICANN already has failed -- spectacularly so. Critics have long complained that ICANN not only lacks accountability and legitimacy, but also that it is inefficient (at best) and downright destructive (at worst). According to these critics, ICANN's many sins include threatening the stability of the Internet, limiting access by imposing an artificial domain name scarcity, and generally behaving like a petulant dictator. more

IDC Predicts Blockchain Spending in the Middle East and Africa to More than Double in 2018

Spending on blockchain solutions in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) will more than double this year, according to the latest insights from International Data Corporation. more

Wireless Broadband vs Fixed Broadband - The Story Continues

This never-ending story is used by opportunistic telcos and their lobbyists to confuse the issue in order to gain regulatory or political advantage. The debate is now raging again in the USA. In an attempt to talk down their monopolistic position in the market the three telcos - and this time in particular, Comcast - are claiming that real competition does in fact exist in the American broadband market, citing competition from the mobile 4G LTE services as an example. more

Old New Telco Thinking

Ahh, so the telecom incumbents have come up with a "new" idea for the Internet -- usage-based pricing. That's right, more usage (for things like VOIP and video especially) means more costs to operate the network, so users should pay by the bit, or some similar metric. It's all so logical! But wait a minute. I thought what sparked the consumer Internet revolution was the fact that ISPs didn't charge by the minute, but offered flat-rate monthly fees. And what catalyzed the boom in cellular usage here in the US was the shift from heavily usage-based pricing to the largely flat rates we see today... more

Mitigating Harm Caused by the ICANN “Draw”

The gTLD Prioritization "Draw" was a mistake. But its negative impact can still be mitigated. The best course of action follows directly from information that can be gleaned from available data. Let us start with the latest piece of intelligence: who "played" in the "Draw"? 1766 of 1917 applications had a lottery ticket. This is much worse than expected. Very few abstained. Even the purely defensive applicants saw no other choice but to "play". more

Google Launches IoT Service for Managing Devices at Scale

Google today announced a fully-managed Google Cloud Platform (GCP) service called Google Cloud IoT Core, aimed at allowing companies to securely connect and manage IoT devices at scale. more

Making the Web Faster: Google Working on Enhancing Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)

As part of its efforts to speed up the delivery of web content, Google has proposed changes to Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), "the workhorse of the Internet." Yuchung Cheng who works on the transport layer at Google wrties: "To deliver content effectively, Web browsers typically open several dozen parallel TCP connections ahead of making actual requests. This strategy overcomes inherent TCP limitations but results in high latency in many situations and is not scalable. Our research shows that the key to reducing latency is saving round trips. We’re experimenting with several improvements to TCP." more

.google Before Christmas

I'm a real fan of the Google Masterplan since its publication in 2005. After the introduction of its own global DNS I thought it might be a good idea to have a second look on the G-Masterplan. What I found is astonishing and shows the steps to .google. more

The US DOJ Rogue Internet Pharmacy Settlement: Implications for Registrars

In the wake of Google's settlement with the Department of Justice for permitting advertising by illegal online pharmacies, what are the legal implications for Domain Name Registrars and ISPs in the US and elsewhere? In short, if you're a Registrar or ISP, it's a new ballgame. Here's why it's critical for you to steer clear of criminal and civil liability by making sure your registration services aren't used by rogue online pharmacy criminals. (And, here's how to do it.) more

In an Internet Minute

Intel sent an interesting infographic: What Happens in an Internet Minute. Looking at the traffic data, Intel asks if there is sufficient attention being paid to investment in infrastructure. Imagine the state of the network in three years, when the number of connected devices is projected to be double the world's population. Can our networks scale to handle predicted traffic and meet consumer expectations for immediate access from multiple devices? more

Internet Access: A Chokepoint for Development

In the 1980's internet connectivity meant allowing general public to communicate and share knowledge and expertise with each other instantly and where it was not possible otherwise. Take the story of Anatoly Klyosov, connecting Russia to the western world for the first time in 1982, as an example. A bio-chemist who was not allowed to leave the soviet territory for security reasons. The internet enabled him to participate in meetings with his counterparts at Harvard University, University of Stockholm and beyond. more

Internet Society ION Conferences: Call for Speakers - IPv6 and DNSSEC Experts

The Internet Society Deploy360 Programme issues a call for speakers for a series of upcoming global ION Conferences. ISOC welcomes submissions from IPv6 and DNSSEC experts to speak at any of the following ION conferences. more

7 Must Have Attributes of an IP Address Management System

Exponential growth of networks combined with the complexity introduced by IT initiatives e.g. VoIP, Cloud computing, server virtualization, desktop virtualization, IPv6 and service automation has required network teams to look for tools to automate IP address management (IPAM). Automated IPAM tools allow administrators to allocate subnets, allocate/track/reclaim IP addresses and provide visibility into the networks. Here are some examples of what a typical IPAM tool can do... more

Why I’m Standing for the ICANN Board and Why I’ve made My Statement Public

The number of applications this year for the seven positions within ICANN has been so low that the NomCom has gone to the trouble of printing up pamphlets, holding a public meeting at Marrakech and extending the deadline by a fortnight. At the two public Board sessions in Marrakech the grand hall that was provided was virtually empty, sparking some debate as to why. Susan Crawford ventured that it was because ICANN was failing to connect with people; Vint Cerf suggested that ICANN was so successful at doing its job that people didn't feel the need to attend. Mouhamet Diop pointed out that we were in a French-speaking Arabic country and no one was going to sit through four hours of discussion if they didn't understand a word of it... more

WordPress Announces New .BLOG TLD, to be Available This Year

Automattic, the parent company of the popular blogging platform WordPress, today announced plans to make the new .blog TLD available for registration this year. Earlier this year, the company secured the rights to oversee and operate the registration of the highly contested new generic TLD. more