Informal Working Group Publish Report On New TLDs

In an interesting move several members of the ICANN community formed an "informal" Working Group to discuss the concept of "expressions of interest" in new Top-Level Domains (TLDs). This all happened very quickly, which is more or less the opposite to how most ICANN related activities progress. ...The report, which runs to about 11 pages, is concise and seems to have covered most of the areas of interest. more

America Planning for the Closure of Its Copper Network

In an interesting move the FCC's Technical Advisory Council has outlined the need for setting a 'sunset' date for the closure of the circuit switched network. This is a first step that eventually could lead to the replacement of the PSTN in the USA, rather than letting the network slowly fade into oblivion the FCC proposes the bring the issue in the open so that it can be properly evaluated and discussed. more

Cuba on Advances in the “Computerization of Society”

A recent televised roundtable enumerated advances in the computerization of Cuban society, including: Telephone density is 58% with 6.5 million accounts, 5.2 million of which are cell phones. 1.5 million people access Nauta mail with cell phones. Over 1.7 million have permanent accounts. There are 1,713 public-access spots: 709 WiFi locations, over 700 at ETECSA premises and the same number in third-party locations (but 709+1400 is 2109, not 1,713). more

Australia Booting Infected Computers Off Their Networks

The Australian has a good article describing the efforts some of their ISPs are making in an attempt to clean up their act: the government is encouraging ISPs to detect computers on their network that are infected and part of botnets, and to communicate to the customer that their system is compromised... Unless the customer feels a little bit of pain they will not change their ways. more

Malaysian Government to Fully Adopt IPV6 by End of 2012

The Malaysian government is poised to fully adopt the Internet Protocol version 6 or IPv6 by the end of next year and may emerge as the first government in the world to achieve full IPv6 compliance, Deputy Information Communication and Culture Minister Datuk Joseph Salang said. According to the report several government agencies have already adopted IPv6 and several others are in the process of shifting from IPv4. more

Taking Stock of New gTLDs in the Public Markets

A woman on the radio talks about revolution, though it's already passed. The window is now closed. A snapshot can be taken. A baseline can be set. How have the public markets valued the new gTLD program? And more importantly, how will public markets value it going forward? Until a few months ago, the new gTLD program was arcane policy discussion among a very narrow technical population of the Internet community. more

UN Broadband Commission Sets Global Broadband Goal for 2025, Targets “Connecting the Other Half”

The United Nations' Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development has set global broadband targets aimed to bring online the world's 3.8 billion not connected to the Internet by 2025. more

The gTLD Opera

The curtain rises on January 12th 2012 but key players are still singing different tunes. Let's peek into their performance as they start taking center stage. FTC, the Federal Trade Commission, has sent a letter to ICANN on December 16th 2011. Re: Consumer Protection Concerns Regarding New gTLDs. They write; "We write now to highlight again the potential for significant consumer harm resulting from the unprecedented increase in new gTLDs." The following paragraph clearly highlights the lack of information about the ICANN gTLD platform. more

Legacy TLD .ORG Takes On New Branding Focus as Part of a New Transformative Journey, Says PIR

Public Interest Registry (PIR), the non-profit organization in charge of operating the 34-year-old legacy top-level domain .ORG on Tuesday revealed a new global brand, including a new visual identity and a new website named TheNew.org. more

Perspectives on Cyber Governance

APAN (Asia Pacific Advanced Network) brings together national research and education networks in the Asia Pacific region. APAN holds meetings twice a year to talk about current activities in the regional NREN sector. I was invited to be on a panel at APAN 50 on the subject of Cyber Governance, and I'd like to share my perspective on this topic here. more

Do Trade Names Qualify as Trade Marks for Purposes of the UDRP?

Naming is the first imperative. It precedes the launching of new lives as much as it does new businesses. Names secure a presence, and for businesses in the marketplace names can grow into trademarks, if they function like one. Are we not sometimes made aware that not all names are equally distinctive, and that some of them are distinctly commonplace? more

Peering and Interconnection Key to a Competitive American Telecoms Market

Peering has come back in the news with the FCC mentioning it in its set of reviews of the telecommunications market in the USA, following its Network Neutrality decision. The peering and interconnect issues are going to the heart of the telecoms matter in relation to competition, innovation and the Open Network. You don't need Network Neutrality rules, if you have a well functioning, transparent, interoperable and competitive infrastructure environment. more

The Rise and Rise of Broadband in China

While there are plenty of articles continuously updating us on the incredible social and economic developments that are taking place in China it is still sometimes good to stand still and have a look at some of these developments. It was 15 years ago that the Chinese Government - in its 5-year plan - stated that it wanted to connect all of its half million villages to the telecommunications network. At that point the plan simply called for narrowband telephone connections. more

What Google Sees While Processing 2 Billion Enterprise Emails Per Day

While the news will not be terribly surprising to CircleID readers, Google's latest report on the status of spam and 2009 predictions posted today, might be of particular interest due to the company's shear email processing volume at 2 billion enterprise email connections per day (drawn from company owned Postini Message Security network)... more

Government of Quebec Ends Its Participation in .Quebec TLD Days Before Launch

According to ici.radio-canada.ca, the Government of Quebec has decided to end its participation in the new gTLD .Quebec, just days before .Quebec launches. According to the story the Government has decided not to change Government websites to .Quebec and will instead retain all of its Website to end in .gouv.qc.ca... "The news will no doubt be received as a cold shower by PointQuébec organization, which is the company that is operating .Quebec registry. more