ICANN vs. the Federal Reserve

The Internet is about to go independent. After years of support and supervision, the U.S. Government is about to irrevocably relinquish its control over the Internet by transferring its authority to an independent corporation named ICANN. As part of this push, the current chairman of ICANN posted this article to the Wall Street Journal... What's truly amazing about this piece, is how well it's done... It was only after digesting this piece, that I remembered we are talking about ICANN here. more

37.9% of Global Population Using the Internet, Says Internet.org Report

A new study by Facebook-led Internet.org, called "State of Connectivity: A Report on Global Internet Access," takes a look at the current state of global internet connectivity, who’s connected, who’s not and why. The paper uses existing data and incorporates its own new findings to examine internet penetration and barriers to further growth. "By early 2015, 3 billion people will be online. This is an incredible milestone, but it also means that only 40% of the world’s population has ever connected to the internet." more

Google Shutting Down Engineering Office in Russia Amid Tighter Data Law

Google is closing its engineering office in Russia as a result of new law coming into force next year requiring foreign firms to store Russian users' personal data on servers located in Russia. more

Privacy Policies in the Real World

This weekend we took the car in for service. Instead of dropping it off at the dealership, we found a small, local garage. Prominently positioned on the counter was their Email Privacy Policy... If a little garage can provide such an understandable and readable privacy policy, how is it that so many email and internet experts fail to do the same? more

Achieving Multi-Stakeholder Progress on DNS Abuse

DNS Abuse and how to address it has been the topic of intense, often conflictual, and rarely conclusive discussions for many years, starting with the very definition of the term and the degree of responsibility bestowed upon DNS operators. In 2018, after several months of intersessional work, the Internet & Jurisdiction Global Conference brought together in Ottawa more than 200 key stakeholders to define a roadmap to address certain jurisdictional challenges on the Internet, including DNS abuse. more

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" more

A Mexican Standoff in Wonderland

Wikipedia defines a Mexican standoff as "a confrontation in which no strategy exists that allows any party to achieve victory. As a result, all participants need to maintain the strategic tension, which remains unresolved until some outside event makes it possible to resolve it." This would be an apt way to describe what may be possibly occurring presently between the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and its largest ratepayer, VeriSign. more

Contention Is Best Settled by Those Who Know the Players & Industry

Several posts have been made on the topic of contention resolution and private auctions around the new gTLD program over the last few weeks on CircleID. Many of the Applicants we spoke to thought it was appropriate to weigh in from the RightoftheDot.com perspective. We want you to know that the RightOfTheDot auction offering for contention resolution for new gTLD's, unlike other offerings, remains unchanged from when it was first announced to the Domain Industry. more

Data Based Decision Making

A new report was released by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, part of the US Department of Commerce... It is a 68 page report with a wealth of data to help understand the factors that differentiate levels of adoption and to try to understand the reasons for non-adoption of residential broadband. In the US, people who don't use the internet represent two thirds of non-users of broadband... more

Swiss Sanctuary for “International Organization Refugees”

Over the past year as the impending doom of a potential Trump installation in the U.S. WhiteHouse pervaded the international organization community, my former chief-of-staff at the ITU found consolation in Swiss history. Now retired with his wife formerly with the World Health Organization in the mountains near the tranquil Canton Vaud municipality of Château-d'Oex, he pointed his old friends to its heritage site. more

Fadi Chehadé Named as ICANN’s New President and CEO

Fadi Chehadé has been named as the next President and Chief Executive Officer of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Chehadé, age 50, is a citizen of Lebanon, Egypt and the United States. He was born in Beirut, Lebanon, to Egyptian parents and left the then war-torn country in 1980 at the age of 18. He speaks fluent Arabic English, French and Italian. Chehadé succeeds current President and CEO Rod Beckstrom, who announced last August that he would leave ICANN at the end of his contract, which expires on 1 July. Chehadé will join ICANN on October 1 or earlier. Between July 1 and when Chehadé begins, Chief Operating Officer Akram Atallah will be the CEO. more

ICANN Accountability Takes Center Stage at Dublin Meeting

With the ICANN 54 meeting in Dublin in full swing, the internet stakeholder community should be assessing where the IANA transition and ICANN accountability proposals stand and where they will need to go before a transition occurs. At the IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group meeting in Los Angeles last month, the consensus seemed to be all systems are go for launch. more

Independent Study Shows Very Low Number of Geographical Indications Disputes Within European Domain Names

The EU is reforming its legal framework concerning geographical indications (GI) protection and has put forward provisions expanding GI protection to domain names in two recent legislative proposals concerning agricultural products and craft/industrial products. In order to support greater GI protection on the internet, both proposals mandate the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) to establish a "domain name information and alert system." more

A New Definition of Broadband?

FCC Chairman Jessica Rosenworcel has circulated a draft Notice of Inquiry inside the FCC to kick off the required annual report to Congress on the state of U.S. broadband. As part of preparing that report, she is recommending that the FCC adopt a new definition of broadband of 100/20 Mbps and establish gigabit broadband as a longer-term goal. I have a lot of different reactions to the idea. more

Quantifying the Benefits of Fiber

Dr. Bento J. Lobo, an economist at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga undertook a study to quantify the benefits of the municipally-owned fiber network in Chattanooga. Any citywide fiber network brings economic development to a community, but a municipally-owned system brings additional benefits because of the way that the business is more deeply integrated into the community. more