Verisign and ICANN Renew Root Zone Maintainer Service Agreement

On October 20th, ICANN and Verisign renewed the agreement under which Verisign will continue to act as Root Zone Maintainer for the Domain Name System (DNS) for another 8-year term. The Root Zone sits atop the hierarchical architecture of the DNS and is essential to virtually all internet navigation, acting as the dynamic, cryptographically secure, global directory of all top-level domains that exist in the DNS. more

4% of Americans Online Use Location-Based Services, According to Pew Survey

In its first report on the use of "geosocial" or location-based services, the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life project finds that 4% of online adults use a service such as Foursquare or Gowalla that allows them to share their location with friends and to find others who are nearby. On any given day, 1% of internet users are using these services. more

It’s Auction Time Again

This week ICANN will auction off .WEB or .WEBS. There are seven live applications for .WEB and one for .WEBS. The string contention process decided that the two names are so similar that they'll only assign one of them, so all eight applications are in one auction... There are some deep pocketed bidders in this round including Google, Donuts, web.com which owns Network Solutions and a lot of other web properties, and Schlund which owns the largest web hoster 1&1. more

40% of Wi-Fi Access Points in US Open, Only 25% in Europe

United States has a higher percentage of 'open' Wi-Fi hostspots than Europe according the recent data analysis based on close to 50 million Wi-Fi networks worldwide. WeFi, a broadband Wi-Fi locater with a database of over 47 million access point worldwide, reports that 40% of Wi-Fi access points recorded in the US are unlocked and do not require a security password, compared with only 25% of total access points in Europe."Within Europe, out of the top 10 countries in terms of Wi-Fi deployment, the most Wi-Fi friendly countries are Belgium and Norway, while the highest percentage of locked access points is found in Germany and Spain." more

Internet Companies in Negotiations for Agreement on Code of Conduct in China

Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, in negotiations with other Internet companies and human rights organizations, have reached an agreement on a voluntary code of conduct for activities in China and other countries that censor the Internet. The participants are reviewing the agreement for final approval. more

DNS: The Proven, Eco-Friendly Alternative to Blockchain and NFTs

As the world races towards digital transformation, the technologies we choose will have a lasting impact on our planet. Blockchain, NFTs, and other crypto assets have garnered much attention for their ability to securely and immutably store records. However, the environmental cost of maintaining these technologies is often overlooked. The energy consumption required to sustain blockchains, particularly those using Proof of Work (PoW), is enormous... more

France Drops Its Internet “Three Strikes” Anti-Piracy Law

France has put an end to its most extreme measure of its notorious "three strikes" anti-piracy law. "Getting rid of the cut-offs and those damned winged elephants is a good thing. They're very costly," Joe McNamee, of European Digital Rights. more

Total Domain Registrations Pass 193 Million Worldwide, Grew by 1 Million in Q1

The first quarter of 2010 closed with a base of over 193 million domain name registrations across all of the Top-Level Domain Names (TLDs), an increase of more than 1 million domain name registrations, or 0.6 percent, from the fourth quarter of 2009, according to the latest Domain Name Industry Brief published by VeriSign. "Compared to the first quarter of 2009, domain name registrations grew by 11 million, or 6 percent. The base of Country Code Top Level Domain Names (ccTLDs) dropped to 76.3 million domain names, a 2.9 percent decline quarter over quarter, but a 3.2 percent increase year over year." more

17 Countries to Reach 60% Household Broadband Penetration by 2012, Says New Study

Worldwide consumer broadband connections will grow from 323 million connections in 2007 to 499 million in 2012, according to latest research by Gartner. Worldwide consumer broadband connections penetrated 18 percent of households in 2007, and by 2012, households with a broadband connection are expected to reach 25 percent. Five countries exceeded 60 percent broadband penetration into the home in 2007; and, this is expected to grow to 17 countries by 2012. The five countries with broadband penetration into the home above 60 percent are Canada, Netherlands, Switzerland, South Korea and Hong Kong. more

AI Already Succeeding in Most Creative Tasks and Getting Better by the Day

It is redundant to point out how much progress AI applications made during the past few years. What is escaping the attention of many people, however, is that in most creative areas, there are already fully working consumer-grade tools based on generative AI that can produce output similar to that of a human with above-average capabilities, and there are many more on the way. These tools also happen to be rather affordable, making them accessible to a large amount of people. more

Net Neutrality’s Legal Binary: An Either/Or With No “Third Way”

People working on net neutrality wish for a "third way" — a clever compromise giving us both network neutrality and no blowback from AT&T;, Verizon, Comcast and others. That dream is delusional because the carriers will oppose network neutrality in any real form; they want paid fast lanes. They have expressed particular opposition to "Title II" of the Communications Act — something telecom lawyers mention the same way normal people might reference the First or Second Amendments. Title II is the one essential law to ban paid fast lanes. more

Net Neutrality Alternative: Effective Interpretation, Oversight and Enforcement of Existing Rules

The US government is proposing broad new regulations for telecommunications and cable internet service providers. The new proposals appear to target specific providers for regulation and government oversight. Specifically, Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey has proposed the Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2009, or the "Net Neutrality" bill, outlining government policies to impose new governance and restrictions targeting telecommunications and cable providers AT&T, Verizon, Time Warner and Comcast. more

STEM to STEMM: It Will Take Musicians to Save the Internet

The internet is under all kinds of attacks from all kinds of people for all kinds of reasons. It’s not just the internet’s infrastructure that is under attack, so too is the very concept of the internet as an open communications platform serving the commonweal. Constructing effective technical defenses of the internet will require that America’s students learn and develop the quantitative disciplines known as STEM; Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Constructing effective, ethical defenses of the internet will require that students study art and philosophy. The two educational paths are symbiotic... more

Moving to the Cloud? Tips for a Soft Landing

Companies are no longer afraid of the cloud. Big talk about security and performance issues has dwindled to small voices as enterprises and SMBs alike adopt cloud services to empower their global impact. Big cloud benefits, however -- agility, scalability and on-demand access -- are the result of a thoughtful, well-planned move from on-site servers to off-site resources. Here are four key tips for a soft cloud landing. more

The 4 Major Drivers for Investment in NFV

Communication Service Providers (CSPs) have been driving the industry to develop agile solutions that abstract physical hardware from their solution platforms. With this technology, they hope to commoditize service functions to increase service agility and reduce the capital required to achieve better and more efficient service. Over the years, we have seen solutions from TMForum and CableLabs that help standardize certain aspects of the CSP plant and similar initiatives in the CPE world with Reference Design Kit (RDK)... more