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Helping the Internet to deliver economic value
I am a believer in the power of open markets to bring about positive change in the world, drive economic growth and create jobs. Based on an open principles, the Internet has become an indispensable part of the world trade landscape, but I wonder if we have begun to take its impact for granted, expecting it to continue to deliver new opportunity without reminding ourselves that it in fact needs to be protected by robust mechanisms that will safeguard its continuity and influence for the next generation?
What controls are needed for the next generation of domain names?
Do we need greater controls on the companies that will be providing the next generation of Internet addresses?
That's the question that DNS oversight organization ICANN would like to hear you answer in a public comment period open now until 4 June.
Internet Governance Forum appeals for workshop newcomers
Photo credit: Veni Markovski
A deadline for workshop proposals at this year's Internet Governance Forum (IGF) has been extended to 7 May.
The extension is an annual ritual but this time it will be limited to those that have not previously run a workshop - a decision taken "to encourage newcomers to submit workshop proposals", according to a message on the IGF website.
Cybersquatters hit with $375 price tag
Cybersquatters are going to find it much harder to profit from domain names with new suspension rules and financial penalties coming into effect later this year.
Under new rules, trademark holders will pay just $375 for up to 15 domains to be suspended pending a review of the domain's use. If an independent panelist finds that a domain name is being misused, the domain will then be suspended and redirected to an information page.
Donuts passes background check
The largest applicant for new Internet extensions, Donuts, has successfully passed a background check, removing a question over its eligibility.
In the latest release of initial evaluations from the new gTLD program's evaluators, five applications from Donuts (out of 307) and one from United TLD have passed, seemingly putting an end to claims they should be disqualified under cybersquatting rules.
New gTLD program waiting on the world's governments
The five-year process for adding over 1,000 new extensions to the Internet is currently waiting on a final set of recommendations from the world's governments.
At ICANN's meeting taking place in Beijing, a range of last-minute issues covering the new gTLD process from contract changes to the protection of names and trademarks are being discussed.
The biggest impact on the process however will be "advice" from the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) that will require certain groups of applicants to introduce additional "safeguards" before they are approved to run a new extension.
ICANN Beijing: Update on the ATRT
"ICANN is reviewing itself to death. So it would be nice to know why the current review process doesn't work."
There is a certain irony in the fact that ICANN Board member Chris Disspain was asking this of the organization's lead review team - the Accountability and Transparency Review Team, or ATRT.
Disspain is right though, as he often is when it comes to identifying the problems, many self-inflicted, that ICANN faces. He went on to identify a number of other structural and cultural issues, as well as spot where the organization had actually improved in the past year.
Questions continue over legality of new gTLD private auctions
A fight over private auctions is disrupting efforts to resolve a large number of conflicting applications for new Internet extensions.
The latest missive in a battle over rights to dozens of new names on the Internet is a legal opinion commissioned by one of the main companies hoping to profit from such auctions.
Stumbling in the wrong direction
It wasn't that long ago - in the days before new gTLDs took up every waking moment of its life - that the most frequent concern expressed about ICANN was "mission creep".
ICANN was set up to administrate the Internet's naming and numbering system, but continually found itself unwillingly pulled into other issues from trademark protection to market regulation, to privacy and legal enforcement concerns.
Verisign warns of "missing elements" in new gTLD plans
Operator of the dot-com registry and the Internet's primary address book, Verisign, has warned that a plan to add hundreds of new Internet extensions over the next year may destabilize the domain name system if key issues are not addressed.
In a report from the company's technical labs to the organization running the "new gTLD" program, ICANN, the Internet infrastructure company warns that there could be "significant consequences" if the program does not address technical issues before the program launches that could "perhaps even destabilize global operations of the DNS".
Olympus joins brand TLD exodus
Camera maker Olympus has become the latest household name to withdraw from the new gTLD process, pulling its only application for dot-olympus.
Olympus joins Heinz and General Motors in pulling out completely from plans to add over a thousand new Internet extensions in the next year, with the first due to be approved by the end of next month.
Did Warren Buffett shut down Heinz' gTLD program?
Buffett: Spends $28 billion; saves $130,000 by ditching Heinz gTLD applications.
Heinz has shelved its two new gTLD applications just three weeks after the company agreed to be bought out for $28 billion by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.
WhatBox? chooses auctioneer for dot-menu domains
WhatBox? has announced it will use a joint collaboration of NameJet and Afternic to auction domain names under its dot-menu gTLD.
The announcement marks what will soon be an explosion in efforts to sell "premium" domain names to the highest bidder as well as encourage large businesses to register domains under certain extensions.
New York gTLD conference this time next week
This time next week will be the first conference covering new gTLDs for some time - and it should be a good one.
Living in a talk-shop bubble
Despite increasing relevance in the uncertain post-WCIT world, the advisory group to the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) remains incapable of fixing long-identified problems and is undermining its credibility.
Atallah responds to industry anger over ICANN contract changes
Atallah: Surprised at the strong reaction to suggested contract changes.
ICANN COO Akram Atallah has responded to a wave of angry responses from the DNS industry over proposed changes to new registry contracts by asking it to "step up to the plate" and provide solutions to real problems.
Over 30 responses arrived on the last day of a public comment period on the revised contract, most of them highly critical. Key groups within the organization accused the organization of imposing top-down solutions, that the proposal contained "serious and fundamental flaws" and the revisions amounted to "nothing more than a power grab by ICANN staff".
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