29 July 2015 is a big day for .brands. It's the date when all ICANN Registry Agreements (RA) must be signed. Once the RA is signed, the fees to ICANN and your Registry Services Provider kick in. As certain as you can be that ICANN will begin sending invoices, you can also expect to receive increased scrutiny internally. Questions are inevitable. People will want answers; what is the plan for this thing? How does it fit into our long term corporate goals? Do marketing have a plan to use the TLD in the upcoming launch of our new product? more
In light of some changes contained in the most recent Applicant Guidebook as well as some of the proposed contractual provisions contained in the recent IANA Statement of Work, there is a potential growing justification to make some necessary last minute changes to the legal terms and conditions contained in Module 6 of the Applicant Guidebook. Specifically, the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) and its individual members have a clearly defined role in the new generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) process... more
The ICANN Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) and the Internet Society Deploy360 Programme are planning a DNSSEC and Security Workshop on Wednesday, 06 November 2019, during the ICANN66 meeting held from 02-07 November 2019 in Montreal, Canada. The original DNSSEC Workshop has been a part of ICANN meetings for many years and has provided a forum for both experienced and new people to meet, present and discuss current and future DNSSEC deployments. more
Friday's edition of National Public Radio's "On The Media" devoted attention to the rise of the Tea Party and its widespread use of the social media. In the report Ken Vogel of Politico noted that the movement drew inspiration from the book, "The Starfish and the Spider" co-authored by ICANN President, Rod Beckstrom. more
It's been almost six weeks since the NTIA announced "that the proposal developed by the global Internet multistakeholder community meets the criteria NTIA outlined in March 2014 when it stated its intent to transition the U.S. Government's stewardship role for the Internet domain name system (DNS) technical functions, known as the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions", and thereby signaled the start of the last lap of the IANA transition marathon. more
The talk ranges from new gTLD introductions, the role of ccTLDs in the new landscape, the relationships between registries and registrars, and some predictions for the future. more
The US government plan to move control of the internet's naming and numbering functions to ICANN next month may not move forward, reports Kieren McCarthy more
On September 25th-26th the Cross Community Working Group developing enhanced accountability measures to accompany the IANA functions transition, and replace the "backstop" role played by the U.S., will meet in Los Angeles to review the 90 comments filed on their second draft Proposal and consider responsive modifications... As NTIA will be the primary evaluator of whether the transition & accountability package that is eventually forwarded by ICANN meets the criteria it set when it announced the transition in March 2014, CCWG participants in LA will be carefully reading the tea leaves of this latest NTIA statement. more
While ICANN's meeting in Colombia last week made some welcome progress towards a finalized Applicant Guidebook for new generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) registries, it was still something of a disappointment for the many of us in the community who had hoped the meeting would see ICANN officially approve the program, in readiness for its previously announced May 30, 2011 launch date. Now, gTLD applicants find themselves in the same position they did prior to October... more
Last week the government of the United States made an announcement that sent shockwaves through the Internet governance world. The National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA), a division of the Department of Commerce, publicly stated that it will not be renewing its contract with the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) past its September 2015 expiry date. The importance of this announcement cannot be underestimated. more
Sen. Ted Cruz is circulating a new bill that would prevent the IANA transition without approval from Congress. "Cruz began circulating the legislation last week to colleagues with background information that called it 'our last chance to save internet freedom.'" more
Recently, the Presidents of four Latin American countries slammed ICANN over its .amazon domain name decision. This added to a long list of geo-politically infused challenges which ICANN needed to render final decisions on after all delay tactics or deferments had already been fully exhausted. It is clear that ICANN is facing unprecedented challenges as it tackles issues that go beyond its current narrow mandate. more
Despite numerous false starts over the last decade it appears that 2011 will be the year ICANN finally implements a new generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) process that will lead to the responsible expansion of the domain name space. One of the important remaining steps in this process will be the upcoming meeting between the ICANN Board and the Government Advisory Committee (GAC) intended to resolve a number of outstanding differences. more
California was recently reminded that rain can be very dangerous. In February, the nation's tallest dam, the Oroville dam in northern California, became so overloaded with rain that over a 100,000 people had to evacuate their homes. Many of them ended up at the fairgrounds, a common place for rural communities to gather in times of disaster. Many rural fairgrounds remain unconnected to broadband Internet services, which can make a dangerous situation worse. Especially during critical times, the public must be able to access resources and communicate with their loved ones through the Internet. more
Senator Cruz' crusade against the IANA transition is back in full swing. With the deadline for the expiry of the IANA contract approaching both he and other anti-transition types have been working hard on their campaigns to block the transition. The latest addition to the Cruz website is a special lander page featuring a countdown clock... Yes, that's an image of President Obama shaking hands with China's Xi Jiping. more
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