The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers' proposed expansion of top-level domains -- such as .biz, .info and .us -- as well as the group's introduction of non-Latin language Web addresses are still "some months away," ICANN Chairman Peter Dengate Thrush told reporters Monday in Seoul, South Korea at the organization's 36th global meeting. He said ICANN officials and the Internet community at large are "going through a problem solving phase" to address concerns about potential malicious use, trademark abuse and other issues.
Thrush was hesitant to offer more specificity about when the first round of applications for new generic top-level domains would be accepted. The timing "is up to the community [and] when the community is satisfied, they'll tell us," he said. ICANN has argued that bringing potentially hundreds of new domains to market will benefit consumers and companies that do business online but intellectual property owners have expressed skepticism. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers and others in Washington have been highly critical.
ICANN's board is poised to approve the related international domain name proposal when it meets on Friday. Thrush said that after several years of hard work by stakeholders, he was "reasonably confident that the board will find [the IDN plan] ready to launch." ICANN President Rod Beckstrom said the first non-Latin script entries into the so-called root zone would likely be in mid-2010.
House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., on Friday said he has lingering questions about an agreement that the Obama administration signed this week with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers that loosens the U.S. government's grip on the entity that administers the domain name system. Chief among his concerns are the plan's implications for potential legal and security risks if foreign powers are involved with the oversight and handling of data.
Under the agreement, which replaces a multiyear contract between ICANN and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration that expired Wednesday, a handful of expert panels will supervise a range of Internet governance related activities from the security and stability of domain names to ICANN's internal functioning. The U.S. government will have only one permanent seat as part of an accountability panel.
"Surely, the United States should have a permanent seat on all four panels," Stearns said in a statement. "The United States has been the leader in the Internet's development and should provide leadership into the future. All countries may participate in it's continue development, but the United States should still retain a prime leadership role." Others have been critical of the NTIA-ICANN deal as well. Read Thursday's CongressDaily PM Edition for more (subscription required).
The Obama administration and the California entity that administers the world's Web addresses inked a deal late Tuesday to extend the formal relationship between the U.S. government and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers hours before an existing contract was set to expire. Under the so-called "affirmation of commitments," ICANN promises to remain a U.S.-based nonprofit and continue its focus on transparency and accountability.
The four page document, which was released Wednesday morning, creates expert panels that will conduct regular reviews of ICANN's work in several areas: network security and stability; the evolution of generic domains such as .com and .net as well as domains not based on the English alphabet; and the continuance of a public database of Web site owners. An accountability panel -- the only one required to have a U.S. government representative -- is also set up under the plan.
In the months leading up to the pact, lawmakers offered a range of recommendations for preserving the link between the ICANN and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Among the most prescient was an August letter from Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman and Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va.
The California-based entity that administers the world's Internet addresses has assured lawmakers it is committed to a "long-term, formal relationship" with the U.S. government when its current agreement ends next week -- and now the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is ready to party. ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom made the pledge in a letter Tuesday to House Judiciary ranking members. Read more in CongressDaily's story here (subscription required). He'll be in town Thursday with ICANN Chairman Peter Dengate Thrush for a celebration at one of D.C.'s hottest new addresses.
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names Chief Operating Officer Doug Brent defended his group's planned expansion of top-level domains -- such as .biz, .info and .us -- at a House Judiciary Courts and Competition Subcommittee hearing Wednesday, arguing that bringing potentially hundreds of new domains to market will benefit consumers and companies that do business online. He said multiple parties from around the world have already expressed interest in securing new domains (like .eco, .nyc, and .basketball) and there have been numerous venues for public comment.
But Nike, Verizon and Marriott along with trade groups like the National Association of Manufacturers and U.S. Chamber of Commerce have built up opposition to the ICANN plan, claiming that it could exacerbate cyber-squatting, fraud, and consumer confusion while forcing trademark owners to spend more money to defend their brands. ICANN had targeted February to begin accepting applications for new domains but Brent said that date would likely be missed due to ongoing discussions about how to protect intellectual property rights.
IP concerns are crucial, he said, noting "we cannot and will not allow the expansion if it does not protect trademark holders." Steve DelBianco of the e-commerce group NetChoice said the domain name expansion controversy is indicative of the larger issue of ICANN not being fully accountable to the entire Internet community. He apologized to lawmakers for "dragging you into this food fight" and said it "shouldn't take a congressional hearing to get ICANN to focus on fraud and abuse."
Read a related story in CongressDaily's Wednesday AM Edition here and look for more in the PM Edition (subscription required). More on the hearing testimony can be found here.
Two of the House Judiciary Committee's top Republicans wrote to the new head of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers on Tuesday to express concerns about the proposed introduction of many new top-level domains -- such as .biz, .info, and .us -- and the expiration later this month of a memo formally joining the Commerce Department and the California-based entity that administers the world's Web addresses.
In their letter to ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom, Judiciary ranking member Lamar Smith and Courts and Competition Subcommittee ranking member Howard Coble, R-N.C., said they are worried that a vast expansion of domains will carry "serious negative consequences" for U.S. businesses and consumers. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers and others have complained that adding hundreds of new domains could exacerbate cyber-squatting, fraud, and overall confusion in the Internet marketplace.
Smith and Coble said the absence of price caps in the new registry deals could mean that legitimate businesses could be discriminated against and asked to pay a premium for each domain they register or renew. ICANN, which has said it plans to begin accepting applications for new domains in early 2010, could bring in an initial $90 million from the plan, according to some estimates. The letter argued the only economic justification put forth so far is an ICANN-commissioned report that has been criticized for failing to include empirical data to support of its claim that the project will benefit consumers.
House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman joined Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., late Tuesday in calling for the creation of a permanent relationship between the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which administers the world's Web addresses, and the Commerce Department. A memo formally joining the two entities is slated to expire late next month amid concerns on Capitol Hill and within industry that ICANN faces problems with transparency and accountability. ICANN leaders have claimed that after 10 years in business, the California nonprofit is ready for its independence.
A letter to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke from Boucher, Waxman and eight other Democratic lawmakers said a set of enduring principles "will place beyond doubt the value of the current model for managing" the domain name system and will prevent any one entity from controlling the underpinnings of the Internet. Their proposal would provide for periodic reviews of ICANN performance and create a mechanism for implementing ICANN's proposed broad expansion of top-level domains like .com and .biz. Republicans on the Energy and Commerce Committee are said to be preparing their own letter to Locke with recommendations for ICANN's path forward.
House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee members at a June hearing called for an extension of the U.S. government's formal oversight agreement with ICANN. At the time, Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., said ICANN remains "far from a model of effective and sustainable self-governance" and it would be unwise to shrink the federal government's role amid increased cyber attacks and rapid Internet innovation. Subcommittee ranking member Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., and Reps. Mike Doyle, D-Pa., John Shimkus, R-Ill., and Lee Terry, R-Neb., each backed extending the oversight agreement between ICANN and Commerce.
Read the full story from CongressDaily here (subscription required).
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke is giving "serious attention to the critical responsibilities" of his department's role with respect to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, he told Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., in a June 29 letter circulated this week. Nelson and Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, wrote to him in May urging Commerce and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to help find "a permanent accountability mechanism to replace the oversight that has historically been provided by the department." ICANN's formal relationship with the U.S. government is slated to expire in September, which has prompted calls for greater scrutiny of the California-based nonprofit on Capitol Hill.
"Given the Internet's importance as a global medium supporting economic growth and innovation, any decision that the department makes with respect to the future of the joint project agreement with ICANN will be guided by the need to continue preserving the security and stability of the Internet's domain name and addressing system," Locke wrote. While ICANN has made progress in the last 10 years, "accountability remains a threshold issue," as recognized by NTIA's call for public comment that ended last month, he said. NTIA also asked stakeholders whether sufficient safeguards are in place to ensure that ICANN's model of private, bottom-up' policymaking is working for everyone involved.
When Rod Beckstrom accepted the top job at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers last week, a former Homeland Security Department colleague warned him that his tenure as director of the National Cybersecurity Center was a walk in the park compared to being CEO of the nonprofit group that oversees the Internet address system. "I hope you enjoy jumping out of frying pan and into the fire," the colleague said in an e-mail. But the Silicon Valley entrepreneur, author and computer security expert says he is ready for the challenge. ICANN, which is based in California but has ramped up its Washington presence in recent years, has faced intense scrutiny on Capitol Hill as it prepares to end its formal relationship with the Commerce Department in September.
Lawmakers and industry stakeholders have raised concerns about the international entity's transparency, accountability, budget processes and stakeholder affairs. Most recently, a chorus of lawmakers called for an extension of the U.S. government's formal role and closer scrutiny over how the 11-year-old organization has evolved. At a House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee hearing earlier this month, ICANN's departing CEO Paul Twomey came under intense questions, while Internet executives voiced an array of concerns. Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., said ICANN was "far from a model of effective and sustainable self-governance", and Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Pa., said ICANN seemed "better at furthering its own interests than those of the millions of Internet users it's supposed to look out for."
Read the full "Issue of The Week" at CongressDaily's TechCentral page here.
It's official! Former Homeland Security Department National Cybersecurity Center Director Rod Beckstrom will become the new president and CEO of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a nonprofit group that oversees the Internet address system. ICANN's board approved him for the job moments ago at a meeting in Sydney, Australia. Paul Twomey, who has held the top ICANN spot for six years, announced his departure in March. Beckstrom brings a unique background to the post. In his role at DHS, he cooperated directly with high-level officials at the Justice and Defense Departments, the National Security Council, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Beckstrom left DHS abruptly earlier this year and his resignation letter was published by the Wall Street Journal. In it, he said it was a "bad strategy" to have the National Security Agency play a major role in cybersecurity. Prior to his stint in federal government, he founded and sold two tech companies and helped start a global CEO peace network that initiated diplomatic efforts between India and Pakistan. He also co-authored four books including The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations, which offers advice on analyzing organizations and competitive strategy.
In an exclusive interview with Tech Daily Dose, Beckstrom said his appointment symbolizes a "fresh start" for ICANN's relationship with Congress and the Obama administration. ICANN has faced scrutiny on Capitol Hill in the run up to September's expiration of a formal oversight relationship with the Commerce Department. Lawmakers worry about the group's transparency, accountability and budget processes.Read more about Beckstrom, his outlook for ICANN and the challenges he will face in CongressDaily's latest "Issue Of The Week" feature, which is published every Monday on the TechCentral page.
Internationally renowned chef Wolfgang Puck flew to Sydney, Australia for this week's meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers to promote a forthcoming .food Internet address amid fears by big brand owners like Marriott, Nike, and Verizon that a planned expansion of the domain name system will require them to spend big bucks protecting their name from fraudsters and cybersquatters. Web site names and e-mail addresses ending in .food -- such as www.wolfgangpuck.food, www.spagorestaurant.food, www.yourname.food and millions more -- will provide restaurants, retailers, caterers, food-lovers and chefs worldwide a unique opportunity to own meaningful new web addresses, Puck said in a press release.
"This is a great way for the finest food enterprises to stand out from the crowd on the Internet," said Puck, who owns more than 100 fine dining and casual restaurants in the United States as well as a national catering company and several consumer product lines. "Owning a .FOOD address is like opening a business on the best street in any city in the world." Puck told attendees at the ICANN meeting that a portion of the proceeds from .food will be donated to philanthropic organizations like Meals on Wheels and scholarships at the Culinary Institute of America, among others. Early next year ICANN will begin approving applications for top-level domains named after cities, companies, brands and entrepreneurial ventures.
Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch announced his support earlier this month for a .NYC Web address. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said in February that the City Council and Office of the Mayor will pursue the .NYC domain. ".NYC is the best real estate opportunity in New York City since the Dutch bought Manhattan. I can't wait to sign up for edkoch.nyc, and while I'm at it I'll probably sign up for mayorkoch.nyc as well," Koch said. Former Vice President Al Gore has also backed the domain name expansion offering support for .eco, an address to promote environmental awareness. "This is a truly exciting opportunity for the environmental movement and for the Internet as a whole," Gore said in a press release. Read a related story in CongressDaily here (subscription required).
Computer security expert Rod Beckstrom, who served as director of the Homeland Security Department's National Cybersecurity Center in the Bush administration, could become the new president and CEO of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, sources close to the California-based nonprofit tell Tech Daily Dose. Paul Twomey, who has held the position for six years, announced his departure in March. Since that time the group has faced intense scrutiny on Capitol Hill in the run up to September's expiration of a formal oversight relationship between ICANN and the Commerce Department. At a hearing earlier this month, members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee called for an extension of the arrangement amid concerns about the 11-year-old organization's transparency, accountability, budget processes, and stakeholder relationships.
If approved by the ICANN board, Beckstrom would bring a unique background to the post. In his role at DHS, Beckstrom reported to the DHS Secretary and was charged with cooperating directly with high-level officials at the Justice and Defense Departments, the National Security Council, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. At age 24, Beckstrom launched his first company, CATS Software, and grew it into a global enterprise. He sold the business and later cofounded Mergent Systems, a database firm that was acquired for $200 million. The Stanford University graduate also cofounded a global CEO peace network that initiated diplomatic efforts between India and Pakistan.
Additionally, Beckstrom co-authored four books including The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations, which offers advice on analyzing organizations and competitive strategy. ICANN Vice President Paul Levins would not confirm Beckstrom's selection but said a "leading candidate" had been chosen and initial contract discussions were underway. The candidate will attend a major ICANN meeting slated to begin in Sydney on Sunday. There he will meet with the board face-to-face and will be introduced to members of the ICANN community, Levins said. The board expects to be in a position to approve the new CEO when it convenes next Friday, he added. Read more about ICANN's Sydney meeting here.
A California appeals court's reinstatement of an antitrust lawsuit against a firm that administers the .com and .net domain name registration systems could add a new wrinkle to the ongoing debate in Washington over the future of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers and its relationships with various entities that have a stake in the security and stability of the World Wide Web. The unanimous 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling last Friday will allow an Internet industry trade group to proceed to trial on claims that Mountain View-based VeriSign inflated the cost of domain names by engaging in predatory and monopolistic behavior. The court reversed an earlier ruling by U.S. District Judge Ronald Whyte, who dismissed the suit brought by the Coalition for ICANN Transparency (CFIT) four years ago.
The lawsuit alleged VeriSign secured the ICANN contract through 2012 without a competitive bidding process. After solidifying its control of Internet addresses ending in .com, VeriSign has incrementally increased registration fees. At a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee last week, Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., asked VeriSign Chief Technology Officer Ken Silva whether his firm planned to raise rates again in 2009. Silva could not answer. At the same hearing, an executive at Web hosting firm GoDaddy argued the manner in which the VeriSign-ICANN deal was negotiated lacked transparency and an official from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration pledged to conduct "a fulsome review" involving the Justice Department and others when the contract's expiration nears.
A chorus of House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee members today called for an extension of the U.S. government's formal oversight agreement with the nonprofit that administers the Internet domain name system, citing concerns about the 11-year-old organization's transparency, accountability, budget processes, and stakeholder affairs. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers remains "far from a model of effective and sustainable self-governance" and it would be unwise to shrink the federal government's role amid increased cyber attacks and rapid Internet innovation, Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., said at a hearing. Subcommittee ranking member Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., Mike Doyle, D-Pa., John Shimkus, R-Ill., and Lee Terry, R-Neb., each backed the extension of a joint project agreement between ICANN and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
"ICANN seems better at furthering its own interests than those of the millions of Internet users it's supposed to look out for," Doyle said. Terry and others emphasized the issue is a matter of national security and must be examined carefully." Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., said ICANN does not have the independent, authoritative governance structure to keep other governments from abusing their power to interfere with Internet governance and citizens' use of the platform. Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., is reportedly drafting a letter to NTIA with the backing of Stearns and Energy and Commerce ranking member Joe Barton that recommends a one-year extension of the agreement. Boucher told Tech Daily Dose after the hearing that he had not made a firm decision on how to proceed but would be doing so in the near future.
On the eve of a congressional hearing to examine the future of the government's relationship with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the California-based entity that administers the Web addressing system is getting some celebrity support. Former Vice President Al Gore has joined with Vint Cerf, known to many as one of the fathers of the Internet, in acknowledging the success of the group's multi-stakeholder, bottom up governance. Gore led an interagency panel 12 years ago that was charged with coordinating the U.S. government's electronic commerce strategy, which led to the creation of ICANN.
"What we have all those years later is an organization that works," Gore said. "[ICANN] has security as its core mission, is responsive to all global stakeholders and is independent and democratic. We should make permanent those foundations for success," he said. Cerf, who long-served as ICANN's chairman and is now Google's chief Internet evangelist, argued the past decade has shown the ICANN model has worked. "The ICANN of today is larger, more capable, more international, and better positioned to fulfill its mandate." ICANN has benefited from a joint project agreement with the U.S. government, which is slated to expire in September, but "the time has now come to conclude it," Cerf said.
Cerf's comments are contained in written testimony, which ICANN will ask the House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee to accept for the record on Thursday. Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., has been be urged by Internet industry stakeholders to hold the hearing amid continued concerns about ICANN's accountability and transparency. Invited witnesses include: National Telecommunications and Information Administration's Fiona Alexander; ICANN President Paul Twomey; Verisign Senior Vice President Kenneth Silva; GoDaddy General Counsel Christine Jones; Verizon Vice President Sarah Deutsch; and Thomas Lenard, president of the Technology Policy Institute.
House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., will hold a June 4 hearing to examine the future of the U.S. government's relationship with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a nonprofit California-based entity that administers the Internet addressing system. Subcommittee staffers will be briefed on the topic a day earlier, sources told Tech Daily Dose on Thursday. A witness list has not yet been finalized. Boucher has previously expressed interest in holding an ICANN hearing, particularly since a joint project agreement that has allowed Commerce Department oversight of ICANN is slated to sunset on Sept. 30 amid accountability and transparency concerns.
Earlier this month, Sens. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Bill Nelson, D-Fla., wrote to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, urging him to be a prominent player in finding a permanent accountability mechanism as the Commerce-based National Telecommunications and Information Administration seeks public comment on ICANN. Separately, Snowe and Sen. David Vitter, R-La., pressed Assistant Secretary-Designate Larry Strickling to pay close attention to the issue. "Regardless of whether the JPA is terminated, modified or extended, it is my belief that NTIA will continue to be an active participant in ICANN," said Strickling, who awaits Senate confirmation. Read more recent coverage on this topic in CongressDaily here, here, and here (subscription required).
Legislation unveiled Wednesday by Senate Commerce Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller and Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, would require greater oversight of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. The private entity based in California is slated to sever formal ties with the Commerce Department later this year and is working on a controversial plan that would change the way top-level domains, such as .biz, .info, and .us, are assigned. Read CongressDaily's coverage for details (subscription required).
"It's a great thing the Congress is taking this issue so seriously" and better coordination of cybersecurity is a laudable goal, ICANN Vice President Paul Levins told Tech Daily Dose. But the Internet is a dispersed network "so you can't just turn it off by exerting pressure at one point," he said. The bill would "make sure that ICANN does not succumb to foreign pressure" to end its relationship with the U.S. government, according to a summary. Levins argued the analysis "misunderstands ICANN's interests" and said his organization does not want to end its link to the U.S. government.
Another section would require the head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to develop a secure Internet addressing system. According to the summary, ICANN has "failed in this regard." Levins defended his group's leadership on the issue saying a proposal on this front was sent to the Commerce Department in October and officials have been running a test bed for over 12 months. ICANN is awaiting feedback from the agency, he said.
Some more April Fool's Day hijinks courtesy of the boutique high-tech PR shop, 463 Communications... The firm's founding partners Tom Galvin and Sean Garrett posted a fake news story on their blog Wednesday announcing the White House had reached an deal to sell the Internet and its critical infrastructure to China for $350 billion. By 2010, the Internet's root servers and .com and .net will be transferred to China, said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs in the phony story. Under the bogus agreement, responsibility for oversight of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the technical coordinating body set up by the Commerce Department in 1998, will be transferred to the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information.
"This was a complicated negotiation but we feel comfortable that it will result in a win-win," Gibbs is quoted as saying. "The United States gets an immediate windfall that will help us address our near-term budget shortfall, and going forward we are confident China will act as a responsible steward of the Internet." The article also quotes a Chinese MII official who declined to comment on the negotiations but referred reporters to a Web site that detailed the "harmonious changes that will be made to world Internet." Among the changes proposed were the elimination of pornographic sites such as "PornoTube" and "TMZ", the Web site for "The Economist" and any reference to Rick Astley or "rickrolling." Read more here.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers controls extremely important aspects of the Internet, but is largely accountable to no one, according to a new study from the Technology Policy Institute. The paper comes as interest in ICANN oversight grows among lawmakers and industry stakeholders and the organization moves closer to severing its formal ties with the Commerce Department later this year. The report, coauthored by TPI President Thomas Lenard and New York University economist Lawrence White, reviews the structure and function of ICANN and also a number of other organizations that perform a roughly comparable range of private-sector and quasi-governmental coordination and standard-setting functions.
The authors conclude that no organization with ICANN's level of responsibility operates with the independence that ICANN enjoys. The organization's proposal for complete privatization and termination of the U.S. government's official oversight function would make the accountability problem worse, they wrote. Virtually all the organizations reviewed in the study are governed by their direct users; Lenard and White argue that direct users should similarly govern ICANN. The model would increase accountability and would also be consistent with the reduced regulatory role the authors recommend. Read the Lenard-White study here.
The Internet's key oversight agency is saying goodbye to its president and CEO after six years at the helm. Paul Twomey broke the news to attendees at the opening of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers' 34th international public meeting in Mexico City this week. Twomey, who was tapped for the top spot after serving four years as chairman of ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee, said he plans to leave at the end of the year and will "move on to another leadership position in the private or international sectors." Before joining ICANN, he founded Argo P@cific, a firm that helped companies build their Internet presence.
Upon learning of Twomey's decision to step down, some of the most significant leaders in the Internet community praised his work. "I can think of no other person who has had more influence on the course of ICANN's evolution than Paul," said Vint Cerf, Google's chief Internet evangelist, who served for eight years as ICANN chairman. "We owe him a great debt for long and faithful service and I owe him personal thanks for his counsel during my time on the board. The Board will be challenged to find a worthy and capable successor." Internet Society CEO Lynn St Amour added that ICANN has become a stronger organization during Twomey's tenure.
ICANN Chairman Peter Dengate Thrush said he was happy to have Twomey on board until the end of 2009 given the monumental tasks the body has ahead of it this year. In September, the Commerce Department's formal ICANN oversight role expires and the agency is moving forward with a controversial expansion of the way Web domains are assigned. Big brand owners fear that expanding these top-level domains will force them to spend big bucks to protect their identities from fraud and infringement.
Amid fears from big brand owners about sweeping changes to the way top-level domains, such as .biz, .info, and .us, are assigned, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is expected to unveil on Wednesday a revised guidebook for their plan and a 155-page analysis of public comments that is intended to show the effect input from various stakeholders has had. A range of intellectual property stakeholders from Marriott to Verizon are afraid that ICANN's Web address expansion will force them to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to protect their identities from fraud and infringement.
"This won't be the last revision," ICANN Vice President Paul Levins said, noting the extent of this analysis is a first for his organization. "This is literally thousands of voices shaping the next layer of innovation on the Internet and we're documenting it for all to see," he said. Levins said there is more work to be done on trademark issues; security and stability; worries about increases in malicious conduct; and supply and demand examination. ICANN is committed to consulting with all stakeholders -- including the World Intellectual Property Organization -- to craft the right policy, he said. "We're not rushing this. We are listening and acting," he added.
ICANN released a draft proposal in October suggesting that any entity could apply for a domain as long as they could pay a fee of about $190,000. The application process is expected to start this year, with the first of hundreds of new domains potentially coming online late this year. Earlier this month, the Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce hosted closed-door meetings with executives and Capitol Hill staffers to discuss how Congress could get involved in the debate. Read more of CongressDaily's coverage here (subscription required).
Update: ICANN has posted materials here.
From Wednesday's CongressDaily AM Edition:
Big brand owners like Marriott, Nike and Verizon are gearing up for a battle in Congress and the Commerce Department over sweeping changes to the way top-level domains, such as .biz, .info, and .us, are assigned. A range of intellectual property stakeholders fear that a planned expansion of such domains by the Internet's key oversight agency will force them to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to protect their identities from fraud and infringement.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers released a draft proposal in October suggesting that any entity could apply for a domain as long as they could pay a fee of about $190,000. The application process is expected to start this year, with the first of hundreds of new domains potentially coming online late this year. ICANN Vice President Paul Levins said everyone's concerns will be considered and as a starting point, an analysis of 300 comments received by ICANN will be released in the next two weeks.
On Tuesday, the Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse hosted a briefing for executives and Capitol Hill staffers to discuss how Congress can get involved, but ICANN officials were told they were not welcome, Levins said. Another forum, which will be closed to the press and public, is set for Friday at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Among those taking part are the Financial Services Roundtable, National Association of Manufacturers, Motion Picture Association of America, Recording Industry Association of America and other industry groups. ICANN officials will be on hand at that event, Levins said.
Read the full story here (subscription required).
National Telecommunications and Information Administration Acting Director Meredith Baker called on the Internet's key administrative agency this week to resolve a list of potential problems before making sweeping changes to the way top-level domains, such as .biz, .info, and .us, are assigned. In a Thursday letter to leaders of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, Baker said the organization must carefully consider public comments received on their plan and initiate further consultations, including the creation of a revised guidebook for those wishing to apply for a flurry of new domains -- a process projected to start in 2009.
Baker said ICANN must ensure the introduction of a potentially large number of new domains, including internationalized domains, will not jeopardize the stability and security of the Internet and said the group must prove it has the sufficient capacity to enforce contract compliance with an as-yet-unknown number of new contracting parties. ICANN should also state how it will conduct legal reviews of applications, consider objections from third parties, and ensure that the introduction of new domains complies with domestic and international law, including intellectual property rights statutes.
She also argued that the ICANN board's October 2006 request for an economic study to address a variety of domain name market related questions needs to be completed and the results be considered by the Internet community before new domains are introduced. ICANN's vice president for corporate affairs told CongressDaily recently that the expansion of the domain name universe will be executed with "a large dose of common sense." "There are lots of questions about how this is going to be implemented and we're not pretending that we've got everything locked down and agreed upon," Paul Levins said in an interview. "We want to have a really robust debate about it."
The Internet's key administrative agency's blueprint for making sweeping changes to the way top-level domains, such as .biz, .info, and .us, are assigned must take into consideration the impact of potential changes to the registrar and registry marketplace and demonstrate that it has the sufficient capacity to enforce contract compliance with an as yet unknown number of new contracts, a top Commerce Department official told attendees at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers' meeting this week in Cairo, Egypt.
National Telecommunications and Information Administration chief Meredith Baker warned against expanding the marketplace before having "effective and meaningful tools to protect consumers and brand owners" and said appropriate mechanisms must be in place to address dispute resolution with respect to new domain names "including the delicate issues of morality and public order." She also urged ICANN to provide clarity on the fee structure, the possible use of auctions, and the disposition of excess revenues given ICANN’s status as a non-profit.
NTIA is reviewing ICANN's progress as part of a three-year agreement to extend a contract between them, which expired in September 2006. When that expires, Baker said what replaces it needs to include performance metrics; results-based budgeting processes; fact-based policy development; improved cross-community deliberations; and more responsive consultation procedures that provide explanations of the basis for decisions, including why certain contributions have not been accepted.
Progress toward the implementation of new so-called generic top level domains (gTLDs) is expected this week as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers opens its 33rd meeting in Cairo, Egypt. Over 1,000 delegates from around the world have gathered for the conference, which is the first assembly since the group's board voted in July to proceed with the expansion of gTLDs. Since that time, several steps have been taken including the release of a draft guidebook that provides information for those interested in applying for a gTLD. Community feedback is expected during this week's meeting.
The meeting will also see further progress toward the introduction of internationalized domain names (IDNs) which, when combined with new gTLDs, will create a range new possibilities for the internet users of the world, ICANN said. Currently, there are 1.5 billion Internet users worldwide and only 21 gTLDs from which people can choose, ICANN President Paul Twomey pointed out in a release. The expansion will be the largest since the domain name system's inception. For more information about the meeting, click here.
A flurry of new top-level Web domain names expected to be rolled out by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers starting in 2009 will be executed with "a large dose of common sense," the organization's vice president for corporate affairs told CongressDaily on the eve of ICANN's release of draft guidelines for the long-awaited process. Under the plan, any entity could apply for any domain as long as they could pay a hefty registration fee but ICANN wants to make sure that all Internet stakeholders are able to provide their input along the way.
"There are lots of questions about how this is going to be implemented and we're not pretending that we've got everything locked down and agreed upon," Paul Levins said in an interview. "We want to have a really robust debate about it." One area that he hopes will spur a lively conversation is the introduction of geographic domain names like .france, and .germany. "I hope governments will be encouraged to get involved in this discussion," Levins said. ICANN also expects a number of non-English domains to be introduced, particularly from Thailand, Japan, Russia and other countries that don’t use Roman script, he predicted.
Industry representatives and U.S. government officials already have concerns about ICANN's plan. "ICANN's new program is a big undertaking that is fraught with problems from many constituencies," National Telecommunications and Information Administration spokesman Todd Sedmak said. "Based on the information released, we have questions that we will want ICANN to answer before they move forward."
The Internet's key administrative agency on Friday will unveil a blueprint for making sweeping changes to the way top-level domains, such as .biz, .info, and .us, are assigned. Under the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers' draft proposal, any entity could apply for any domain as long as they could pay a registration fee of about $190,000. The application process is expected to start in 2009, with the first sites potentially coming online in the last quarter of the year. The scheme, which ICANN says embodies its longtime goal of introducing competition into the domain name space, could spur fierce a lobbying battle. Intellectual property owners are already on the defensive because they fear potential trademark infringement and brand dilution.
The anticipated flare-up over the domain expansion could be bigger than a multi-year campaign by some Internet stakeholders and members of Congress who wanted ICANN to establish a .xxx ending for domain names that publish pornography. ICANN's board voted against the creation of a virtual red-light district last year but Democratic Sens. Max Baucus of Montana and Mark Pryor of Arkansas co-sponsored a bill in the 109th Congress backing .xxx. Pryor's staff is keeping tabs on ICANN's latest proposal and aides for Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, are doing the same. Other House and Senate members who serve on key committees are also expected to track the issue. "This is going to make .xxx look like a warm up act," one international government official told CongressDaily.
ICANN, which will offer a 45-day public comment period on the draft plan, is already bracing for bickering over .xxx and any number of applications for domains that contain expletives and other potentially offensive content, ICANN Vice President Paul Levins said. Anyone can challenge proposed domains, which will be published on ICANN's site, and an independent arbitration panel will hear complaints and decide their fate. ICANN hopes to receive as many as 500 applications in its first round. If all are successful, that would bring in more than $90 million. Annual renewals would cost $75,000, which is on par with the .com domain, Levins said. He also downplayed rumors that the projected financial gain is the chief reason for the expansion. ICANN views the fee as a cost-recovery vehicle since about $13 million has been spent readying the system for the change, he said.
Continue reading ICANN To Unveil Plan For Domain Name Expansion.
A high-level Commerce Department official wrote to the chairman of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers on Wednesday offerings the Bush administration's views regarding how to improve "institutional confidence" at the international body charged with administering the Internet-addressing system.
In Acting Assistant Secretary Meredith Baker's letter to Peter Dengate-Thrush, she wrote that "while ICANN had made significant progress in several key areas, important work remains." Stakeholders believe ICANN should implement effective processes that will enable: long term stability; accountability; responsiveness; continued private sector leadership, stakeholder participation; increased contract compliance; and enhanced competition, she said.
An ICANN steering committee posted a series of interrelated documents in June that touch on several of those key areas "but ensuring continued private sector leadership, increased contract compliance and enhanced competition are minimally addressed, if at all." The department believes those issues require "affirmative and concrete actions" on ICANN’s part, Baker wrote. Read the rest of her letter here.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell and ranking member Joe Barton joined 14 other colleagues on Tuesday in sending a letter to Commerce Secretary Gutierrez praising the administration's continued oversight of the international entity charged with administering the Internet.
The lawmakers also asked the Commerce Department to comment on the possibility of an overseas relocation of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which is currently based in Marina Del Ray, Calif. Rumors have swirled in recent years that some foreign government and industry stakeholders want ICANN's headquarters to move to Brussels.
The concern comes as ICANN's leaders gradually try to transition the coordination of technical functions of the Web to the private sector. "Any change that threatens the important U.S. role in promoting U.S. commercial and free speech principles on the Internet can only hurt the consumers and businesses that count on this network every day," they wrote.
The letter requests a response to a handful of questions about ICANN's future within two weeks time. While ICANN remains the "best option for reaching consensus in an increasingly divided world," members said the organization should ensure transparency and promote greater accountability in its operations. ICANN constituents meet several times a year and their next meeting is scheduled for June 22-26 in Paris, France.
The Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse planned to send an e-mail to thousands of brand owners on Thursday urging them to get involved in the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the global body that administers the World Wide Web.
The group's cleverly phrased May Day message, "Say ICANN," is aimed at curbing abusive practices of certain Internet registrars and registrants, Tech Daily Dose has learned. "Suspicious new registrar activities such as domain front running and the proposal of a new voting structure that will strengthen the strangle hold that registrars and registries have on the ICANN process necessitate immediate action on the part of brand owners," the e-mail said.
Recently, concerns have been raised about domain name "tasting" and "kiting." Tasting is when an entity registers several Web addresses and exploits a five-day grace period, during which names can be returned for refunds. Kiting is repeatedly adding and dropping domains to avoid registration costs while making money off pay-per-click links.
Four CADNA members -- AIG, Dell, Eli Lilly, and DirecTV -- have already answered the call by pledging to join ICANN’s business constituency, officials said. "Currently, domain industry insiders dominate ICANN’s membership and often sway decisions in their favor," the e-mail argues. ICANN's next meeting will take place in Paris, France in June.
According to ICANN's business constituency site, its membership outreach already extends directly to over 50,000 companies and indirectly to over 1.5 million companies worldwide. Some big-name members include eBay, Microsoft, News Corp., Nokia, Walt Disney Co., Time Warner, and Verizon.
View CADNA's "Say ICANN" page here.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has found a little breathing room in the existing address space known as IPv4 with its recovery of a block of 16 million addresses. The IP addresses recovered were once used to connect older protocol packet-data networks with the fledgling Internet, according to a press release.
A small percentage of the addresses had been assigned, most more than 15 years ago. The assignments were so old that finding people who knew about them was a lengthy process. Nearly 50 organizations worked cooperatively with ICANN staff last year to confirm that the 984 registrations were no longer in use.
While the reclamation of the IPv4 space is a temporary fix, Barbara Roseman of ICANN's Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, said "the real and lasting solution is the technical move to IPv6 -- the protocol that will make 340 trillion trillion trillion unique IP addresses available."
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers revved up its public participation Web site last week in anticipation of the group's upcoming meeting in New Delhi, India. The site boasts colorful graphics and improved functionality and usability.
The online destination will provide an estimated 700 physical attendees and several hundred virtual visitors with all the information they need to participate in the Feb. 10-15 meeting. Look for meeting agendas, presentations and transcripts as well as links to chat rooms and audiocasts from the event. More information about the meeting can be found here.
"Governments who want to stomp-out dissidents or just stick a finger in the American eye" attempted to "hijack" some of the conversations held by participants at the Internet Governance Forum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil this week, according to one industry source.
For them, the term "protecting critical Internet resources" has become a euphemism for "killing ICANN," the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which administers the Web addressing system, wrote Steve DelBianco, executive director of the e-commerce trade group NetChoice.
"The motivations of repressive regimes are obvious, but as I've stated before, those who see ICANN as a mechanism for American imperialism over the Internet are grossly overestimating the power of ICANN," he wrote on his blog. Read more here.
Technology Daily has been following the IGF too:
• Participants At Brazil Forum Hail Its Open Process
• The Net As 'A Tool Of Repression'
• Cuban Official's Calls For Net Change
• Call For 'Net Bill Of Rights' Opposed
• U.S. Likes Structure For Net Policy
The chairman of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which administers the Web addressing system, made a plea to participants at a Web policy summit in Brazil to get involved with his group.
"Whoever you are, wherever you are, if you are interested in finding out more about ICANN, or its work, the door is open. Please walk in," Peter Dengate Thrush told attendees of the Internet Governance Forum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Thursday.
ICANN's organizational model allows all to contribute, from business to governments to the technical community to everyday Internet users, he said. The group's transparency has been routinely criticized but it is trying to improve its image in international circles.
Thrush said a new e-mail address -- get-involved@icann.org -- has been set up for those who wish to learn more about ICANN's structure and to get involved. "We will be glad to hear from you," he said. Read more about the forum in Technology Daily's PM Edition.
On the heels of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers' fall meeting in Los Angeles last week, Technology Daily's "Issue Of The Week" feature appropriately focuses on Vint Cerf, who left his post as ICANN chairman on Friday.
In an interview conducted shortly before the meeting began, Cerf reminisced with me about his lengthy tenure as the face of ICANN and the organization's biggest challenges and successes over the years. He also spoke candidly about his plans for the future (hint: Oprah's Book Club better be on the lookout). Read the article here.
I hadn’t intended to run into any Web celebrities during my time at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers fall meeting in Los Angeles (with the exception of ICANN Chairman Vint Cerf, of course).
So imagine my surprise when I encountered a stick-thin, mascara-wearing, bleached blonde at a trendy restaurant on Sunset Boulevard. That's right, I'm about 99 percent sure that a friend and I had a run-in with YouTube sensation Chris Crocker. Then again, it could have been Courtney Love.
Crocker, if you'll recall, made headlines earlier this year with his dramatic defense of beleaguered pop singer Britney Spears. Shortly after the Tennessee native's foray into the public eye, there were rumors of him getting his own reality television show. Perhaps that's what brought him to La-La Land?
Although I wasn’t able to stay for the entire week, I wanted to post a few thoughts about my first experience covering a global gathering of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers in person.
Since meetings are typically held in far-flung locales like Portugal, Morocco and New Zealand, I usually follow key sessions via webcast. When I heard that the fall meeting would be held in Los Angeles, I knew I had to attend.
My first observation is that members of the ICANN community are extremely committed. They wake up early for pre-meeting meetings; engage in heated discussions all day long; and continue those debates over cocktails and hors d'oeuvres. Some even engage in late-night strategy sessions to prep for the next day.
Secondly, ICANN meeting participants are scarily smart. They eat, sleep and breathe the World Wide Web -- and it shows. Their knowledge of all things Internet-related was demonstrated at each session I attended and in every conversation I had with them -- both on and off-the-record.
It's worth noting that the group is truly a multi-stakeholder entity with participants from nearly every corner of the world. That was illustrated by the row of translation booths in the back of the main conference hall that made large sessions immediately available in a variety of languages.
Hundreds of members of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers community celebrated the tenure of longtime chairman Vint Cerf on Tuesday night at Sony Pictures Studios in Los Angeles. Cerf, who also serves as Google's chief Internet evangelist, leaves his ICANN post later this week.
"Vint was very much a part of the ICANN model's creation. No individual, no country, no company controls the Internet. Instead, it is the Internet community that drives the ICANN agenda," ICANN President Paul Twomey said.
"People may not realize that Vint, like all members of the ICANN board, serve the ICANN community as volunteers. It's an incredible sacrifice made in the name of a stronger and better single globally interoperable Internet. That model works," he added.
Twomey led a series of tributes at the gala, which included speeches from Ira Magaziner, who oversaw the Clinton White House policy on the Internet that led to the creation of ICANN, and Steve Crocker, chair of ICANN's Security and Stability Advisory Committee and Cerf's life-long friend.
Read more about Cerf's time at ICANN in Technology Daily's "Issue of the Week" on Monday.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers' 30th meeting in Los Angeles this week drew a broad cross-section of stakeholders from the United States and around the world -- and apparently a fictional storybook character or two.
A quick scan of ICANN's published list of 623 pre-registered attendees, which the group posted on its conference Web site, includes an entry for "Harry Potter" from the U.K. whose affiliation is listed as "Hogwarts."
Potter is the main character of a series of fantasy novels written by British author J.K. Rowling that have been remade for the big screen. The stories about the adolescent wizard are largely set at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a school for young wizards and witches.
An ice sculpture of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers' logo wowed guests at a Monday night reception. Read more about ICANN's meeting in Technology Daily's PM Edition.
Tuesday is “Constituency Day” where the different elements of ICANN’s supporting organizations hold their own meetings to discuss the latest developments and their positions on matters likely to be raised later in the week. There will be an evening gala at Sony Pictures Studios with a special tribute to outgoing chairman Vint Cerf.
If you can't be in Los Angeles in person for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers' meeting, check out our Flickr photostream here. I'll be posting photos for the next few days.
Vint Cerf, the longtime chairman of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers kicked off the group's 30th meeting in Los Angeles on Monday by lauding members of his international community for their continued efforts to engage in a "rich, candid and respectful dialogue."
There is a "great deal of passion and energy to be found" among ICANN's ranks and Cerf said he has "been impressed by the maturing of ICANN dialogue into an increasingly thoughtful and substantive discussion." Cerf will step down from his post at the end of the week-long assembly.
Meanwhile, ICANN President Paul Twomey made the gathering a family affair. During the morning coffee break, I had a quick chat with his father who flew in from Sydney, Australia for the event.
The good-humored elder said that coming to the conference was an intriguing proposition but this would be his "first and last" ICANN meeting. A leg ailment limits his mobility and compulsory sightseeing over the weekend didn’t help the situation much.
Read more about the ICANN meeting in Technology Daily's PM Edition.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers meets in Los Angeles this week. Stay tuned for coverage in Technology Daily and on Tech Daily Dose. For now, enjoy a few scenic photos.
Next week's meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers in Los Angeles will go on as planned, despite the massive wildfires in southern California, officials said this week on the conference Web site.
"These fires are on the outskirts of the city and are distant from the meeting venue. There is no likelihood of an impact," organizers wrote after being contacted by a number of meeting attendees. "We understand the challenges, personal stress, and loss these fires are causing in the region, and our thoughts are with our neighbors."
ICANN's 30th international meeting will take place at the Hilton Los Angeles Airport and I'll be there filing reports for Technology Daily's PM Edition and Tech Daily Dose. Stay tuned...
New Delhi will host a February meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the group announced Tuesday. The body, which administers the Web-addressing system, will first converge later this month in Los Angeles (and yours truly will be on the scene).
"Growth of Internet activity in India is extraordinary so it's fitting that the ICANN community is gathering there to discuss major Internet issues like internationalized domain names and new generic top-level domains," said ICANN Vice President Paul Levins.
ICANN received four bids to host the ICANN meeting slated for the Asia-Pacific region and picked the proposal put forward by India's Department of Information Technology and the National Internet Exchange of India. Australia, Hong Kong, and the United Arab Emirates were also contenders.
A grassroots movement is growing in support of the creation of a ".nyc" Web address for New York City, Newsday reported recently. Backers say the domain name would let the city's small businesses distinguish themselves in the crowded online marketplace.
"When Ford introduced their first car 100 years ago, no one thought to start building roads for it," said Tom Lowenhaupt of Connecting.nyc, the group leading the effort. "We ended up having to tear down miles of the Bronx to build freeways to start accommodating them all. It's the same thing now. We have the opportunity now to plan for the future and start organizing ourselves and our resources in a responsible way."
To get a top-level domain, interested parties must apply to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. In 2008, it will for the first time take applications from cities for domain names, the newspaper said.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers will meet in Paris, France in June 2008, the group announced on Friday. At its Aug. 14 meeting, the ICANN Board accepted the proposal put forward by Association pour la Gouvernance de l’Internet en France, en Europe, et dans le monde.
“ICANN is looking forward to working with AGIFEM and welcoming the global Internet community to Paris,” ICANN Vice President Paul Levins said in a press release. “We had two highly competitive proposals to host the meeting slated for ICANN’s European region -- a testament to the great local Internet communities in France and Serbia.”
ICANN holds three meetings per year in different regions around the world. The group's next conference will be in Los Angeles in late October.
The organization that manages the Internet-addressing system is taking on "domain tasting" -- the exploitation of its five-day add/drop grace period for Web addresses. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is now collecting public comments on the topic, officials said Friday.
An ad hoc group within ICANN is inviting both qualitative and quantitative input, with a particular focus on statistical and other empirical evidence to support the statements received. The deadline for submissions to rfi-domaintasting@icann.org is Sept. 15, 2007. Comments can be viewed on this Web page.
Read Technology Daily's recent coverage of this issue here and here.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which manages the Web-addressing system, launched a new monthly magazine last week that will provide the latest news and developments within the organization to online subscribers.
Each issue will review developments in policy topics and provide details of recent board meetings as well as relay ICANN news from around the world. "We want people to understand what issues are pending before ICANN, how interested stakeholders can contribute and when decisions will be made. This magazine will help that understanding," said ICANN Vice President Paul Levins.
The publication is the latest in a series of enhancements to ICANN's accountability and transparency. Other changes included improved board reporting, a blog, an annual report and an improved Web site. Read more about the magazine here.
Over at the Concurring Opinions blog, Oxford University Web expert Jonathan Zittrain ponders whether the global petition for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers to "keep the core neutral" petition is something worth signing.
Technology Daily reported on the new campaign on Thursday. Organizers want ICANN to resist efforts to evaluate proposed domain suffixes based on non-technical criteria such as ideas about morality and competing national political objectives.
Zittrain said he thinks the petition "reads a bit vague" and he finds it "hard to really care if ICANN wants to allow some names and deny others." "I don't see how a willingness to have some content-based process for determining new TLDs can become 'a convenient lever of global control by those seeking to censor unpopular or controversial expression on the Internet,'" he said.
IP Justice fellow Dan Krimm, who is spearheading the effort, responded to Zittrain's "who cares" attitude by arguing that the issue poses a slippery slope: "Allowing ICANN to establish a procedural and jurisdictional precedent in the area of domain names where non-technical public policy can be formulated on a global basis may provide a very attractive venue to expand beyond DNS to matters of more general public policy in Internet governance."
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers wrapped up its conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico on Friday with a board meeting and a briefing with reporters. ICANN President Paul Twomey said this meeting was "very intense" and "very busy," thanks in part to the tropical surroundings.
"People were more relaxed and they got more done," he said on an afternoon conference call. ICANN Board Chairman Vint Cerf joked that the group's good spirits could be attributed to one of the U.S. territory's most important economic engines -- rum.
"I can't confirm that, but I still can't remember what happened last night," Twomey laughed, hinting that the potent alcoholic beverage was prominently featured at after-hours social gatherings.
Meanwhile, ICANN made progress this week on the issue of domain name "tasting" and "kiting." Read more in Technology Daily's PM Edition.
This week's Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico drew 33 more international voices than previous gatherings, thanks to the group's trial global fellowships program.
The fellows were chosen from 125 applicants (65 percent of the fellows and 68 percent of applicants had never attended an ICANN meeting), the group said in a press release. Ten more fellows were approved but opted to take part in ICANN's upcoming Los Angeles meeting instead.
Fellows have their hotel rooms and airfare to the meeting paid for, as well as a $300 stipend to cover incidental expenses. According to ICANN, the cost of the fellowship project for San Juan was roughly $95,000 -- but I'm sure the opportunity to witness Internet policy being shaped was priceless.
Doug Brent, chief operating officer for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, shared some impressive budget statistics at the group's meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico on Monday.
He said ICANN has net revenue of $46.6 million and expenses of $41 million -- but it looks as if revenue will actually be more like $50 million, ICANN board member Susan Crawford pointed out on her blog. Click here to see Brent's presentation.
But what's driving spending? About $1.6 million on new generic top-level domains; $1 million on the At-Large Advisory Committee and outreach; almost $1 million on internationalized domain names; roughly $800,000 on compliance; $700,000 on legal; $530,000 on registrar data escrow; $400,000 on economic assistance, Crawford wrote.
Might a series of maps make the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers more transparent? The group, which oversees the administration of Web addresses announced it is in the process of illustrating some basic geographic details.
The data being mapped includes: the number of accredited registrars and the countries in which they are located; board and staff representation by nationality; country-code top-level-domain (ccTLD) agreements; the general location of root servers based on publicly available information; root zone "Whois" information; support for internationalized domain names at TLD registries and more.
"This is a further example of making information about ICANN more accessible so that people can understand clearly how, why and what we do," ICANN Vice President Paul Levins said in a press release.
The ICANN community is meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico this week. Read more in Technology Daily's PM Edition.
An online petition aimed at the head of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is generating some buzz on YouChoose.net, a new cause-oriented social-networking site. The letter urges ICANN President Paul Twomey to crack down on "cybersquatting." Nearly 600 users had signed the petition as of Friday morning.
The letter begins: "We, the undersigned, are concerned about domain name parking abuse and request that ICANN revisit the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act and the Trademark Cyberpiracy Prevention Act to ensure that a domain names that are parked would be available for sale at a price tag that would not be considered extortion."
Read more about the campaign here. Meanwhile, ICANN will host a meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico next week. Click here for the conference site.
The organization that administers the Internet addressing system signed its first accreditation agreement with a Senegal-based registrar this week. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has similar deals with 890 firms across the globe and this is only the second in Africa, ICANN's Anne-Rachel Inné said.
Kheweul.com has been accredited to register domain names from the .biz, .com, .info, .name, .net, .org, and .pro top-level domains, the group said in a press release. CEO Mouhamet Diop said his company will work hard to "provide domain name services to local African communities." He also plans to promote the digitalization of African cultural heritage and preservation of African multimedia content.
The governmental advisory committee for the agency that sets Internet addressing guidelines has taken its online public forum offline. The Internet Corporation for Names and Numbers panel decided to shut down the discussion board "due to obscenity and other abuse," according to a note posted on the site's homepage. ICANN watcher Bret Fausett pointed out the change on his Internet Pro Radio blog earlier this week. There has been no word on whether the forum, which was launched in 2005, will reopen.
A divided ICANN board voted against a proposed .xxx ending for domain names that publish pornography on Friday. Nine board members, including Chairman Vint Cerf, voted to reject ICM Registry's latest offer, and five members voted for it. ICANN President Paul Twomey abstained from the roll-call vote. Read the full story in Technology Daily's PM edition.
Reactions were plentiful and a number of perspectives did not make it into the story, so here are a few:
Internet Commerce Association counsel Phil Corwin lauded ICANN's action. He told us immediately after the board's vote that his group opposed the deal because it would inevitably involve ICANN in "content regulation and other public policy responsibilities far beyond its narrow technical mandate."
Lauren Weinstein, co-founder of People For Internet Responsibility, strongly endorsed the decision to reject the top-level domain and commended ICANN for its work on the issue. Weinstein added that "controversies regarding 'adult entertainment' content on the Internet aren't going to vanish as a result of this vote."
The group that oversees the Internet-addressing system has been meeting in Lisbon, Portugal this week on a variety of interesting issues but the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has saved the hottest topic for the last day of the conference.
The ICANN board on Friday plans to decide the fate of a proposed .xxx ending for Web addresses that publish pornography. On Thursday, the organization held a public forum where fans and foes of the plan spoke out.
Free Speech Coalition Executive Director Diane Duke skewered ICM Registry and its president Stuart Lawley, who first proposed the domain suffix in 2000. She said the adult entertainment community, whom FSC represents, not only opposes ICM's plan "but it actively opposes the creation of a .xxx top-level domain."
ICANN board member Peter Dengate Thrush asked why members of the adult content sector who want to be a part of .xxx form a subset of FSC's community. Duke said she has not yet found anyone in her constituency who favors the virtual red-light district.
As reported in Monday’s Technology Daily PM edition, ICANN hired London-based consultancy One World Trust to conduct an independent review of the organization’s accountability and transparency. The trust’s report, which was released Thursday, concludes that ICANN is “very transparent” -- probably more so than any other global entity.
The 68-page document also identifies areas for improvement. All the details are available here. ICANN welcomes comment and feedback on the study via e-mail (transparency-2007@icann.org) or on its blog. The comment period closes April 27, ahead of the group’s June meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Internet users from three of ICANN's five global regions will now have direct input to the organization thanks to the creation of three Regional At-Large Organizations, officials announced Thursday.
Memorandums of understanding creating RALOs for Africa and Europe were signed in a special ceremony at ICANN's meeting in Lisbon, Portugal. The third RALO (for Asia-Australia-Pacific) was announced and will be formally signed later this year.
"The creation of RALOs gives average Internet users the chance to influence decisions that shape the security and stability of the Internet," ICANN President Paul Twomey said in a press release. The first RALO, which encompassed the Latin America-Caribbean region, was created at ICANN's São Paulo meeting in December 2006.
The Internet Governance Project's Milton Mueller filed an amusing dispatch after ICANN's gala on Tuesday night, a lavish dinner that has become a much anticipated part of the organization's meetings:
"My perspective on this was best encapsulated by a remark made by John Berryhill, a domain name lawyer, at the Marrakesh, Morocco meeting. As we finished a huge meal and moved on to see dozens of Berber horsemen shooting rifles, setting off fireworks and rustling camels he deadpanned, "Yeah. This is the proper way to run a computer addressing system."
Mueller goes on to write that the policy-forming aspect of the Lisbon, Portugal conference "has been anything but fun." Read more here.
ICANN formalized relationships with country code top level domain (ccTLD) managers for .ci (Côte d'Ivoire) and .ru (Russia) at its meeting in Lisbon, Portugal on Wednesday.
The relationship with Côte d'Ivoire is an accountability framework, while the Russian deal took the form of an exchange of letters, ICANN said. They represent the 20th and 21st formalized relationships between ccTLD managers and ICANN, according to a press release.
Accountability framework and exchange of letters documents can be found here. ICANN signed a similar agreement over the weekend with Libya.
A handful of constituency discussions centering on the debate over public databases that store Web address owners' information were scheduled to take place at ICANN's meeting in Lisbon, Portugal on Tuesday. The conversations come on the heels of a recent proposal to cloak "Whois" data, (including names, organizations, postal and e-mail addresses and telephone numbers). Groups representing commercial and business users; Internet service providers; and intellectual property interests were slated to take on the issue (among others). Technology Daily's recent coverage of the Whois debate can be found here.
One of the most anticipated announcements to come out of ICANN's Lisbon meeting may have to wait until the end of the week. ICANN's board will meet Friday to decide the fate of a proposed .xxx ending for Web addresses that publish pornography, ICANN President Paul Twomey told reporters on a Monday teleconference.
The board is divided and he is uncertain how it will rule. Twomey said the issue has been "clearly controversial and clearly polarizing" within the Internet community and the degree of feedback has been "extensive" and overwhelmingly unsupportive of the virtual red-light district.
Board members are still in "active consultation" on the topic that Twomey characterized as "the most excitement we've had at an ICANN board meeting in a little while."
Read more about the ICANN meeting in Technology Daily's PM edition.
A few remaining thoughts from ICANN President Paul Twomey's Monday address:
• International domain names laboratory tests have been completed but two ICANN constituencies -- the Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO) and the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) -- have raised concerns that need to be addressed. Twomey said he remains hopeful that ICANN can begin deploying the Internet addresses at the end of this year or in early 2008.
• ICANN unveiled a minor redesign of its Web site on Monday. The index page revamp is part of the organization's ongoing effort to improve the online interface based on public comments. Be sure to check out the changes and give ICANN feedback.
This week's ICANN meeting in Lisbon may see the signing of three new agreements with Regional At-Large Organizations to provide Internet users in those geographical areas increased representation, ICANN Paul Twomey said during his plenary speech on Monday. Deals with the African Telecommunications Union, Pacific Islands Telecommunications Association and United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia are nearing completion. Those agreements build on the model and the success of the Latin American and Caribbean accords signed at ICANN's last meeting in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Portuguese IT minister José Mariano Gago on Monday called ICANN an "innovative concept" and lauded the group for being able to facilitate tremendous Internet growth despite numerous technological and administrative challenges. He spoke at the ICANN meeting's opening ceremony in Lisbon.
Gago said the ICANN model "tends to emerge in many other global domains" and has "renewed the international debate on the contribution of the Internet to human and social development." He said Portugal is "fully committed to those goals and values" and supports Web growth as "an urgent national priority."
Hamadoun Touré, secretary general of the International Telecommunication Union, will attend ICANN's Lisbon meeting, officials announced Monday. This is the first time that the head of the ITU has attended such a gathering. ICANN President Paul Twomey said he was "delighted" that Touré is reaching out to his group "especially so early in his term."
Touré, who will attend ICANN's meeting on Friday, assumed his position in January after serving as the director of the ITU's telecommunications development bureau. He previously worked for satellite behemoth Intelsat in Washington, D.C. Touré succeeded Yoshio Utsumi, who served two terms as ITU secretary general.
Stakeholders involved in the transition to Internet protocol version 6, or IPv6, have "a chicken and egg problem," ICANN's Leo Vegoda said on Sunday. "There is little motivation or ROI [return-on-investment] for being an early deployer since there are few IPv6 peers to communicate with." Meanwhile, he senses increased interest in the platform, especially since the start of this year.
A couple of factors have informed his belief, he told attendees at an IPv6 tutorial. The first is the recognition that Internet addresses under the current regime (IPv4) will be exhausted soon, he said. Secondly, the U.S. government has required that all federal agencies have operational IPv6 networks by June 2008. A third element is the general availability of Microsoft's new Vista operating system, which is IPv6-enabled out of the box, Vegoda said.
For those of us who cannot be at ICANN's meeting in person, board member Joi Ito has posted this photo on Flickr of an early morning in Lisbon.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers meeting began in Lisbon, Portugal over the weekend. Here are a few noteworthy items:
• ICANN signed an accountability framework with the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) managers for .ly -- Libya. Read more about it here and here.
• ICANN's contractual compliance program has been updated to provide clear, transparent information regarding contractual compliance expectations and concerns.
• The President's Strategy Committee report was released. The advisory group was created after ICANN's December 2005 summit and previously publicized a series of draft recommendations. Learn more about the committee here.
• There were two interesting tutorials on Sunday: (1) How the marketplace for expiring names has changed: Why names aren't released and what is the impact on consumers and other interests? (2) Domain name secondary market: What makes a name worth thousands of dollars and how does this market work? Transcripts are available here and here.
• ICANN Ombudsman Frank Fowlie marveled at the devotion of his organization's staff despite starting off the week in Lisbon with sleeplessness, jet-lag and lost luggage. On Sunday, employees' first meeting started at 7:30 a.m. and the last event of the day ended at 10 p.m. "Long days, dedicated staff, and lots of interesting things going on," he mused on his blog.
• An interesting pre-meeting interview with ICANN President Paul Twomey has been posted on the organization's blog.
Recent discussions with folks involved in the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers brought up another interesting issue that may serve as an undercurrent for hallway chatter at ICANN's meeting in Lisbon, Portugal that starts this weekend.
Vint Cerf, who has been called "the father of the Internet," currently serves as chair of the ICANN board but his term expires in December. He has been on the board since 1999. "Of great interest will be who gets elected to the board and who might be seen as possible candidates with experience and leadership that are on the board today," one source said.
Susan Crawford, a board member for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, is in Lisbon, Portugal for the organization's big meeting that begins this weekend. She made a list of hot-button issues on her blog that are ripe for discussion and I thought I would elaborate.
ICANN board decision on .xxx. ICANN has twice rejected similar proposals to create a virtual red-light district since 2000. They could vote at this meeting on whether to approve the domain name for use by pornography sites.
Domain name system root server attack. A distributed denial-of-service assault in February lasted almost eight hours and targeted six of the 13 root servers that form the backbone of the Internet.
Principles on transparency and accountability. Questions still loom about how ICANN is trying to improve its work in the face of criticism that too much occurs behind closed doors and without enough input from the Internet community.
"Whois" data. The debate over public databases that store Web address owners' information (including names, organizations, postal and e-mail addresses and telephone numbers) is expected to continue.
A group of advisors for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the Web's key oversight agency, met by telephone on Monday morning to discuss strategic issues facing the organization in the 21st century. The briefing came a week before the ICANN community convenes in Lisbon, Portugal for one of several annual meetings.
The President's Strategy Committee, which was created after ICANN's December 2005 summit, resulted from calls for a renewed emphasis on a "bottom-up" ICANN process. The group released a series of draft recommendations in November and plans on furthering the discussion in Lisbon.
On the teleconference, ICANN President Paul Twomey said the panel has been focusing on the following topics:
• Issues pertaining to the legal status and identity of ICANN
• ICANN's ability to respond to a global environment and regional concerns
• Management of the "root zone" of the Internet addressing system
• Linkages to the U.S. government
• Capacity development and outreach issues
• Observations about ICANN internal review processes
A federal court in New Jersey on Thursday awarded Kevin Medina control of domain name registrar RegisterFly. The ruling resolved a dispute over ownership of the company but did not lessen pressure from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers to fix breaches of its accreditation agreement.
The firm, which administers about 2 million domain names, faced criticism after users were unable to transfer their domain names away from RegisterFly to another registrar, ICANN said. The organization is awaiting a meeting with the company's executives to resolve the reported failures.
Earlier this week, ICANN obtained registrant data from RegisterFly but a substantial portion of the records consist of privacy-protected accounts. ICANN has asked RegisterFly how that information can be maintained in the event that RegisterFly loses its accreditation.
Update: In other ICANN news, a fact sheet concerning a February attack on the system that underpins the Internet is now available. The document is intended to "provide an explanation of the attack for a non-technical audience in the hope of enlarging public understanding surrounding this and related issues."
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