Deconstructing Code

Huston on ICANN, the ITU, WSIS, and Internet Governance

Geoff Huston has a nice piece outlining some of the ongoing issues in Internet Governance.
It can be found in the Internet Protocol Journal

Posted by rshah on April 20, 2005| Comments (0)

ICANN to Review 10 Top-Level Domain Name Proposals

ICANN to Review 10 Top-Level Domain Name Proposals
The Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) on Friday announced it has received proposals for 10 new sponsored top-level domains (sTLDs). The new categories include support for mobility, regions and adult-entertainment.

Posted by rshah on March 31, 2004| Comments (0)

Lowering the Veil of Secrecy?

Lowering the Veil of Secrecy?
In a 15-3 vote, the ICANN board adopted a sweeping reform plan that includes nixing online voting for its at-large representatives -- a move that affects how half of its directors are selected. ICANN's original charter called for half of its board of directors to be selected by the public.

Posted by rshah on November 16, 2002| Comments (0)

Domain-Name Regulator Is Given a Year to Improve

Domain-Name Regulator Is Given a Year to Improve
T The Commerce Department announced yesterday that it would give the group that manages the Internet's address system another year to demonstrate it is up to the task, despite widespread dissatisfaction with the way the organization has handled its responsibilities in the four years it has been under government contract.

Posted by rshah on September 23, 2002| Comments (0)

Internet Group Approves Overhaul

Internet Group Approves Overhaul
In summarizing the plan approved 18 to 0 by Icann's board, Stuart Lynn, the president and chief executive of the group, said in a conference call, "What we're talking about is an organization that is much more reflective of the public interest balanced with the private interest, that is much more communicative and that is much more effective in getting things done."

Posted by rshah on July 17, 2002| Comments (0)

ICANN to Net users: No, you can't

ICANN to Net users: No, you can't
The group that oversees the Internet's name system voted on Friday to exclude ordinary Web surfers from its board--a move that critics say allows mainstream interests to tighten their grip on the online world.

Posted by rshah on June 28, 2002| Comments (0)

Ruling the Root

Ruling the Root
yet in Milton Mueller's hands, the story of how the Net came to be administered is riveting, illuminating, depressing and enraging. In effortless, lucid prose Mueller documents and explains precisely how "Internet governance" has evolved from the enlightened despotism of a technological elite into a tool of special interests intent on protecting and expanding the control of intellectual property online.

Posted by rshah on June 28, 2002| Comments (0)

Critics Charge ICANN Experiment Has Failed

Critics Charge ICANN Experiment Has Failed
Civic and educational organizations around the U.S. sent an open letter to a top National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) official Wednesday, calling on the government to hold an auction for policy management of the Internet's biggest domain extensions in September 2003.

Posted by rshah on June 06, 2002| Comments (0)

Congress to Enter ICANN Fray

Congress to Enter ICANN Fray
The U.S. Congress is planning oversight hearings to investigate the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the troubled nonprofit organization tasked with overseeing domain names and Internet addresses. One reason for the heightened scrutiny of ICANN is a controversial proposal that the group's president circulated in advance of this week's meeting in Accra, Ghana. T1998.

Posted by rshah on March 14, 2002| Comments (0)

ICANN proposes overhaul

ICANN proposes overhaul
The president of the Internet's top standards-setting body proposed a radical restructuring of the organization on Sunday, hoping to settle questions of legitimacy that have dogged it from the start.

Posted by rshah on February 25, 2002| Comments (0)

ICANN Polls Public, Industry On Governance

ICANN Polls Public, Industry On Governance
Internet addressing authorities this week began polling members of the Internet public about their interest in helping to form an "at-large" membership to help make decisions about the management of the Internet's worldwide naming system.

Posted by rshah on February 11, 2002| Comments (0)

Will U.S. Release Grip on ICANN?

Will U.S. Release Grip on ICANN?
Some ICANN board members believe progress towards autonomy from the U.S. Commerce Department has been slowed, or even halted, since Sept. 11.

Posted by rshah on January 21, 2002| Comments (0)

ICANN pushes members-only domains

ICANN pushes members-only domains
The president of the group that oversees the Internet's naming system said Thursday that he favored creating new members-only suffixes, such as .edu and .museum, over unrestricted domains such as .com, .biz and .info.

Posted by rshah on January 11, 2002| Comments (0)

EU Plans ICANN Study

EU Plans ICANN Study
The head office of the European Union’s Information Organization is planning a study on the work of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The tendering was published in the European Union's gazette in February, said Richard Delmas from the Information Organizations head office at a conference of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) und World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in Genf.

Posted by rshah on December 12, 2001| Comments (0)

ICANN: To Serve and Protect

ICANN: To Serve and Protect
They also prompted the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to toss out its customary agenda and replace it with a three-day special meeting, which begins Tuesday, on how to guard the Net's most vulnerable portions from terrorist attacks.

Posted by rshah on November 13, 2001| Comments (0)

Decision Postponed on Public's Role in Governing the Web

Decision Postponed on Public's Role in Governing the Web
A blue-ribbon panel today handed down its final recommendations for what role the online public should play in managing the Internet's worldwide addressing system, but the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) may not act on those recommendations until sometime next year. Carl Bildt, the chairman of the international panel charged with suggesting a governance policy to ICANN, urged the ICANN board not to delay its decision on public participation.

Posted by rshah on November 06, 2001| Comments (0)

ICANN CANNOT, SAY CRITICS

ICANN CANNOT, SAY CRITICS
Critics of ICANN are calling for major structural changes since the quarterly meeting last weekend, decrying it for being less than democratic. One of the five at-large board members Andy Mueller-Maguhn refused to vote to approve meeting minutes he had not read, only to discover 15 minutes later that there were in fact no minutes. ICANN's 19 member board only has five members elected from the Internet community at-large, with the rest being representatives of the business community.

Posted by rshah on June 12, 2001| Comments (0)

ICAAN faces criticism on non-English domain names

ICAAN faces criticism on non-English domain names
he U.S.-based agency that oversees Internet names worldwide was criticized Sunday for not approving new addresses fast enough and not facilitating the use of non-English domain names as demand grows among Web surfers from California to China.

Posted by rshah on June 04, 2001| Comments (0)

Interim report from the NGO & Academic ICANN Study (NAIS)

Interim report from the NGO & Academic ICANN Study (NAIS)
on public participation in ICANN

Posted by rshah on May 31, 2001| Comments (0)

Commerce Department Urges ICANN To Add More New Domains

Commerce Department Urges ICANN To Add More New Domains
Commerce Secretary Donald Evans urged the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ICANN) In the letter, Evans applauds the work ICANN has already done to broaden the Internet addressing space while at the same time urging the organization to actively build on that effort. (In 2000, ICANN approved the creation of seven new gTLDs.)

Posted by rshah on May 26, 2001| Comments (0)

New Contract Approved

New Contract Approved
The Commerce Department reviewed, and on approved, a new contract between the organization it created in 1999 to oversee the address system and the company that once held a government-granted monopoly over this business. The contract — between the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or Icann, and VeriSign Inc.

Posted by rshah on May 22, 2001| Comments (0)

Dot-Biz Land Rush Begins

Dot-Biz Land Rush Begins
Managers of the dot-biz domain have set in motion the first steps of what may be the next great Internet gold rush. Internet registry NeuLevel launched Stage 1 of its five-month plan for doling out Web addresses in the soon-to-be-launched dot-biz top-level domain. As part of that plan, NeuLevel and a network of independent registrars began accepting applications from businesses that want to make a trademark claim for a particular domain.

Posted by rshah on May 22, 2001| Comments (0)

Critics Say VeriSign Still Has Advantage

Critics Say VeriSign Still Has Advantage
eriSign Inc., the designated keeper of the database that stores the Internet's .com addresses, won a big victory last week from Icann, the international organization that oversees the Internet's entire address system. But the deal, which extends VeriSign's control of the .com database at least through 2007, is raising concerns among the company's competitors and critics, who say VeriSign may have an unfair advantage in the increasingly lucrative market for reselling Internet addresses.

Posted by rshah on April 09, 2001| Comments (0)

ICANN Approves VeriSign Agreement

ICANN Approves VeriSign Agreement
The group charged with overseeing the Internet naming system voted Monday to extend VeriSign's (VRSN, info) rights to manage ".com" and ".net" addresses, in exchange for releasing control of ".org", see also Slashdot

Posted by rshah on April 03, 2001| Comments (0)

Microsoft readies

Microsoft readies
Microsoft is using Passport and MSN Messenger combined as the new key to fight (America Online)," said one software developer briefed by Microsoft on Hailstorm. "They are turning instant messenging into an architecture."

Posted by rshah on February 15, 2001| Comments (0)

Is ICANN's New Generation of Internet Domain Name Selection Process Thwarting Competition?

Is ICANN's New Generation of Internet Domain Name Selection Process Thwarting Competition?
Hearing on Feb 8 2000 by the The House Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Telecommunications

Posted by rshah on February 09, 2001| Comments (0)

Esther Dyson & ICANN

Esther Dyson & ICANN
Mission Impossible Esther Dyson tried to make ICANN into a model of frictionless global governance. Guess what happened.

Posted by rshah on January 18, 2001| Comments (0)

ICANN Faces Enforcement Challenge

ICANN Faces Enforcement Challenge
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers will soon face its first enforcement test as a spat between Verio and Register.com gets increasingly nasty.

Posted by rshah on January 09, 2001| Comments (0)

Domain Names In Hebrew Launched

Posted by rshah on January 02, 2001| Comments (1)

Finalists for new domain names

Finalists for new domain names
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the Internet's managing authority, took the next step in what has been a years-long process to create new name spaces in the Domain Name System by picking the following 10 finalists and the names of the groups sponsoring the applications at its board meeting Thursday afternoon.

Posted by rshah on November 16, 2000| Comments (0)

ICANN Watch

ICANN Watch
Our mission is to serve as a central point of reference about what ICANN is and is not doing