New Publication: Regional Address Registries, Governance and Internet Freedom

Leading up to IGF 2008 in Hyderabad the IGP is releasing a second publication, Regional Address Registries, Governance and Internet Freedom. This paper looks at the Regional Internet Address Registries (RIRs), which are private, nonprofit and transnational governance entities that evolved organically with the growth of the Internet to manage...

IGP files comments with NTIA on DNSSEC at the root

IGP submitted comments yesterday to the Department of Commerce regarding the deployment of DNSSEC at the root zone. The Notice of Inquiry raised numerous questions, and put forth six proposed process flows, including ones submitted by ICANN and VeriSign. Just over 35 comments had been submitted by last night, with comments filed by organizations and individuals from the technical community, registries, government contractors involved with DNSSEC deployment, and others. We'll have more analysis on the comments filed later, but my first impression after quickly scanning them is that while there is general agreement that signing the root would obviously be helpful for DNSSEC deployment, it should not be done in haste for a variety of reasons. And numerous parties raised the point that it is critical that any process flow implemented serve the global Internet community, otherwise the presumed benefits of signing will be for naught.

Our comments argued that the act of signing the DNS root raises political and economic issues as well as technical ones.

Touré’s ITU still pushing for an Internet counter-revolution

The speech by the International Telecommunication Union’s Hamadoun Touré brought the ongoing power struggle over Internet governance into the open. Toure spoke openly of the ongoing “war” between ICANN and the ITU. He demanded a stronger role for governments in ICANN, dismissing ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) as “cosmetic” (quite wrong, as I will show later). He correctly accused the UN Internet Governance Forum of “avoiding issues” but also rather harshly dismissed it as a “waste of time.” I commend Secretary General Touré for his forthrightness, which is all too rare in international organizations. Unfortunately, his blunt speech supports the wrong cause.

Let me be blunt, too. Mr. Secretary-General, this is all about competition for power, isn’t it? Your international organization lost a lot of authority over the communications industry when the Internet emerged, and now you are trying to get some of it back. The same goes for the governments who constitute the GAC. And of course, for the U.S. government, it’s all about holding on to the special powers it got because of its historical control over the contractors who ran the early internet. Why should internet users and civil society care about your demands?

NCUC/PIR Outreach Event at ICANN-Cairo

Date: Nov 6th, 2008
Time: 16:00-17:00
Location: ICANN Cairo, Room TBD (if you're on the ground in Cairo, contact Robert Guerra, guerra at freedomhouse.org)

The Noncommercial Users Constituency (NCUC) and The Public Interest Registry (PIR) invite you to attend a reception to meet Cairo based bloggers and local Internet users and experts who will discuss and share their perspectives and views of week's events at the ICANN meeting.

In addition, a locally produced video, “Internet Freedom in Egypt,” will be shown. The short piece explains how blogs are being used in Egypt to expose human rights abuses, and how Facebook and Twitter have been used to organize pro-democracy demonstrations and strikes. It also looks at the gov't crackdown and surveillance of bloggers.

11.2008 Regional Address Registries, Governance and Internet Freedom

[Abstract] Drafter: Milton Mueller, Brenden KuerbisConcurring: Michel van Eeten Regional Internet Address Registries (RIRs) are private, nonprofit and transnational governance entities that evolved organically with the growth of the Internet to manage and coordinate Internet Protocol addresses. The RIR's management of Internet address resources is becoming more contentious and more...