In a good-natured response to a blog post accusing him of digital Bonapartism, ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadi sent me a Christmas present, pictured above. We are forced to admit that with the proper attire, Bonapartism can be fun! But we still don't recommend it as a mode of Internet governance.
We now know more about what led to the impasse at the WCIT, and the scope of the fissure that it created. It is clear that nations will split 2 to 1 in favor of signing the ITR treaty. The majority of the signatories are the developing countries in Africa,...
When I stopped monitoring the WCIT process around 5:30 pm (CET) December 13, it appeared that the delegations were attempting to finalize something very close to a consensus document. The almost-final draft of the ITRs that I reviewed at that time did not mention the Internet by name at all...
The US Commerce Department has issued what it calls a set of "Internet Protocol Numbering Principles" December 3rd. In this post, we contrast the NTIA statement with the results of the Baku IGF workshop on IP numbering. The contrast shows that either the NTIA is out of touch with reality...
December 1st marks the beginning of the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) in Dubai. Fussing about the threat to the Internet posed by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is reaching that state of critical mass where media outlets write about it mainly because other media outlets are writing about...
ICANN has been confronted with a new set of lawsuits invoking antitrust law. One such lawsuit, from Youporn.com operator Manwin Licensing, targets the XXX domain. It claims that ICANN and ICM registry conspired to force it to pay too much for defensive registrations under .XXX and that ICM has monopolized...
Guest blog Robin Gross, Chair of ICANN's Noncommercial Stakeholders Group (NCSG) On November 15-16 2012, ICANN organized a meeting in Los Angeles to consider the implementation of the Trademark Clearinghouse for new top level domains. Pressure by trademark and business interests, however, expanded the scope of the meeting to consider...
In a sure sign that the winds of change are blowing in the addressing world, on November 9 it was announced that I was one of the 6 people elected to the Advisory Council (AC) of ARIN, the Internet address registry for the North American region. The AC mediates between...
From single-sign-on to federated systems to WHOIS data associated with Internet resources, countless individuals, business and government organizations have a stake in Internet identity information and its governance. A workshop on “Governing Identity on the Internet” will be held on Thursday, November 8, 2012 from 11:00-12:30 (local Baku time) in Conference...
IGP has succeeded in putting IPv4 markets firmly on the agenda of the Baku Internet Governance Forum. On the afternoon of the first day of the Forum, there will be a workshop on the topic What is the best response to IPv4 scarcity? Exploring a global transfer market for IPv4...
“In characteristically rigorous fashion, Mueller’s outstanding book punctures the alarmist myth of Internet fragmentation and helps us to understand what is really at stake as nations and other groups vie for power over the Internet.”