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Los Angeles, CA — October 02, ‘07 — Peter Dengate Thrush, a New Zealand lawyer, has been elected unanimously as the new Chairman of the Board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

“I am delighted that my colleagues have placed their confidence in me for this challenging and important role,” Dengate Thrush said.

Peter practices civil litigation, specializing in intellectual property, competition, and Internet law. He has been involved in ICANN since its inception. As a member of the Boston Working Group, he provided comment in 1998 on the early drafts of the ICANN bylaws, and he co-chaired one of the pre-formation meetings of the Intellectual Property Constituency in Wellington, New Zealand.

He has been President of InternetNZ, a leader of the country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) community in the formation of the ccNSO, and was selected as a board member after an international vote of ccTLD managers in the ccNSO in December 2004. He is currently on the President’s Strategy, Board Finance, Board Governance, and Executive committees.

Retiring Chair Dr Vint Cerf sees Dengate Thrush’s appointment as a clear signal that ICANN has matured.

“ICANN has moved from a foundation state to a steady state. Peter understands that and the Board’s role and is a great choice to keep the organization strong and focused,” Dr Cerf said.

Dr Paul Twomey, ICANN’s President and CEO, also welcomed the appointment.

“This is great news. Peter’s long involvement in ICANN since before its incorporation means he knows the history as well as the current players and issues,” Dr Twomey said. “His legal training gives him a strong understanding of contracts as a key mechanism in ICANN, and his networks within industry, particularly the ccTLD community helps ICANN with its global responsibilities.”

Speaking after the vote, Dengate Thrush gave some perspectives on the organization and its future.

“ICANN is a unique model supporting a global community. The model works because it stands for one global Internet that is coordinated not controlled,” Dengate Thrush said.

“After nine years ICANN is well placed to face the challenges of the future. The fact that it is so well positioned is a tribute to Vint and of course the staff led by Paul Twomey who have taken us out of foundation mode to become the right organization to meet future challenges,” Dengate Thrush added.

“I think our biggest challenges are about serving the global audience. At a technical level there is the challenge of introducing international scripts at the top level for both gTLDS and ccTLDs, as well as new processes for introducing what may be a large number of generic top level domains,” Dengate Thrush said. More at ICANN.

Los Angeles, CA–October 31, ‘07–A panel on Internet names voted Wednesday to conduct further studies on the databases containing names, phone numbers and other private information on domain name owners, deferring long-simmering questions over whether such details should remain public. 

The committee of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, which oversees Internet addresses, also rejected a proposal to give Internet users the ability to list third-party contacts rather than their own private data in the open, searchable databases called Whois. 

Law-enforcement officials, trademark lawyers and journalists, as well as spammers, now access the database to figure out who may be behind a Web site. But privacy advocates say individuals shouldn’t have to reveal personal information simply to have a Web site. 

A third proposal, a so-called “sunset” option that would have eliminated the requirement for domain name registration companies to make the data available through Whois, was narrowly rejected, 13-10. That measure would have likely resulted in large gaps in registration records. 

The proposal on listing third-party contacts was defeated 17-7, the same margin by which the studies measure was approved. Ross Rader, a member of ICANN’s generic names council and the sunset proposal’s chief sponsor, said after the committee meeting that he was disappointed that the committee opted for an “open-ended” study. 

The committee, the Generic Names Supporting Organization Council, set a deadline of Feb. 15 to identify what types of studies are needed. FoxNews.

Organizations plan to collaborate on optical networking, advanced content delivery and security initiatives.

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Oct. 31 /PRNewswire/ — Internet2, the foremost US advanced networking consortium led by the research and higher education community, has announced that Verizon Business has joined Internet2 as a corporate member. The company plans to engage the consortium in several innovative ways, including collaboration with the Internet2 community on projects involving advanced optical networking as well as in important areas of next-generation content delivery and network security.

“Verizon Business has been actively engaged with Internet2 from its inception back in 1996. As a corporate member, we look forward to collaborating with Internet2 on applications and technologies to have an impact on the research and higher education community and the commercial marketplace,” said Dennis Elwell, director for Verizon Business’ government and education organization. “Affordable optical access, wireline/wireless IP convergence, alert and notification services along with security are the hot-button issues with university chief information officers across the nation and we look forward to working with the Internet2 community on these important initiatives.”

Elwell recently was named to the Internet2 Applications, Middleware & Services Industry Advisory Council, where he will collaborate on middleware and application services for the consortium, as well as provide feedback to Industry on the trends and requirements for higher education.

One of the strongest values of the Internet2 community is its commitment to the exploration and development of leading-edge Internet technology. Internet2 thus provides an expedited life cycle path from idea to inception to research to commercialization for advanced network technologies and applications. The Internet2 community provides Verizon Business innovative partnership opportunities and a test bed for examining future network-based services and capabilities such as new network security methodologies as well as emerging technologies like IPTV.

“Internet2 relies on its corporate members like Verizon Business to play a key role in transferring technology developed within the Internet2 community into the commercial marketplace,” said Ellen Vaughan, Internet2 program manager for member and partner relations. “We are pleased to partner with Verizon Business, a leader in advanced communications and networking, on many important technology initiatives. Our shared interest in developing the latest in content distribution, security and optical technologies will provide myriad benefits to the research and education community and we believe, in the long- term, will have a long lasting impact on consumers and businesses alike.”

About Internet2

Internet2 is the foremost U.S. advanced networking consortium. Led by the research and education community since 1996, Internet2 promotes the missions of its members by providing both leading-edge network capabilities and unique partnership opportunities that together facilitate the development, deployment and use of revolutionary Internet technologies. More at Internet2. 

Internet Service Providers urgently need to roll out the next generation of net addresses for online devices, internet pioneer and outgoing ICANN chairman, Vint Cerf has said.
 

Every device that goes online is allocated a unique IP address but the pool of numbers is finite and due to run out around 2010. A new system, called IPv6, has been awaiting roll out for 10 years.
 

Unless IPv6 is switched on in the coming years, some devices might not be able to go online, Mr Cerf has warned. “There is a risk of not being able to get online.” He added: “The rate of consumption of available remaining IPv4 numbers appears to be on track to run out in 2010/11.”

Potential shortage
 

The current system, called IPv4 provides four billion addresses but the explosion in the number of devices which go online has led to the potential shortage. Although IPv6 was standardised 10 years ago it has not been rolled out at speed. IPv6 will create 340 trillion trillion trillion separate addresses, enough to satisfy demand for decades to come.
 

“To be clear - if we finally exhaust the IPv4 pool it doesn’t mean the internet stops working. But people wanting an IPv4 address won’t get one. One complicating factor is that IPv6 and IPv4 are not compatible so ISPs will have to run the two systems in parallel - adding to costs.
 

In Asia, governments in China, Korea and Japan have begun to lead roll out of IPv6 and the European Union is reviewing methods to encourage adoption. More at BBCNews.

In the 1970s, Vint Cerf played a leading role in developing the Internet’s technical foundation. For the past seven years, he’s faced the more daunting task of leading a key agency that oversees his creation.

After fending off an international rebellion and planting the seeds for streamlining operations, Cerf is stepping down this week as chairman of the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers.

“My sentence is up,” Cerf said with his characteristic sense of humor, which he and others credit for helping him steer the organization through several high-profile battles from which it emerged more stable and stronger.

Cerf, 64, who’s also a senior executive at Internet search leader Google Inc., joined ICANN in 1999, a year after its formation to oversee domain names and other Internet addressing policies. Cerf was elected chairman in 2000 and leaves the unpaid position after Friday’s board meeting in Los Angeles because of term limits.

When he joined the board, many questioned whether ICANN would survive. Now - though some people still complain that ICANN is arbitrary, secretive and slow - the focus is more on improving it than replacing it. More at AP, Wiki

NEW YORK (AP) — October 24, ‘07 — ICANN, the Internet’s key oversight agency, is investigating suspicions that insider information is being used to snatch desired domain names before an individual or business can register them.

The Security and Stability Advisory Committee of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers termed the practice “domain name front running” and likened it to a stock broker buying or selling shares ahead of a client’s trade, in anticipation of a movement in price.

In the case of Internet addresses, many people who see a domain name available the first time they check find it already taken by the time they return to buy it. That has led to suspicions that someone with access to search requests has been using the information to gauge interest in a domain name.

By buying the domain first, that person can then try to sell it to the interested party for a profit. This is different from traditional domain name speculation because the buyer knows for sure that the address is of interest.

Although the practice has never been proven, the ICANN committee said the perception that it is happening “portrays an unfavorable image of the parties associated with the domain name registration process in specific, and of the domain name community in general.”

More at AP