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ICANN names new CEO

bradwbowman — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 14:35:24 +0000

ICANN names new CEO

Former U.S. cybersecurity official Rod Beckstrom has been named the new CEO and president of ICANN.

His appointment was announced at the annual meeting Friday in Australia of ICANN, which stands for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

A global nonprofit, ICANN is responsible for assigning and managing Internet domain names and IP addresses, among other tasks.

“Rod Beckstrom has exactly the sort of strong personal and technical background that ICANN needs,” ICANN Chairman Peter Dengate Thrush said in announcing the decision.

Beckstrom, who received his MBA from Stanford University, has served on the boards of several nonprofit groups and written four books. But it was his role as director of the U.S. National Cybersecurity Center (NCSC) where he made an impression. As head of the federal center, he oversaw a large, disparate agency spanning civilian, military and intelligence communities.

However, Beckstrom resigned his government role in March after complaining of interference from the National Security Agency.

In a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, he said the NSA dominated most of his agency’s efforts and that he was “unwilling to subjugate the NCSC underneath the NSA.” Beckstrom defended the achievements of the NCSC and said he favored a decentralized approach so that security is not handled by any single organization.

Beckstrom’s ICANN appointment triggered favorable statements from many sides.

“Rod Beckstrom is strikingly well-prepared to undertake a new role as CEO of ICANN,” Vint Cert, who is considered to be the “father” of the Internet, said in a statement. “His experience in industry and government equip him for this global and very challenging job.”

Beckstrom is an “outstanding choice to head ICANN. He understands people, institutions, and technology,” Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), said in a statement. “He recognizes both the potential and the challenges for ICANN. And has stood up for the civil liberties of Internet users with courage and foresight.”

ICANN has been criticized over the years for a host of reasons, including internal squabbles, the fees it levies, and the perceived shroud of secrecy under which it operates.

Last year, ICANN proposed new rules for Internet names that would expand suffixes beyond the familiar .com, .net, and .org domains. The proposal worried many who thought it would lead to confusion on the Internet.

But Beckstrom’s comments upon his appointment reflect faith in the organization.

“The Internet has changed the way the world communicates and conducts commerce,” Beckstrom said at a press conference. “And in no small way, this multi-stakeholder, bottom-up organization has been and will continue to be at the core of the Internet’s ongoing evolution. Quite simply, the proof that ICANN works, is that the Internet works.”

From: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10273668-38.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0

Group votes to relax Web naming rules

bradwbowman — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:57:45 +0000

(CNN) — A group charged with overseeing the development of the Internet voted Thursday to relax the rules on Web site naming conventions — potentially triggering a virtual domain name gold rush to rival the dotcom boom of the late 1990s.

Paul Twomey is president and CEO of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

At a meeting in Paris Thursday, the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers — also known by its acronym ICANN — unanimously approved key proposals to allow domain names using any combination of letters and numbers, including non-Latin characters, The Associated Press reported.

The decision could spell the end for traditional Web addresses ending .com and .org and country names like .jp or .fr with Web sites able to use easier-to-remember suffixes such as .hotel or .sex.

Just the thought of .sex has bloggers predicting an auction frenzy, as almost any word in any language could become a domain name extension.

“You can almost guarantee the most highly sought-after one will, unfortunately, probably be dot-sex,” said Bryan Glick of Computing Magazine.

“All the meaningful words and meaningful names in the English language have been bought up already,” Glick said.

“This is why you see new companies being formed with made-up, strangely sounding names … in order to get a unique Web domain for it.”

ICANN was established as a non-profit organization in 1998 in order to regulate the Internet. One of its key roles has been maintaining the integrity of the Web’s domain name system. It has turned down requests for .xxx, which would be used by adult sites, over fear of seeming to give approval of pornography sites.

Analysts say .xxx and nearly everything else would be possible under the new rules. Among the exceptions would be trademarked domains, such as .cnn or .microsoft not being on general sale.

But the more generic .hotel or .flight could set off a bidding war similar to when .tv was put up for sale by the Pacific island of Tuvalu.

Published from http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/06/26/domain.names/index.htm

Brad Bowman

Yahoo Raises Domain Renewal Price to $34.95

admin — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 05:34:09 +0000

Yahoo Small Business is raising its domain renewal price from $12.95 per year to $34.95 per year effective July 1, 2008. The announcement was made through emails sent to account holders with domains set for renewal before the effective date.

This is Yahoo’s second price increase in under a year.

The $22.00 increase is a hard pill to swallow for web workers who have used Yahoo to register domain names for their web projects.

Published from http://webworkerdaily.com/2008/06/24/yahoo-raises-domain-renewal-price-to-3495

Brad Bowman

Clicknowdomains.com

ICANN to vote on new Internet domain names

admin — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 02:42:55 +0000

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is getting ready to vote later this week to open up the Internet naming convention to allow more options.

On Thursday at its meeting in Paris, ICANN, the not-for-profit organization charged with overseeing the Internet’s naming scheme, will vote on a proposal that would allow companies to purchase new generic top-level domains ending in almost anything they want. So instead of being limited to .com, .org or .co.uk as the last letters of their Web addresses, companies or organizations could add their company name to the end of their URL. For example, eBay could become .ebay or Intel could be .intel. Even cities could name their Web sites .newyork or .berlin.

But the new names, which could be ready in 2009, won’t come cheap. As a result, it’s unlikely that individuals will be able to take advantage of the new naming conventions to create more personalized Web sites. The exact price to register these new names isn’t yet known, but some experts predict it could cost about $50,000 to register a new domain name.

The high price is also likely to deter cybersquatters. ICANN is expected to give priority to companies or organizations with trademarked names.

The new addressing scheme should alleviate fears that ICANN will run out of addresses. The organization estimated last year that only 17 percent of the original 4 billion network addresses remained available. And it predicted that it would run out of new addresses within the next five years.

Paul Twomey, the CEO of ICANN, told the BBC that allowing the new naming conventions would create new “real estate” on the Internet.

“It’s a massive increase in the geography of the real estate of the Internet,” he said.

If the proposal is accepted by ICANN’s board then almost any extension that is 64 characters or less could be used. My colleague at ZDNet.co.uk points out that this means that the .xxx domain extension, which has been proposed for the adult entertainment industry could be used. ICANN rejected the .xxx application in 2007.

Published from http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9975757-7.html?tag=nefd.top

Brad Bowman

Clicknowdomains.com