The ICANN Board has stuck discussion of the dot-xxx Internet extension on the agenda for its public meeting on 12 March – a good but brave move.

As covered last week, ICANN came off pretty badly following an independent review of the Board’s decision to reject dot-xxx back in 2007. A three-judge panel decided that the decision wasn’t justified and that the decision was “not consistent with the application of neutral, objective, and fair documented policy”.

This has lead the company behind dot-xxx, ICM Registry, to call on ICANN to sign the contract it had negotiated over the course of two years (2005-2007) and add dot-xxx to the Internet’s “root”. The Board agenda lists “Consideration of the Independent Review Panel Declaration ICM Registry v. ICANN” as one of its 11 topics for the public Board meeting.

This is a good move, and it’s the right move. But it is also a brave move because the dot-xxx controversy still creates a lot of heat and light in the ICANN community. The Board will effectively be deciding whether it agrees that an earlier incarnation of the Board got things wrong while sitting in exactly the same position, on the same stage, three years earlier. The community will want blood or some kind. And the Board will have to balance how to adequately deal with the criticism, while also appeasing both those who were strongly against dot-xxx (including governments) and those who feel that the Board did a major disservice to the organisation by ruling against dot-xxx.

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I recorded a show for National Public Radio’s (NPR) On the Media show earlier this week talking about Sex.com, my book about it and the domain’s upcoming auction next month.

The show played this morning. You can see the NPR page (with transcript) at http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2010/02/26/06. And listen to the show below:

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The dot-uk registry Nominet has passed a crucial governance test with flying colours, voting yes [pdf] on eight Board resolutions with more than 93 percent member support.

The resolutions will make a variety of changes to the organisation, ranging from an increase in the number of Board members to an explicit statement that Nominet will work in the public interest. The vote was a crucial test for both Nominet’s Board and members: trust and confidence in the Board had been damaged by an acrimonious internal battle, which had subsequently led to the UK government threatening to end self-regulation of the UK’s registry operations.

Overwhelmingly support for the changes will help put Nominet back on the right path and, members hope, enable work to begin on a range of pragmatic issues surrounding the registration of dot-uk domains, such as the ability to register domains for terms other than two years.

Nominet itself called the votes “a defining moment for the UK domain market and the UK Internet landscape” with CEO Lesley Cowley saying that she believed Nominet’s members had “proven their commitment to considering the needs of all stakeholders” and that the changes would demonstrate to the UK government that the reserve powers currently contained in a Bill going through Parliament “will not be necessary”.

Here’s a quick rundown of the changes with what they mean for Nominet and dot-uk:

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Watch out: .xxx is coming to an Internet near you soon

23 February 2010

So I think there is a real chance that the Internet extension .xxx will appear on the Internet some time this year.
Of course, you really can never know since overseeing body ICANN is a complex beast, but following the first use of the organization’s Independent Review Process (IRP) and the resulting panel declaration [pdf], [...]

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What ICANN’s chair said about .xxx at the time

23 February 2010

On Friday, there was a very interesting decision made by an independent panel of eminent retired judges with respect to an application five years ago for a “.xxx” Internet extension that would be used purely for online pornography.
The dot-xxx application was rejected by ICANN in 2007 following a long, complex and tortuous process. The man [...]

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Whois study shows 77 percent of domains have dodgy registration info

17 February 2010

I’ve written a story for The Register about a new report [pdf] regarding the Whois system for domain registration data. We all knew that Whois was a mess, but it’s good to have some facts and figures that show what a mess it is.
Here’s hoping this gives the endless, intractable discussions within ICANN about Whois [...]

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Nairobi going ahead: ICANN asks for remote participation tips

16 February 2010

Updated: A new announcement from ICANN has just gone up, highlighting additional security precautions for Nairobi and making it clear the meeting is going ahead as scheduled.
Recognising that several companies have already decided not to attend (but noting that many are still attending – particularly the ccNSO), the last paragraph talks about improving remote [...]

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Why ICANN Nairobi may be a blessing in disguise

12 February 2010

Update: Meeting going ahead.
There is a questionmark over ICANN’s upcoming meeting in Nairobi, Kenya again. This time it has more bite than the usual xenophobia: the COO has published a US Department of State report that lists the conference centre itself as a specific threat from a Somalian insurgency group, Al-Shabaab. In response, a number [...]

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What does a truly democratic Q&A format look like?

8 February 2010

Internet thinker and political operator David Weinberger has posed an interesting question: how do we design a question-and-answer format for politicians that is truly democratic?
Weinberger’s blog post was noted by Andrew McLaughlin on his Facebook page – Andrew is the White House Deputy CTO and the man more than any other that could make a [...]

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UK government says Nominet EGM changes enough to get it off company’s back

5 February 2010

A quick update to my earlier post about voting to ensure that the .uk registry isn’t regulated by the government.
The top civil servant at the Department for Business (BIS, formerly BERR, formerly DTi), David Hendon, has sent a letter [pdf] back in response to a letter [pdf] from Nominet’s chairman Bob Gilbert saying that the [...]

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