News and views on domain names, the Internet and life in general
From the category archives:
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 [...]
{ 2 comments }
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:
[Audio clip: view full post to [...]
{ 4 comments }
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 [...]
{ 3 comments }
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], [...]
{ 0 comments }
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 [...]
{ 2 comments }
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 [...]
{ 4 comments }
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 [...]
{ 0 comments }
So I’ve written my first news story is what I think is three years. It’s on The Register and is about Oversee’s auction scandal following a discussion with CEO Jeff Kupietzky at Domainfest last week.
Here go: Domain auction house wrestles with alleged shill
I held off journalism while in my job at ICANN – mostly [...]
{ 0 comments }
Enough to pay $12,000 for it?
I just got the results for the Domainfest first-day auction, described as “very strong” by Oversee’s main on the ground, Mason. Certainly looks better than last year, which was a bit of a wash-out. Is this another sign the economy is finally picking up?
Anyway, of 73 domains, 49 were sold [...]
{ 0 comments }
Just an update on my previous post – Adam Epstein from AdMarketplace won the first round of the PITCHfest.
The winning idea – pubMarketplace can be found at, well, pubMarketplace.com. There is a flyer in the Domainfest bag about the service.
It advertises itself as “Bringing the Power of Search to Content Publishers” and offers the [...]
{ 0 comments }
