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Congressman continues dotcom letter-writing campaign

March 28, 2006

Just got this: Virginia Congressman Rick Boucher has continued his letter-writing appeal over the dotcom contract ICANN has signed with VeriSign.
Last month, before ICANN Board approval of the controversial deal, he wrote to Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez explaining his concern over the deal, and again to Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust Thomas O. Barnett. [...]

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Sex.eu and other domain stories

March 8, 2006

I did a news story yesterday for The Times on the new .eu domain, and it proved to be more interesting than I thought.
The new domain – which shouldn't actually exist under the ICANN rules for top-level domains, but when the EU's 29 countries are breathing down you're neck… – is due to be opened [...]

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Sex.com book website

March 6, 2006

Following a suggestion on this blog a few weeks ago, I grabbed a domain name to cover the Sex.com book I am writing – Sexdotcom.info.
I hadn't done anything with it except bung up a book cover idea, but today I grew sick of trying to find relevant news articles, so decided to stick up what [...]

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Bastard Inertia, the book crusher

March 1, 2006

I have a new enemy which I thought I would make brief mention of. I call him Bastard Inertia.
A short definition of inertia is: “Noun – feeling of unwillingness to do anything.” Although I prefer the original Physics definition of “property by which a body remains still or continues to move unless a force is [...]

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IGF: success, great success or useful sideshow?

February 19, 2006

When asked a month prior to the meeting in Geneva this week how it was likely to go, one diplomat closely involved in the talks was unequivocal: “It will be a success.”
Really? “Of course,” he said. “Every UN meeting is always either a success or a great success.”
The United Nations truly does inhabit [...]

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IGF: What’s been decided?

February 17, 2006

We’re drawing to the end of the two-day IGF formation conference. Chairman Nitin Desai will shortly give a summary of what he thinks has been decided.
Mr Desai will then write a report to UN secretary general Kofi Annan, who will make some decisions based on the report. And then there will be a second meeting [...]

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IGF: Moving forward or going around and around?

February 17, 2006

We are nearly an hour into the second day of discussions about the formation of the new Internet Governance Forum and so far it has been interesting to see what people made of the discussions yesterday.
At the same time though, old Internet hands have been muttering about having heard it all before at the very [...]

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IGF meeting gets spicey

February 16, 2006

Thought it was all going a little too smoothly.
Apart from Nitin Desai trying to drag the main focus on the first IGF meeting from being about spam to covering instead the digital divide, there was barely a harsh word and a strange amount of broad consensus.
But this cosy mood has been shaken up slightly thanks, [...]

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IGF meeting starts – same faces, same discussions

February 16, 2006

The IGF meeting started an hour ago – in the same room as the explosive WSIS discussions only a few months ago.
So far, all has gone as expected. Chairman Nitin Desai and secretary Markus Kummer have outlined the openness of the meeting (although you still have to apply for accreditation, and find and queue up [...]

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A ringside seat at the future of the Internet

February 15, 2006

I’m taking a few days off writing the Sex.com book to cover what I believe to be a very important meeting in Geneva.
In fact, I write this from a hotel room in Geneva within spitting distance of the main train, tram, hotel, shop square called Cornavin.
Starting 10am tomorrow, for two days, the world’s governments, [...]

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