Author: John Demco

CIRA Election Continues Until Wednesday, September 28 – Voting in CIRA’s 2011 Board of Directors election continues until Wednesday, September 28 at noon (ET). CIRA members are encouraged to vote, and will elect four directors. CIRA Launches Internationalized Domain Name Consultation – CIRA has launched a consultation on Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) in the .ca…

CIRA Election: Voting Starts This Week – Voting in CIRA’s 2011 Board of Directors election starts on Wednesday, September 21 and continues until September 28. The online campaign forum is under way and continues until Tuesday, September 20. CIRA Annual General Meeting Set For Tuesday – CIRA’s Annual General Meeting takes place on Tuesday, September…

Domain Name Registrations Top 215 Million – At the end of June, 2011, there were more than 215 million domain name registrations worldwide, according to the latest Domain Name Industry Brief published by VeriSign. This represents an annual growth of 16.9 million or 8.6%. The annual growth as reported three months ago was 15.3 million…

Member Nominees Seek Shows Of Support For CIRA Election – CIRA has published the statements of Member Nominees in the forthcoming CIRA Board of Directors election. To be included on the ballot, a nominee must receive the support of at least 20 CIRA Members. Shows of Support may be registered until 6:00 pm Eastern Time…

ICANN CEO To Step Down – ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom announced via Twitter that he will “wrap up” his service at ICANN in July, 2012. A press release was posted shortly thereafter on the ICANN website. Here are some thoughtful comments on what ICANN needs in a CEO, and on Beckstrom’s tenure: “ICANN fires its…

Registration Opens for CIRA Annual General Meeting – Registration is open for the CIRA Annual General Meeting, to be held on Tuesday, September 20 in Vancouver. Keynote speakers are Jonathan Zittrain, author of “The Future of the Internet and How To Stop It”, and Stewart Butterfield, co-founder of Flickr. Registration is free to all, and…

CIRA Announces Nomination Committee’s Candidates for Election – CIRA’s Nomination Committee has announced candidates for the 2011 CIRA Board of Directors election. The candidates selected by the committee are: Eric Boehm, Kerry Brown, Gary Evans, Bill Gibson, Susan Mehinagic, Bill St. Arnaud, and François Vidal. The call for Member nominations commences on Tuesday, August 2.…

Here is a selection of recent domain-related items: The .ca domain has surpassed the .us domain in total registrations. VeriSign has announced that the registry fees for .com and .net domain names will rise from USD $7.34 to $7.85, and from $4.65 to $5.11 respectively. The increases take effect as of January 15, 2012. In…

Recent ICANN and Top-Level Domain Events – Here is a summary of some ICANN-related events which took place during the recent ICANN meetings in Singapore: The ICANN Board approved a program to introduce new generic top-level domains (gTLDs). A communications plan is under way. Applications will accepted from January 12, 2012 until April 12, 2012,…

Domain Name Registrations Reach 209.8 Million – At the end of March, 2011, there were 209.8 million domain name registrations worldwide, according to the latest Domain Name Industry Brief published by VeriSign. This represents an annual growth of 15.3 million or 7.9%. The annual growth as reported three months ago was 12.1 million or 6.3%.…

CIRA Launches New Member Portal – CIRA has launched a new Member Portal, offering improved navigation and functionality. The portal also features exclusive access to a weekly summary of Internet-related news stories. CIRA membership may be applied for free of charge by .CA registrants. IOC, Red Cross Seek To Have Names Reserved Under New gTLDs…

ICANN Appoints Chief Security Officer – Jeff Moss has been appointed as ICANN’s Chief Security Officer. He is the founder of the DEF CON hacker conference and Black Hat, a global technical security conference. .NL Domain Achieves 25 Year Milestone – SIDN, the registry for The Netherlands’ .nl domain, is celebrating the domain’s 25th anniversary.…

ICANN Releases Revised Guidebook, Aims for June Approval of New gTLD Program – ICANN has published a Discussion Draft of the New gTLD Applicant Guidebook. Two notable changes from the previous draft are: an Early Warning Notice to an applicant from the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) to flag an application which would be “considered controversial…

DNSSEC Deployed In .COM Domain – VeriSign has announced that as of March 31 the .com domain supports DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC). In 2010, VeriSign had rolled out DNSSEC in .net, .edu, and, in collaboration with ICANN and the U.S. Department of Commerce, the root zone. .XXX Contract Signed – ICANN and ICM signed the…

ICANN Approves .XXX Domain – Meeting in San Francisco on March 18, the ICANN Board of Directors formally approved ICM Registry’s application for the .xxx top-level domain, authorizing ICANN staff to execute the proposed registry agreement. The current application was submitted in 2004. It was turned down by the ICANN Board in 2007, and subsequently…