John Demco
CIRA Board of Directors Election Continues Until Wednesday, September 30 – The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) Board of Directors election continues until noon ET (9:00 am PT) on Wednesday, September 30. CIRA members are encouraged to vote.
Worldwide Domain Name Growth Continues To Slow – VeriSign’s second quarter 2009 Domain Name Industry Brief indicates that there are 184 million domain names worldwide, an annual increase of 9%. Last quarter the annual increase was 12%, and it was 16% annually the quarter before that. Registrations from the ccTLDs rose to 74.4 million, an annual increase of 14%. The largest domains continue to be .com, .cn, .de, .net, .org, .uk, .info, .nl, .eu, and .biz.
New ICANN/US Agreement Expected: The Economist – The Economist newspaper is reporting that with the expiry this September 30 of the Joint Project Agreement (JPA) between ICANN and the U.S. government, that: “The day before, a new accord is planned to come into effect, whereby America will pass some of its authority over ICANN to the ‘internet community’ of businesses, individual users and other governments.” The new “affirmation of commitments” is to have no fixed term and “sets up oversight panels that include representatives of foreign governments to conduct regular reviews of ICANN’s work in four areas: competition among generic domains (such as .com and .net), the handling of data on registrants, the security of the network and transparency, accountability and the public interest–the only panel on which America will retain a permanent seat.”
Picks To Click
- A CircleID article summarizing recent ICANN-JPA events.
- A letter from many registrars and others urging ICANN to introduce new TLDs without further delay.
- The current bids on the .biz one-character auction, ending on September 30.
- CIRA’s 2008-2009 Annual Report, including several videos.
- A new blog by CIRA’s President and CEO, Byron Holland.
- “Internet agency should give out domains, not door prizes”, by Michael Geist.
Timeline
- Wed, Sep 23 – Wed, Sep 30: CIRA Board of Directors election
- Wed, Sep 23 – Wed, Sep 30: auction of one-character .biz names
- Wed, Sep 30: last day of operation for the .yu domain
- Sun, Oct 25 – Fri, Oct 30: ICANN meetings in Seoul, South Korea
- Thu, Dec 10: support for .eu IDNs commences
- Sun, Mar 7 – Fri, Mar 12: ICANN meetings in Nairobi, Kenya
- Sun, Jun 20 – Fri, Jun 25: ICANN meetings in Brussels, Belgium