ICANN participation

有关ICANN“域名实名率调查报告”的误导说法
[新闻主要说法]
这一周，有关“互联网名字与编号分配机构(ICANN)最新发布的一项调查报告显示，.COM、.NET、.ORG、.INFO、.BIZ等全球注册量最多的域名的注册信息实名率仅有23%。”的新闻报道不少，它还派生出：
《境外域名深陷管理漏洞危机:法律真空凸显》,《域名信息不实仲裁败诉多》,《中国注册境外域名者缘何损失惨重》等概念延伸性结论。

作为从1999年开始写域名产业新闻的媒体从业者，本人每年都发现不少这类带有误导公众、存在涉嫌“不正当竞争”倾向的并写文章纠正，这次也不例外，下面就对近来上述新闻报道主要说法谬误之处加以纠正。

[关于报道中提及的ICANN调查报告详情]
1、报告英文出处
ICANN对外发布的报告英文名叫“Proposed Design for a Study of the Accuracy of Whois Registrant Contact Information”



中译名《…

Diplo is happy to inform that 27 Participants completed the Internet Governance ACP Training Workshop, held in 11 and 12 March 2010.

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ISOC has three open calls for participation for programs of your interest: the ISOC Fellowship to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the ISOC Internet Governance Forum (IGF) Ambassadors programme, and the new ISOC Next Generation Leaders eLearning programme.

Visit the…

We have all seen these statistics representing different aspects of the Internet economy.

Even basic numbers such as "Internet users" can oftentimes be misleading if we do not have a clear understanding of the definition of what they try to represent. How to promote access and create effective programs if the most essential question of how many people are already included cannot be clearly defined?

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It lasted 17 years since 1989 to reach one million ".br" domain names. Yesterday, only 3 years later, we celebrated our second million!

...from an exercise at IG Diplomacy at Nairobi

the IGF is important for you (businessman)for:
multistakeholderism
networking
business opportunities
learning, research and development insights
improving business margins
planning your future business
peering
understanding consumer concerns
explaining to these consumers your business challenges\limitations
eating great food!

....from IG Diplomacy

for Internet to be like air
to have safer Internet
for the Internet to forget
Internet to connect schools
reduce digital divide
have local content on the Internet
Internet to improve life of the people
empower Africans to embrace Internet
cheaper Internet
Internet to penetrate rural Africa so that older folks can access it
FREE access for everybody!
lower prices
more connection
Internet to empower people

How can Internet governance help Africa, especially sub-saharan Africa, overcome Internet connectivity challenges?

That was the kick-start of an interesting discussion started by the participants of the Internet Governance Capacity Building Programme - IGCBP 2010 Group ACP Africa B.

Since the exchange was held in a private space in a learning context, here goes a short synthesis of the many points raised:

The Nigeria case…

The paper entitled “Registry-Registrar Separation: Vertical Integration Options” [PDF, 44K] was produced for review by the ICANN Board during its 4 February 2010 Board Meeting (as was discussed in the preliminary report of that meeting at http://www.icann.org/en/minutes/prelim-report-04feb10-en.htm). It was requested that the paper be produced to the community to provide further information on this topic.

As a result of discussions surrounding the implementation of the new gTLD policy recommendations, ICANN Staff commissioned an economic review of vertical integration issues relating to new gTLDs in the registry and registrar marketplace. ICANN engaged Steven Salop (Professor of Economics and Law, Georgetown University Law Center) and Joshua Wright (Assistant Professor of Law and Economics, George Mason University) were selected for their notable reputations and diversity of viewpoints in the issue area. They have also participated and presented in an ICANN Meeting forum in Sydney, Australia.

The report is being produced for public consideration as part of the broader dialogue and inputs on the related issues. The ICANN Board assented to the publication of the report during its workshop in Nairobi on 7 March 2010. It is important to note that publication of the report should not be considered as a validation of the information or positions contained therein. Also, it is not offered as the viewpoint of ICANN, the ICANN Board of Directors or ICANN Management, but is being offered to inform the public debate on the topic.

One of DiploFoundation elearning features is the interactivity among course participants. The online classrooms are private spaces for exchange, facilitated by a Diplo certified Tutor.

Here is an exchange that happened in the very first week in the IGCBP (Internet Governance Capacity Building Programme) 2010 ACP Africa D, tutored by Ulemu Nyasulu from Malawi.

One participant started a topic with a simple…

In the IGCBP (Internet Governance Capacity Building Programme) classroom ACP Africa B, the course participants are already exchanging documents and experiences on national ICT policy.

One of the participants of this group commented that the Zimbabwe Cabinet announced the new ICT strategy plan for Zimbabwe, in February 2010.

The IGCBP 2010 ACP Africa…

How to set up a CSIRT? Diplo Tutor Mwende Njiraini from Kenya shares with her colleagues at the Internet Governance Capacity Building Programme - IGCBP ACP Africa A:

"A STEP-BY-STEP APPROACH ON HOW TO SET UP A CSIRT"

Starting with definitions:

CSIRT stands for Computer Security Incident Response Team. The term CSIRT is used pred…

Nous sommes a Nairobi, capitale du Kenya, sous région Afrique de l’Est qui accueille pour la 1ere fois une réunion de l’ICANN. Une région qui traditionnellement n’était pas très connectée mais qui voit depuis la fin de l’année dernière avec l’avènement de 3-4 cables sous marin permettant une meilleure connectivite. La sous région vit donc une véritable fièvre de l’Internet, des réseaux, du commerce électronique en passant par la participation plus poussée de la communauté sous régionale a tout ce qui a trait a l’Internet. N’oubliez pas non plus que nous sommes au pays de Ushahidi, réseau social et citoyen, ne au Kenya et qui aujourd ‘hui sert a sauver des vies a Haïti et au Chili (www.ushahidi.com).

Au pays de Ushahidi, la coopération en manque pas entre toute la communauté africaine. La 37 eme réunion publique de l’ICANN a Nairobi au Kenya a commencée pour la communauté des ccTLDs par exemple depuis le 2 mars. Ils étaient 23 représentant 13 pays pour participer a un atelier sur le développement des capacités appelée IROC de l’acronyme anglais et qui consiste a la mise a jour de leur connaissances sur les opérations d’un registre. Ce matin, le 7 mars, L’AfTLD qui est l’Association des registres de premier niveau Internet (ww.aftld.org) se réuni aujourd’hui en réunion annuelle pour écouter différents intervenants de la communauté et réélire le bureau directeur de l’organisation qui va piloter les opérations de l’organisation pour l’année a venir, et qui consiste a échanger les meilleures pratiques sur les opérations des ccTLDs, a s’entre-aider sur les redelegations, a faire des formations, a amener les préoccupations de la communauté des ccTLD africains a la ccNSO a l’ICANN, etc.

Un autre atelier a retenu l’attention d’au moins une cinquantaine de participants de la sous région Afrique de l’Est est celui sur la sécurité et les CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team) dont les missions généralement sont de centraliser les demandes d’assistance suite aux incidents de sécurité (attaques) sur les réseaux et les systèmes d’informations, de traiter les alertes et réaction aux attaques informatiques : analyse technique, échange d’informations avec d’autres CERT, contribution à des études techniques spécifiques, la prévention par diffusion d’informations sur les précautions à prendre pour minimiser les risques d’incident ou au pire leurs conséquences, la coordination éventuelle avec les autres entités (hors du domaine d’action) : centres de compétence réseaux, opérateurs et fournisseurs d’accès à Internet, CERT nationaux et internationaux.

Un autre atelier qui n’est directement lié a la réunion de l’ICANN mais qui fait partie de la communauté des organisations autour de l’Internet en Afrique est organisé par KENET et le NSRC pour aider la communauté des operateurs de réseaux du système de l’éducation au Kenya (http://www.kenet.or.ke/) en les formant aussi aux dernières pratiques réseaux en milieu Universitaires. Cet atelier regroupe 45 personnes des différentes Universités et Institutions d’éducations du Kenya.

Tout ce monde se retrouve joyeusement avec le reste de la communauté ICANN qui vient de l’Australie en passant par la Belgique, les USA ou la Zambie pour discuter des noms de domaines de pays en caractères non latins (ccIDNs), des nouveaux nom de domaines de 1er niveau (New gTLDs), des différents groupes de travail autour de la sécurité, des redelegations pour la ccNSO, et des différentes politiques relatives aux gTLDs pour le GNSO. La communauté des utilisateurs individuels appelles At Large est présente aussi avec la majorité de leurs membres et va travailler a recruter des membres dans la sous région et a convaincre les utilisateurs que l’utilisation de l’Internet a autant d’avantages que de devoirs et qu’il faut absolument que les utilisateurs de la région s’impliquent dans la gestions des TLDs pour le bénéfice de la communauté régionale. Tout ceci sous le regard scrutateur et concerné des gouvernements qui voient cet Internet dont ils n’ont pas toujours fait partie, envahir leur vie et celle des citoyens et discutent amplement de toutes les politiques publiques liées a l’Internet et son utilisation. Il sont aujourd’hui 20 pays a être représentés au Conseil Consultatif des Gouvernements (GAC) et nous espérons avoir la visite des ministres de l’IGAD, communauté économique régionale dont les travaux se tiennent conjointement a ceux de l’ICANN au KICC a Nairobi.

Bienvenue a tous nos hôtes qui viennent ou reviennent en Afrique pour ICANN et très bon travaux et sejour a tous a la 37eme réunion publique de l’ICANN.

Anne-Rachel Inné
Directrice pour les Relations Afriques, ICANN

Since the launch of the Fast Track Process, ICANN has received many questions about how the DNS Stability Panel will determine a confusingly similar string; that is, a requested string that is confusing similar with an existing ccTLD, gTLD or applied-for TLDs.

The overall rules seem clear:

1) If you apply for an IDN ccTLD that is confusingly similar with an existing ccTLD, gTLD, or reserved name, then your request will be declined.

2) If you request an IDN ccTLD that is confusingly similar to a “validated” IDN ccTLD, then your request will be declined.

3) If you request an IDN ccTLD that is confusingly similar to another IDN ccTLD under evaluation, and yet not “validated”, then both request will be placed on hold until a solution is found.

4) If you request an IDN ccTLD that is confusingly similar to an applied-for gTLD string that has reached Board approval, and hence considered an existing TLD, then your request will be declined.

5) If you request an IDN ccTLD that is confusingly similar to an applied-for gTLD string, then both parties will be informed.

Validation, for the purpose of the Fast Track Process means that it has been established that the string is a meaningful representation of the corresponding country/territory name, and that it has successfully passed the DNS Stability Panel evaluation.

However, it is the notion of confusingly similar and exactly how it is established that two or more strings are so confusingly similar that they cannot co-exist in the DNS, that reasonably is raising questions.

As the Final Implementation Plan states, any such determination is on a case-by-case basis. However, it is probably useful to provide some insight into how the panel makes such a determination.

While the determination is done by the DNS Stability Panel, Fast Track participants should know that ICANN staff will provide them with concerns about confusability (if such is found) during the initial review of a Fast Track request. The requester then has the opportunity to either (i) change the string they requested, (ii) withdraw the request and resubmit at a later stage, or (iii) continue with the request as originally submitted.

Type styles, fonts, etc.

Issue: A sufficiently creative choice of type styles or the exploitation of information about scripts that a given user may be unable to display can result in one character (or a sequence of characters) in one script being visually confusable with one or more characters (or character sequence(s)) in another script.

The issue becomes even more serious for closely related scripts (for example, Greek/Latin/Cyrillic).

While we are aware of the issues, some level of risk must be accepted. These kinds of issues cannot be completely guarded against, especially as type styles and fonts (just like languages and scripts) evolve and change over time.

Instead, determining confusability is focused on issues that may arise from the basic geometry of characters that is preserved, to a greater or lesser degree, across a variety of fonts, styles, and formatting.

Two-character strings

Issue: Two-character strings that consist of Unicode code points in scripts such as the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic script blocks are intrinsically confusable with currently defined or potential future country code TLD (ccTLD) strings based on the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes.

This is particularly true when variations in font and presentation interface are considered. And it is not limited to the pairs of “visually confusable characters” identified in Unicode Technical Report #39. Those characters are based on Unicode Reference Fonts that are deliberately designed to reduce the potential for visual confusion.

Therefore, a very conservative standard is being used to assess applied-for strings that consist of two Greek, Cyrillic, or Latin characters, including a default presumption of confusability to which exceptions may be made in specific cases.

How are strings ranked?

The Fast Track Process recognizes the following rankings for requested two-character IDN ccTLD strings. The higher the rank the more likely the applied-for string as a whole presents a significant risk of user confusion.

[6] Both characters are visually identical to an ISO 646 Basic Version (ISO 646-BV*) character. [International Organization for Standardization, "Information Technology – ISO 7-bit coded character set for information interchange," ISO Standard 646, 1991.]

[5] One character is visually identical to, and one character is visually confusable with, an ISO 646-BV character.

[4] Both characters are visually confusable with, but neither character is visually identical to, an ISO 646-BV character.

[3] One character is visually distinct from, and one character is visually identical to, an ISO 646-BV character.

[2] One character is visually distinct from, and one character is visually confusable with, an ISO 646-BV character.

[1] Both characters are visually distinct from an ISO 646-BV character.

Some disagreement may arise in assessing whether a string is confusingly similar with existing ccTLDs, gTLDs, or applied-for strings. Thus, these rankings are for guidance only, and the DNS Stability Panel makes its assessment based on the rankings and on the expertise of the panelists. In difficult situations, the panel may conduct extended evaluations that also can include drawing on additional linguistic expertise.

The likelihood of user confusion presented by a given two-character IDN ccTLD string does not depend strictly on the individual confusability of each character, if considered separately. The assessment of “visually distinct” and “visually confusable” takes into account both the individual features of each character and their combined effect.

In general, a two-character IDN string at rank [4] or higher presents a significant risk of user confusion.

In general, a two-character IDN string at rank [3] or lower does not present a significant risk of user confusion.

What about confusable strings already in the DNS root zone?

Some have argued that we already have TLDs in the DNS root zone that could be considered confusingly similar, so there is no need to prevent future confusingly similar strings from being entered in the root zone as well. There is only one answer to such statement: Just because there are issues today does not mean that we should make it worse for the future!

Finally, thank you to the DNS Stability Panel for all their work in this area and for generating the rankings based on their professional experience and prelaunch training!

I travelled with Rod Beckstrom to Beijing on 2-3 March for talks with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Industry leaders and CNNIC, the China Internet information Network. Apart from a brief visit to Europe at end 2009 this was Rod’s first major bilateral visit since he was appointed President and CEO. A quite deliberate choice in recognition of ICANN’s strengthening ties with China since her return to the GAC last year.

During the visit Rod attended a NomComm outreach event designed to encourage greater participation. See pictures below. Organised by the charming and effective Professor Xue Hong, Director of the Institute for Internet policy at Beijing Normal University and in the presence of Madam Qiheng Hu, President of the Internet Society of China. The event was very kindly sponsored by CNNIC, whose Director General, Dr. Wei Mao, also made a very positive contribution to our efforts to encourage greater Chinese participation in our multi-stakeholder model.

The event was both interesting and fun, bringing together a good cross section of the Internet ecosphere in China. Moreover Prof. Hong tells me she has, in her roll of NomComm coordinator, already received several indications of interest from potential volunteers.

Nick Thorne

(For those who haven’t come across him, Nick is International Relations Adviser to Rod in his role as President and CEO).

By Nick Tomasso
5 March 2010

Late Wednesday, my meetings team here in Nairobi was hit with some unexpected and troubling news by the Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC), the venue for the ICANN meeting. Unfortunately, it is news that could severely impact our community as it attends the meeting here on Monday and Tuesday.

Officials at the KICC informed us for the first time Wednesday, that the InterGovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) will be conducting a major meeting in the KICC on Monday and Tuesday (March 8 & 9) at the same time the 37th ICANN meeting kicks off.

The IGAD is made up of six member nations; Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda. The group shares the common admirable goal of trying to improve general economic conditions in East Africa.

KICC informed us that IGAD Ministers will begin meeting at the KICC on Monday. We are told that with their staffs and security personnel, there will be about 200 people in attendance, and while that is a concern to us in terms of how the ministers and their security teams will impact our meeting, our far greater concern is how the IGAD gathering will affect our meeting on Tuesday.

On March 9, we are told that the heads of state of all the IGAD member nations will be at the KICC from 09:00 to 17:00, along with their respective entourages and full security details, which will be substantial.

With that many national leaders and scores of security personnel arriving at our meeting venue at one time, we expect it to cause severe inconveniences and at times possibly major disruptions for our community members as they attempt to enter and move around the KICC.

While I registered my displeasure that the KICC decided to host the IGAD conference at the same time as ours and asked that they consider moving it to another location, it was readily apparent that no change would be made.

The ICANN meetings team is currently working round the clock with the KICC, our hosts, and the Kenyan government to see what we can do to minimize the impact on our community members. In the meantime, in accordance with our philosophy of full transparency, we wanted to let you know about these potential problems as soon as possible.

We will keep you advised of any room changes or possible modifications to the schedule as we continue to seek solutions or workarounds to this problem.

Nick Tomasso
General Manager, Meetings and Conferences
ICANN

The goal of this Green-Paper is to examine a wide variety of issues in applying information and communications technologies to education,

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Imagine footmen playing a royal brass fanfare as we announce: ICANN now produces its first audio podcast series for you!

When you join the ICANN community, you quickly discover that folks here have considered and debated certain issues for years. You want to participate, but when you try to educate yourself on a topic, you look on icann.org and find (seemingly) one thousand documents, each a hundred pages long. How do you begin to understand the issue?

From now on, the answer just might be ICANN Start. We produced this new audio podcast especially for listeners who are new to ICANN or new to a specific issue.

Each episode of ICANN Start focuses on one subject, and in an interview with a subject matter expert, answers five basic questions: What is it? Why does it matter? Who does it affect? Who’s going to fix it? How can I participate? (Sometimes the five questions vary, but the show is always one issue / five questions.)

No episode will run more than 20 minutes. In many cases, you can grasp the basics of a topic within the space of a coffee break – and without reading.

The podcast launched publicly last week, with four episodes. Tune in if you’d like a basic explanation of these topics: internationalized registration data; wildcarding and synthesized DNS responses; Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy; and country code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs).

We’ll post a new episode on the first of each month. Find the podcast on the ICANN web site by clicking the home page’s E-Learning tab; or, you can surf directly to a list of episodes. Many of Apple’s global iTunes stores carry the show; to check for it, in the podcast section of iTunes search for “ICANN Start.”

Finally, as the host of the show, I want to learn from you. What ICANN topic do you wish someone would explain? Send your response to start@icann.org, and we’ll do our best to produce a relevant, helpful show for you. Get in on the beginning of this new effort and let us know how to improve it!

A well-informed opinion is a persuasive opinion. From now on when you wonder, “How can I wrap my mind around this issue?”, think, “ICANN Start.”

Whether you intend to participate in the upcoming Nairobi meeting in person or remotely, you’re not alone if you feel under-prepared. The ICANN community has a huge number of important issues working their way through the policy development process (PDP), and it’s tough to track them all. It almost makes you wish you could sit some policy experts down and say, “I haven’t got all day, so give me the executive briefing, short and sweet!”

If you relate to that feeling, you’ll be glad to learn that before each international meeting, staff members on ICANN’s Policy Team assemble a high-level presentation recapping the state of every major issue in policy development. The briefing involves all Supporting Organizations at ICANN, so whether your primary concern is generic domain names, country code domain names, or the oft-overlooked-but-oh-so-necessary numbers and addresses, you can rapidly learn the status of key issues.

The pre-Nairobi Policy Update Webinar happened last week, but if you missed it, don’t worry: we recoreded the entire 90-minute session. You can see and hear the presentation just as if you had participated in it live. And if the presentation raises questions in your mind, the Policy Team always answers inquiries that you email to policy-staff@icann.org.

You might think 90 minutes is not a “short and sweet” briefing. But wait until you see how many issues we recap: everything from GNSO Improvements, to the usual list of alphabet-issues (spelled out in the briefing): IRTP, RAP, PEDNR, RAA, STI, ASNs, Whois, the recently initiated PDP on Vertical Integration, and more.

If you’d love a one-stop resource for quickly getting the lay of the land before meeting your ICANN colleagues in Nairobi, this is a must-see presentation. Simply point your browser here and sit back for your whirlwind tour: http://icann.na3.acrobat.com/p18646275/ .

Internet Governance Diplomats in Nairobi

NAIROBI, Kenya (Diplo) - This 30-storey building is the Kenyatta International Conference Centre in Nairobi,

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