ICANN today voted to delay consideration of the .XXX Top Level Domain (TLD) in its board meeting at their 37th meeting held this week in Nairobi, Kenya. … more

The Swiss city of Basel has joined the growing list of cities to express an interest in applying for its city name as a Top Level Domain when ICANN asks for applications, possibly in 2011. … more

The proposed renewal of the .PRO registry agreement is posted for public comment at icann.org/en/tlds/agreements/pro/proposed-renewal-agreement-02mar10-en.pdf [PDF, 57 KB] and appendices at icann.org/en/tlds/agreements/pro/proposed-appendices-02mar10-en.pdf [PDF, 320 KB]. … more

Abstract: This paper divides in two parts. The first part elaborates on the difference among categories of “legalities” that have developed on the globe, and considers their shapes and thickness as irreducible to the uniform notion of a “global law”. Different pictures and explanations affect sensibly in epistemic and pragmatic sense the understanding and the potential of the law in relation to global governance. It is the very fact of metamorphoses of law along diverse legal “formats” (one has to think of WTO, ISO, ICANN, WHO, ICLOS- about 2000 specialized global regimes-, of the newly coined “Global Administrative Law”, of transnational merchant law, of regional order of the EU, of the international legal order, of State orders, and so forth). … more

Rod Beckstrom, ICANN’s CEO and president, recently visited China on 2-3 March for talks with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Industry leaders and CNNIC, the China Internet information Network on his way to the ICANN Nairobi meeting that is currently underway. … more

The Chair of the ccNSO’s Internationalised Domain Name Country Code Policy Development Process Working Group (IDN ccPDP WG) for the selection and delegation of IDN ccTLDs is pleased to announce the publication of the Chairs draft Interim Paper [PDF, 170 KB]. The purpose of this paper is to report to the community on structure and potential directions of the recommendations for the overall policy. To be most helpful at this stage of the process the WG seeks your input and comments on the following: … more

ICANN’s CEO, Rod Beckstrom, will visit China en route to Nairobi this week, reports IDG. Discussions due to take place are expected to include talks on China’s application to ICANN “for the globally supported use of domain names that end in “dot-China,” with the word “China” written in Chinese script,” a source said. … more

Mathieu Weill, AFNIC’s CEO, has replaced Andrzej Bartosiewicz from the Polish registry NASK as CEO of CENTR as his two-year term was coming to an end. … more

ICM Registry, the applicant for .XXX generic Top Level Domain, hopes to begin offering .XXX domain names in 2010 following an independent review of its application to, and subsequent refusal by, ICANN. … more

Zone File Access Concept Paper [PDF, 260 KB]

Cost Model Information
Draft Program Development Snapshot High Security Zone Top-Level Domains Advisory Group (HSTLD AG) [PDF, 144 KB]

In one of many efforts to mitigate the potential for malicious conduct in new gTLDs, ICANN formed the Zone File Access (ZFA) Advisory Group and the High Security Top-Level Domain Advisory Group (“HSTLD AG”) following an announcement on 3 December 2009 (see, icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-03dec09-en.htm). … more

ICANN Strategic Plan July 2010 - June 2013 [PDF, 947 KB]

After extensive consultation with the community, including a workshop in Seoul as well as a first time ever survey conducted last Fall, the Strategic Plan [PDF, 947 KB] is being posted following its approval by the ICANN Board at its February meeting. In the joint communication from ICANN’s Chairman and CEO [PDF, 73 KB], it is noted that the Strategic Plan sets out ICANN’s priorities for the next three years and is used as the basis for shaping ICANN’s annual operating plan and budget. Details of the annual planning cycle can be found at icann.org/en/planning/. … more

A working group has been formed by the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communicationsto consider whether there is a demand in the country for new generic Top Level Domainssuch as .OSLO or .TRONDELAG. The Norwegian Post and Telecommunications Authority will chair the group. … more

In its latest meeting on the issue, the ICANN board decided on Friday that they will proceed with plans to hold their 37th meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, after considering all the security issues that have been raised in recent weeks. … more

Abstract: In December 2008, the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) has successfully completed its third installment on issues pertaining to Internet governance. The IGF promotes a multistakeholder environment, where protagonists engage in an extensive debate to discuss how the Internet should look in the future; with these discussions in place issues of cultural diversity and cultural relativism become more relevant than ever before. … more

ICANN has given another update on the situation with their planning to deal with the security issues at the upcoming meeting in Nairobi in March. While they continue to monitor the situation, there will also be increased access to remote participation and there is a board meeting scheduled for 19 February to “give the Board a final opportunity to review the situation and plans.” … more