It's looking less and less likely that there will be any big "in person"" events in 2021 with more and more event organisers announcing their plans to hold their events online. ICANN has announced that ICANN 70 which was meant to be held in Cancún, Mexico is being held online, though it will be scheduled on the Mexican city's timezone. You can register for the event … [Read more...] about ICANN 70 Confirmed as Virtual
What is .art Playing at?
When new TLDs were being introduced one of the arguments in their favour is that they'd offer more choices to registrants. Earlier today the .art registry made a rather odd announcement: https://twitter.com/Art_Domains/status/1346502397644972039 Apparently they're now offering "3rd level domains" What now? According to the blog post: ART’s third-level domains … [Read more...] about What is .art Playing at?
Donuts’ Afilias Deal Closes
Back in November many were surprised by the news that Donuts was acquiring Afilias. While mergers and acquisitions happen all the time, this deal was big news and to many observers probably a little surprising. Yesterday the deal closed. The "change of control" had been on the agenda of a recent ICANN Board meeting, but nothing of any substance came out of that. … [Read more...] about Donuts’ Afilias Deal Closes
Video: Section 230 Explained
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is arguably one of the most important bits of legislation that impacts the internet. Without it a lot of what we all consume and interact with online would probably cease to exist. While it is a US law its impact is global. For the last couple of years the legislation has been under constant attack from both sides of the aisle … [Read more...] about Video: Section 230 Explained
PIR Hiring for DNS Abuse Role
A couple of days ago I posted about PIR hiring for a role in their business development team. They're also hiring for a position that is newly created in the company that of "Director, DNS Abuse Policy and Outreach". It's a fairly senior position reporting to the registry's general counsel. So what does the job entail? By the sounds of things PIR has created the role to … [Read more...] about PIR Hiring for DNS Abuse Role
DotGay Donates $90k to LGBTQ Non-profits
The .gay registry committed to donating to LGBTQ charities when it was launching. The donations are linked to the sale of .gay domain names with 20% of the wholesale revenue being set aside by the registry. Earlier this week .gay announced that they'd made a donation of $90k to LGBTQ non-profits, which brings their total donation this year to over $124k. However at the … [Read more...] about DotGay Donates $90k to LGBTQ Non-profits
IE Domain Registry Hiring
The .ie ccTLD registry aka IEDR are hiring. (They've recently rebranded to ".ie" and changed their domain over to weare.ie from iedr.ie but I honestly can't see that sticking with a lot of us, without even considering the SEO implications etc.,) They've got an opening in their team for a "Policy and Compliance Officer", which would combine dealing with policy issues as well … [Read more...] about IE Domain Registry Hiring
PIR Hiring for APAC
The .org domain name registry (PIR) is hiring a channel sales manager to cover the Asia Pacific region. Full details of the role and its requirements etc., are detailed in the job posting here. It sounds like the position is based out of PIR's headquarters in Reston, VA, which seems a little odd, as they'd never be in the right timezone for any of their … [Read more...] about PIR Hiring for APAC
Donuts to Buy Afilias
There's been a lot of mergers and acquisitions in the domain name space over the last few years. However Donuts acquiring Afilias is more than just "big" news. I'd have to sit down and work it out in more , but I think with this merger Donuts becomes the single biggest registry operator in terms of TLDs. Centralnic is probably the diversity king, as they seem to have … [Read more...] about Donuts to Buy Afilias
European ICANN 69 “Read-out”
ICANN, EURALO and ISOC UK are hosting a European based "read-out" for ICANN 69. Essentially it'll be a webinar where various stakeholders will brief the broader internet community on the key takeaways from the ICANN 69 meeting. Speakers will include ICANN's head honcho for Europe as well as representatives from the GNSO Council, ccNSO Council and others. As it's 2020 … [Read more...] about European ICANN 69 “Read-out”