The full schedule for ICANN 59, the policy forum, which is being held at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg from June 26 - 29 has been published. As this is a "policy forum" there are fewer frills ie. no big opening ceremony, gala or board meeting. As they've been doing for the last few meetings ICANN is using Sched to manage the schedule, which means that you … [Read more...] about ICANN 59 Full Schedule Published
Domain name
Afilias Wins Contract to Run Backend Registry Services for .io, .ac and .sh
Afilias has won the contract to run the backend registry services for a number of country code domain extensions. The new contract will see Afilias handling the technical side of .io, .ac and .sh which are currently run in-house by The Internet Computer Bureau. In the past few years the .io ccTLD has become popular with startups as an alternative to .com. Details of the … [Read more...] about Afilias Wins Contract to Run Backend Registry Services for .io, .ac and .sh
DomainMonster Is No More. All Customers Being Migrated to 123-Reg
Mergers and acquisitions in the hosting and domain name business have become increasingly common over the last couple of years. As a result things have got a tad confusing and some well known brands have either ceased to exist entirely or are in flux. Case in point is Domain Monster. The company was acquired by Host Europe a couple of years ago. Host Europe in turn was acquired … [Read more...] about DomainMonster Is No More. All Customers Being Migrated to 123-Reg
ICANN’s Göran Marby Speaks at WHD.Global in Germany
ICANN CEO Göran Marby spoke at WHD.Global last week. Traditionally ICANN has not had a strong presence at WHD, so having the CEO and some of his senior staff in attendance last week was a positive move. The challenge for Marby, who also had a fairly early morning slot for his talk, was making ICANN relevant to an audience made up of hosting companies. His keynote runs for … [Read more...] about ICANN’s Göran Marby Speaks at WHD.Global in Germany
ICANN to Hold DNS Symposium in Madrid in May
ICANN and a couple of other organisations are taking advantage of venue chosen for the 2017 GDD Summit. ICANN will be holding a "DNS Symposium" in the Hotel NH Collection Madrid Eurobuilding in Madrid on Saturday 13th May. It's the first time that ICANN organises this type of event. The focus of the event will be the technical types and it is being organised by office of … [Read more...] about ICANN to Hold DNS Symposium in Madrid in May
Domain Spotting at CES in Las Vegas
I'm at CES this week in Las Vegas, Nevada, This year is my 3rd year attending the event and it is, as usual, packed to the gills with people from the four corners of the globe. As I've been walking around the floors here (and there are multiple) I've been keeping an eye open for domains "in action". Here's a few that I spotted: From the show floor: The .audio … [Read more...] about Domain Spotting at CES in Las Vegas
Italian ccTLD Passes the 3 Million Domains Registered Mark
The Italian country code registry announced last week that they'd passed the 3 million domains registered. With the Italian registry about to kick off celebrations of their 30 years in existence the milestone was quite timely. The first .it domain name was registered in December 1987. They hit 1 million names registered in 2005, a number which doubled to 2 million a mere 5 … [Read more...] about Italian ccTLD Passes the 3 Million Domains Registered Mark
Amazon Registry is Hiring: Corporate Counsel, IP
Amazon Registry is hiring for their legal department. The job title? Corporate Counsel, IP. While the focus is intellectual property it's firmly focussed on domains: We are looking for a talented attorney to support our intellectual property efforts in our rapidly growing and evolving company. Counsel will support the Amazon Registry Services business on a broad range of … [Read more...] about Amazon Registry is Hiring: Corporate Counsel, IP
Which TLDs Brands Are Registering
MarkMonitor has released a graphic illustrating which new top level domains brands are registering domain names in. For those unfamiliar with them, MarkMonitor is a "corporate" registrar, so their core business is handling domain registrations for brands and trademark holders. According to MarkMonitor's data the top 20 extensions are: .sucks .porn .adult … [Read more...] about Which TLDs Brands Are Registering
ICANN Seeking Volunteers for WHOIS Review
ICANN announced yesterday that it is seeking volunteers for the WHOIS review team. To be more precise, the review is actually focussed on the "Registration Directory Service", as the terminology and technology is evolving. There are currently quite a few other "whois related" activities going on within ICANN's policy development system. So why is ICANN launching yet another … [Read more...] about ICANN Seeking Volunteers for WHOIS Review