ICANN meetings are meant to be open and accessible etc., etc., so there are funds available to help people attend.But what happens when people abuse the system?The ICANN Ombudsman issued a report about one such attempted abuse and it is abundantly clear that people "trying it on" will not get away with it.ICANN is an international "not for profit". How someone can think of … [Read more...] about ICANN Is Not A Free Lunch
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Crazy ccTLD Price Hikes?
Image via Wikipedia Jackie Liu's post on CircleID raises some very interesting questions, though whether or not any answers will be forthcoming or not is a totally different matter.While a lot of ccTLDs are dropping their wholesale rates others are raising them (or have raised them).The problem, as Liu points out, is that registrants aren't consulted about the price hikes or … [Read more...] about Crazy ccTLD Price Hikes?
ICANN Are Hiring
ICANN's blog can be a wonderful resource and source of news. Unfortunately I haven't been keeping up to date with RSS feeds as much over the last couple of weeks, so I missed Kieren's post:We need a translation expert - do you know one?As ICANN is an international organisation it has to be able to communicate effectively in more than one language.The full job details may be … [Read more...] about ICANN Are Hiring
Domain Pricing – Is There A Ceiling?
The announcements by Verisign, PIR and Afilias of price increases in com,net,org and .info shouldn't really come as a surprise to anyone.However if the year on year price increases do leave an interesting question - is there an upper ceiling?Will the next price increase have a negative impact on some of the low cost registrars? (The last one didn't seem to have much … [Read more...] about Domain Pricing – Is There A Ceiling?
ICANN Going To Mexico
ICANN 34 will be held in Mexico City, Mexico from 1 - 6 March 2009.I was hoping they'd opt for Cancun, but beggars can't be choosers! :)The official site hasn't been launched yet, as there's still the meeting in Cairo to come. … [Read more...] about ICANN Going To Mexico
One and Two Character Domains? Dotmobi and dotcoop
Short domains are more memorable.You can't really argue with that.However a lot of registries don't allow them for a variety of reasons.The Isle of Man is one of the few exceptions that springs to mind, as they allow pretty much any length, but charge more for the shorter ones.The Irish domain registry does not allow two letter domains, but will allow two character domains. … [Read more...] about One and Two Character Domains? Dotmobi and dotcoop
WIPO Orders Cancellation of Multiple Domain Registrations
Image via WikipediaI keep a close eye on the WIPO UDRP decisions, as sometimes they can be very interesting.In most cases decisions are either upheld or denied and when they are upheld the normal followup would be for the domain in question to be transferred to the IP holder.However WIPO's latest set of UDRP decisions shows a different line of thought entirely.In several cases … [Read more...] about WIPO Orders Cancellation of Multiple Domain Registrations
Using Maths To Sort Out TLD Confusion
Stephane's latest post talks about an attempt to use a mathematical algorithm to help decide on which TLDs to allow in the future.The algorithm, which you can read more about here, works on the basis of comparing "strings" to see if they are confusing. It draws in part on the Levenshtein distanceIt will be interesting to see how ICANN make use of this tool in the months ahead, … [Read more...] about Using Maths To Sort Out TLD Confusion
Fun and Games In the ccTLD World
There must be something in the air. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but there are a lot of things going on in the ccTLD world at the moment.In the UK Nominet's AGM is being held this week. This would normally provoke a yawn from most people - it's an AGM - how exciting can that be? This year's AGM looks like it could be quite entertaining, although it probably isn't going to … [Read more...] about Fun and Games In the ccTLD World
ICANN To Squash Domain Tasting?
It looks like "domain tasting" and "front running" may become part of internet history, as the GNSO has voted to axe them.According to John Levine's recent post the GNSO's vote would mean that the policy would come into effect pretty quickly unless a large number of ICANN's board vote against it. … [Read more...] about ICANN To Squash Domain Tasting?