- NA-Discuss - lists.icann.org

Fwd: Planning New York City's dotNeighborhoods - January 26
by Evan Leibovitch Jan. 24, 2010

Jan. 24, 2010

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Thomas Lowenhaupt <toml(a)communisphere.com> Date: 2010/1/24 Subject: Planning New York City's dotNeighborhoods - January 26 To: TOML(a)communisphere.com What: Planning New York City's dotNeighborhoods When: Tuesday, January 26, 2010 6:30 PM Where: Neighborhood Preservation Center, 232 E 11th Street (near Second Avenue) ----------- We've all become familiar with Top Level Domains like .com, .org, .edu, and .gov. New York City will soon have its own, the .nyc TLD. Tuesday's meeting will focus on a special part of the .nyc Top Level Domain, the dotNeighborhood name-set. With .nyc's activation (perhaps as early as next year) 300+ domain names like GreenwichVillage.nyc, BayRidge.nyc, JacksonHeights.nyc, Harlem.nyc, Astoria.nyc, Chelsea.nyc, and Melrose.nyc will become available to serve their neighborhoods. If thoughtfully developed, these dotNeighborhoods will be places where neighbors can connect with one another to address problems and explore opportunities. This is our third dotNeighborhoods meeting and our focus will be on governance and accountability: How do we assure that Corona.nyc serves the needs of Corona residents and not the beer company? See our dotNeighborhoods wiki pages<http://www.coactivate.org/projects/campaign-for.nyc/traditional-neighborhoo…>for background. We'll also hear from the Hunter College Graduate School of Urban Affairs Workshop which just completed a project entitled: *A Case Study - Neighborhoods in a Digital Era*. The researches will describe their process and findings. You can read the report's Executive Summary here<http://www.coactivate.org/projects/campaign-for.nyc/dotneighborhoods-hunter…> . Connecting.nyc Inc. advocates for the .nyc TLD's development as a public interest resource and sees these neighborhood names as perhaps the most significant name-set. For more on this and the other name-sets, see our Domain Name Allocation Plan<http://www.coactivate.org/projects/campaign-for.nyc/the-nyc-namespace> . RSVP to info(a)connectingnyc.org. Best, Tom Lowenhaupt ----------------------------- Thomas Lowenhaupt, Founder & Chair Connecting.nyc Inc. tom(a)connectingnyc.org www.connectingnyc.org 718 639 4222 Wiki <http://bit.ly/OurWiki> Blog <http://bit.ly/OurBlog>

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Re: [NA-Discuss] [ALAC-Announce] FW:_Public_Meet_Up_with_ICANN¹ s_CEO_in_Washington,_DC_on_27th_January
by Garth Bruen at KnujOn Jan. 22, 2010

Jan. 22, 2010

Heidi, While the meeting and invitation sound good, getting the information less than a week before the meeting somewhat precludes participation. I live in Boston and I would have made this meeting had I more time to make arrangements. I'm guessing that some of the core NARALO folks who live in Canada also find it difficult. -Garth ------------------------------------- Collect, analyze, enforce, repeat... Garth Bruen gbruen(a)knujon.com http://www.knujon.com http://www.linkedin.com/pub/4/149/724 Linkedin Group: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1870205 Blog: http://www.circleid.com/members/3296/ Twitter: @Knujon > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: [ALAC-Announce] FW:_Public_Meet_Up_with_ICANN¹ > s_CEO_in_Washington,_DC_on_27th_January > From: Heidi Ullrich <Heidi.Ullrich(a)icann.org> > Date: Thu, January 21, 2010 5:01 pm > To: 'Cheryl Langdon-Orr' <langdonorr(a)gmail.com>, > "alac-announce(a)atlarge-lists.icann.org" > <alac-announce(a)atlarge-lists.icann.org> > Cc: Donna Austin <donna.austin(a)icann.org> > > > Dear All, > > Please see the message below from Rod Beckstrom. > > Kind regards, > Heidi > > From: Donna Austin > Sent: Thursday, January 21, 2010 1:47 PM > To: Heidi Ullrich > Subject: Public Meet Up with ICANN¹s CEO in Washington, DC on 27th January > > > Dear Heidi > > Could you forward this email to Cheryl and members of the At-Large on behalf of Rod Beckstrom please? > > Thanks > > Donna > > _______ > > Dear Cheryl and members of the At-Large > > As you know, I believe that ICANN's CEO should be accessible to the community, but also to those who may not regularly participate in ICANN's processes but are interested in the important work we do. > > As a part of this effort, I've started holding what I call "Meet Ups" where I make myself available in an informal setting when I travel and my schedule allows. To help ensure as many of people as possible are able to attend if they want, we announce these as far in advance as we can. > > All you need to bring are your thoughts, ideas, or questions and enough coin to buy your favourite form of refreshment. > > Here are all the details. If you have any questions, please send an email to my Chief of Staff, Donna Austin <donna.austin(a)icann.org>. > > Date: 27th January 2010 > > 17:00 to 19:00 local time > > Place: Buffalo Billiards, Victorian Room, 1330 19th Street, Washington DC 20036 > > Map: http://tinyurl.com/yakmr9t > > I hope to see you there! > > Warmly > > Rod > > Rod Beckstrom > President & CEO > ICANN > > ------ End of Forwarded Message > _______________________________________________ > ALAC-Announce mailing list > ALAC-Announce(a)atlarge-lists.icann.org > http://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/alac-announce_atlarge-lists… > > At-Large Official Site: http://atlarge.icann.org

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WHOIS Privacy Considered "Material Falsification" by 9th Circuit Court of Appeals
by Garth Bruen at KnujOn Jan. 21, 2010

Jan. 21, 2010

More info: http://www.circleid.com/posts/whois_privacy_considered_material_falsificati… The CAN-SPAM act states that “registration information is materially falsified if it is altered or concealed in a manner that would impair the ability of a recipient of the message…to identify, locate, or respond to a person who initiated the electronic mail message…” The defendants argued that since the terms “impair”, “materially falsify” and “conceal” are not defined in the statute they should be considered unconstitutionally vague. The court responded to the defendants’ assertion by clarifying that “when Congress does not define a term in a statute, we construe that term according to its ordinary, contemporary, common meaning.” The court then made it clear in their ruling that the defendants’ use of private WHOIS information in this case materially falsified the registration information. The court declared that “It should have been clear to the defendants that intentionally falsifying the identity of the contact person and phone number [through WHOIS privacy] for the actual registrant information constitutes intentionally decreasing the ability of a recipient to locate and contact the actual registrant, regardless of whether a recipient may still be left some avenue to do so. We therefore conclude defendants had notice that their conduct violated the CAN-SPAM act.” ------------------------------------- Collect, analyze, enforce, repeat... Garth Bruen gbruen(a)knujon.com http://www.knujon.com http://www.linkedin.com/pub/4/149/724 Linkedin Group: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1870205 Blog: http://www.circleid.com/members/3296/ Twitter: @Knujon

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MIT Spam Conference: 2010 Call for Papers and Participation
by Garth Bruen at KnujOn Jan. 20, 2010

Jan. 20, 2010

At-Large, I am proud (or disappointed) to announce the 8th annual MIT Spam Conference (http://projects.csail.mit.edu/spamconf/) March 25th and 26th at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A regular research competition that brings out the best minds in the fight against unsolicited email. At this point it would be helpful to provide a little background on the conference and remind everyone that the Call For Papers (http://projects.csail.mit.edu/spamconf/SC2010/cfp-SC2010.pdf) is still open. Just as the spammers have developed new tools, platforms, and tactics to deliver their message we need to match them and push it back. Spam is still the number one threat on the Internet today as it drives illicit commerce, delivers viruses, opens doorways for intrusions, and tricks the savvy and gullible alike to hand over cash and credentials. To this end, the conference has been broadened in the last two years to include a variety of subjects and revolutionary proposals. This top-talent but low-key session was started in 2003 by Paul Graham, the inventor of Bayesian spam filtering (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayesian_spam_filtering) which is the basis for current spam filters, in 1998. After a few years of chairing the Spam Conference Graham moved on to YCombinator (http://ycombinator.com/) Yahoo’s start-up development project. In 2006, William “Bill” Yerazunis (http://www.merl.com/people/yerazunis/) of Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs (MERL) took up the mantle and worked to expand the conference to two days. Yerazunis isn’t just a spam guy, he has worked in a number of technical fields including optics, computer graphics, transplant immunology, artificial intelligence, and other diverse disciplines. Yerazunis, who holds 29 patents, turned the Spam Conference over to University of Akron Computer Science Professor, Kathy Liszka (http://www.cs.uakron.edu/~kliszka/) Last year, Liszka, coordinated and ran one of the most topic diverse conferences yet. Liszka will be accepting research submissions until February 1, 2010 (http://projects.csail.mit.edu/spamconf/SC2010/cfp-SC2010.pdf) For those who do not have research to submit, but are still interested in the subject, the conference is open to the public and usually held in the unique “dancing building” at MIT, the Stata Center (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stata_Center) designed by Frank Gehry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Gehry) There is always a lively debate and discussion as well as a review of shocking developments in spam and predictions for the coming year. All points of view are welcome as some of the brightest minds take a deep look at this ongoing and troubling technology problem. More info: http://www.circleid.com/posts/20100119_mit_spam_conference_2010_call_for_pa… Thanks, Garth ------------------------------------- Collect, analyze, enforce, repeat... Garth Bruen gbruen(a)knujon.com http://www.knujon.com http://www.linkedin.com/pub/4/149/724 Linkedin Group: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1870205 Blog: http://www.circleid.com/members/3296/ Twitter: @Knujon

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Re: [NA-Discuss] [At-Large] Director White Paper - Request for Comments
by Evan Leibovitch Jan. 13, 2010

Jan. 13, 2010

2010/1/13 Christian de Larrinaga <cdel(a)firsthand.net> > ICANN is chartered to co-ordinate the management of a few of the Internet's > unique resources. > Above all ICANN does not own any of these resources. So it operates > through rough consensus of the community at hand. > As a personal observation based on my relatively short time as an At-Large participant, I'd say that this view of ICANN's mandate ("rough consensus of the community at hand") is -- and has probably been for a long time -- a romantic myth. The experience with .xxx demonstrated that -- community and common sense be damned -- ICANN has operated mostly through the consent of the US Department of Commerce. Recent pressures brought to bear on ICANN by the DoC related to intellectual proprerty protection have simply re-enforced that reality. The experience of my own (so far unsuccessful) efforts to get the "Morality and Public Order" clause purged from the new gTLD creation process has further reminded how little the end-user is in control. The denial of the ALAC Review request for two At-Large-appointed directors is another example. Many others within the At-Large Community have their own stories of frustration. With the expiration of the JPA and its replacement by the "Affirmation of Commitments", power evolves from one government to many. But this is still a far far distance from the notion that ICANN gets its mandate from the Internet end-user. I say this not with approval, but as what I believe is a realistic evaluation of what I have encountered. We can't properly plan strategy unless we have a clear picture of what we're dealing with. - Evan

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Re: [NA-Discuss] [At-Large] Director White Paper - Request for Comments
by Evan Leibovitch Jan. 12, 2010

Jan. 12, 2010

Hello Christian, 2010/1/12 Christian de Larrinaga <cdel(a)firsthand.net> > A lot of work has gone into this document but I could not get through even > the executive summary which is impenetrable due to an exceptionally deep > sprinkling of acronyms. It is obvious that there is a hardening of the veins > of who is involved at ICANN and where these terms are presumably obvious. > > Some are clearly new even to the authors as they do get explained in the > text. But the bulk are left to the Glossary (which is excellent). But a > Glossary is a poor excuse for an over exuberance of new building of stuffing > in ICANN over recent years whose purposes is not clear nor unambiguous. > Your message is heard loud and clear (by me at least). In my (relatively short) time working within ICANN as a volunteer I have found its processes to be extremely complex to navigate. At times, ICANN presents the facade of a purely technical body, or a trade association, or an international treaty organization, or bits and pieces of all three. This fact has produced in ICANN an extremely unusual corporate culture that takes considerable effort to penetrate. And given the various competing interests of governments, business users, sellers of Internet services, community groups, would-be registries, domainers and others, it's unlikely that the structure is easily simplified. One need go no further than the attempted re-organization of the non-commercial constituencies within the powerful GNSO to see how -- even within the end-user community -- change is difficult and simplification doubly so. > One important role At LARGE should have is to keep policies over unique > Internet resources accessible to users. This means pruning the profusion of > committees, structures, boards and complexity of interactions and politics > between them across ICANN by demanding that only entities that have a clear > unambiguous and practical role following the Internet model are continued > and all such activities have a limited lifespan. > Half the trick is knowing what needs to be dismantled. Indeed most of the committees within ICANN have fixed mandates and dissolve after their work is done; however for each one that has completed its task, another one rises up to address a new issue. Part of the purpose of At-Large (ie, the formally defined infrastructure) is to try to offer a gateway between the complexity of ICANN and the simplicity required by the global community of Internet users. > I am very worried by the way users are increasingly isolated by the growing > over complexity in structure, language and difficulty to judge relevance and > usefulness. How are users who have deep stake in the ultimate outcomes at > ICANN to get meaningfully involved when they can spend only a small amount > of time and resource on keeping 'au fait'? > > At Large must focus on keeping ICANN down to size and can start doing this > on itself. > The ALAC (and overall At-Large infrastructure) recently went through a formal review that involved third-party consultants, members of the ICANN board and a global public consultation process. The report and recommendations of that Review are, in part, why we are here -- because it is that review that recommended that At-Large be able to appoint directors to the ICANN board. (That report is referenced in the Background section of the White Paper, which provides a link to it.) In other words, At-Large has already (and very recently) been involved in an extensive process of evaluation by itself and the rest of ICANN. Given that we are fairly stressed for human resources (and most of those are volunteers with day jobs), it has been a choice by most of us to spend our energies observing and trying to affect ICANN policy that effects end-users. I personally believe that having ICANN do the Right Thing (from the public point of view) is more important than the size of the organization. But you're welcome to disagree, and to get involved to advocate the change you want to see. As with any group of volunteers, At-Large is driven by the efforts of people who do the work, (in our case, guided by the ALSs and regional participants that get involved). Talk is cheap. If you're interested in streamlining ICANN and At-Large, you are invited to get involved and help to do that. - Evan

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Summary Minutes of the NARALO Teleconference 11 January 2010
by ICANN At-Large Staff Jan. 12, 2010

Jan. 12, 2010

Dear All, The discussion notes, action items and audio recordings from yesterday’s NARALO meeting are now available under https://st.icann.org/naralo/index.cgi?11_january_2010 The summary minutes are also attached below. For those of you interested in WIPO’s Domain Name Resolution process and the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), Bart Boswinkel recommends you to visit the following webpage: http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/ You will also find an article on WIPO’s activities related to New gTLDs linked to that page. -- Regards, Heidi Ullrich, Matthias Langenegger, Gisella Gruber-White, Marilyn Vernon, Kristina Nordström ICANN At-Large Staff email: staff[at]atlarge.icann.org website: www.atlarge.icann.org Participants: Eduardo Diaz, Beau Brendler, Evan Leibovitch, Wendy Seltzer, Alan Greenberg, Seth, Miles, Glenn McKnight, Gareth Apologies: Darlene Thompson Staff: Bart Boswinkel, Matthias Langenegger Defensive registration IDN Bart Boswinkel: IDN ccTLDs were launched in Seoul and the strings are currently in the application process. There will be IDN ccTLDs in the near future and they will have their own naming policies. ICANN has no direct influence on the naming policy of IDN ccTLDs. Whether there will be defensive registration in an IDN ccTLD is up to the local administrators. Alan: it is unclear whether the IDN ccTLD are going to be synchronised with the existing ccTLD record. Evan: do name holders have to be worried about IDN ccTLD registering latin names of existing strings in their IDN ccTLD? Bart: that is also up to the local naming policy Alan: would the inverse be possible, namely that a IDN ccTLD name holder could file a UDRP against the latin name holder in, say, .com? Eduardo: does a UDRP need to be filed in English? Bart: UDRPs can be filed in any language Evan: Is there anywhere in ICANN where registrants can go to for information on whether a message they received regarding defensive registration in an IDN ccTLD is valid? Bart: ICANN does not have this information. I advise registrants to go to www.wipo.int and look for information on the UDRP. It depends on whether it is a generic name or not. If it is a generic name, the rules of the UDRP apply. Wendy: what is more important is that people know the difference between a trademark and a domain name. If you have a trademark you might not need to register a domain name. Open Public Consultation ICANN Strategic Plan There is a community call on the ICANN Strategic Plan 2010 - 2013 on Friday, 1600 UTC. See https://st.icann.org/alac/index.cgi?community_call_on_strategic_planning_20… New gTLD There will be a WG call on the Draft Applicant Guidebook later this week. Time still to be determinded. Formalization of the status of individual NARALO members Evan: this is an important issue because of the At-Large Director process. What role will individual NARALO members play in the election? Until now, everybody who was subscribed to the mailing list was a NARALO member and decisions were taken by consensus. This needs to be more formalized. Evan: in the next online vote our individual members will get voting credentials so we need to know who they are. Does anyone disagree that we have a database of individual members? Question from unidentified participant: what is an individual, unaffiliated member? Evan: Members who do not represent or participate in an ALS. Each ALS has one vote and all individual members together have one vote. This is important when it comes to the At-Large Director vote as they will need to be weighted and counted as one ALS. This is technically possible. It is therefore important to know who our ind members are and have a public registry. Action Item: Evan will put this issue to the mailing list At-Large Director White Paper Evan: This is a very thorough document and constitutes a milestone for At-Large. Please read it and submit your comments as soon as possible. The comment periods are short. Alan: The reason why this document was mostly edited by the ExCom is because by the ALAC meeting in December almost nothing was done. It was not planned that the ExCom would have the main responsibility for this document. Evan: make your thoughts known on the mailing lists or on the wiki page! Recent and Upcoming Activities of ALAC (Alan, Beau, and Gareth) Gareth: the At-Large Director process is the most pressing issue at the moment Update on the NARALO Brochure (Eduardo, Evan, Louis) Action Item: Eduardo, Louis and Evan will work together on the NARLO Brochure in the coming weeks Update on the NARALO Discussion on the Strategic Plan 2010-13 Evan: I hope many of you will participate in the community call on the Strategic Plan on Friday. The next NARALO call will take place on February 8th 2010 at 2000 UTC.

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Director White Paper - Request for Comments
by At Large Staff Jan. 12, 2010

Jan. 12, 2010

* La version française est ci-dessous *La versión española está abajo Dear All, At its 22 December 2009 teleconference, the ALAC charged a small group with the task of creating an initial white paper on the proposed process for the selection of an ICANN At-Large Board Member to be distributed for wide-spread comment early in January 2010. Please find attached a copy of the Director White Paper in EN and FR for review. The Spanish document will be available in the next few days. The Director White Paper is also available for comment on wiki pages. The portal page is available at: https://st.icann.org/alac-docs/index.cgi?director_white_paper. All members of the At-Large community are encouraged to comment on the Director White Paper prior to the next Community Call on the At-Large Selection Process to be scheduled between 27-29 January 2010 (a Doodle will be sent shortly). Comments will be accepted in any of the six UN languages. Please make your comments directly on the wiki page using the "comment" button. It is additionally requested that At-Large community members forward this message to other relevant lists to distribute the call for comments on the Director White Paper as widely as possible. Regards, ** Cher tous, À sa téléconférence du 22 décembre 2009, l'ALAC a chargé un petit groupe de la tâche de créer un premier livre blanc sur le procédé proposé pour le choix d'un membre du conseil At-Large d'ICANN à distribuer pour le commentaire répandu tôt en janvier 2010. Veuillez trouver ci-joint une copie du directeur livre blanc en en et franc pour la revue. Le document espagnol sera disponible en prochains jours. Le directeur livre blanc est également disponible pour le commentaire aux pages de wiki. Le page portique de `est disponible à : https://st.icann.org/alac-docs/index.cgi?director_white_paper. Tous les membres de la communauté At-Large sont encouragés à présenter leurs observations sur le directeur livre blanc avant le prochain faire appel de la Communauté au processus de sélection At-Large à programmer entre les 27-29 janvier 2010 (un Doodle sera envoyé sous peu). Des commentaires seront acceptés dans des six langues l'unes des de l'ONU. Veuillez formuler vos commentaires directement sur la page de wiki utilisant le " ; comment" ; bouton. On lui demande en plus que membre de la Communauté At-Large font suivre à ce message d'autres listes appropriées pour distribuer l'appel pour des commentaires sur le directeur livre blanc aussi largement comme possible. Cordialment, ** Estimado todos, En su teleconferencia del 22 de diciembre de 2009, el ALAC encargó a un pequeño grupo de la tarea de crear un Libro Blanco inicial en el proceso propuesto para la selección de un miembro del Consejo At-Large de ICANN que se distribuirá para el comentario extenso temprano en enero de 2010. Encuentre por favor ató una copia del director Libro Blanco en el EN y el franco para la revisión. El documento español estará disponible en los próximos días. El director Libro Blanco está también disponible para el comentario en las páginas del wiki. El page porta del `está disponible en: https://st.icann.org/alac-docs/index.cgi?director_white_paper. Animan a todos los miembros de la comunidad At-Large a comentar respecto al director Libro Blanco antes de la llamada siguiente de la comunidad en el proceso de selección At-Large que se programará entre el 27-29 de enero de 2010 (un Doodle será enviado pronto). Los comentarios serán aceptados en seis idiomas unas de los de la O.N.U. Haga por favor sus comentarios directamente en la página del wiki usando el " comment" botón. Se pide además que los miembros de la Comunidad At-Large transmiten a este mensaje otras listas relevantes para distribuir la llamada para los comentarios sobre el director Libro Blanco tan extensamente como sea posible. Respetos, Heidi Ullrich, Matthias Langenegger, Gisella Gruber-White, Marilyn Vernon, Kristina Nordström ICANN At-Large Staff email: staff[at]atlarge.icann.org website: www.atlarge.icann.org

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REMINDER: NARALO Call today at 2000 UTC
by ICANN At-Large Staff Jan. 11, 2010

Jan. 11, 2010

Dear All, This is to remind you that the NARALO monthly call for January will be held today, 11 January 2009 at 20:00 UTC. The agenda and call details can be found at: https://st.icann.org/lacralo/index.cgi?17_december_2009 Also, please note that the community call on the ICANN Strategic Plan will be held on Friday, 15 January at 1600 UTC. The draft agenda and call details can be found at: https://st.icann.org/alac/index.cgi?community_call_on_strategic_planning_20… -- Regards, Heidi Ullrich, Matthias Langenegger, Gisella Gruber-White, Marilyn Vernon, Kristina Nordström ICANN At-Large Staff email: staff[at]atlarge.icann.org website: www.atlarge.icann.org

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Google loses UDRP claim
by Evan Leibovitch Dec. 30, 2009

Dec. 30, 2009

Hello everyone. Hope you're all having a good holiday season. Here's something interesting that happened... Google lost a UDRP claim against a small Toronto company that had "groovle.com". The panel found that the two words were not confusingly similar. Does this mean the system works? That the little guy at least has a chance at prevailing, even against a massive opponent? http://domains.adrforum.com/domains/decisions/1293500.htm http://www.domainnamenews.com/legal-issues/google-loses-domain-dispute-groo… - Evan

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