Tag Archives: Prague

ICANN and Governance

Tell ICANN What You Think: Prague Meeting Guide Survey

ICANN Prague Meeting Guide cover logo

 ICANN staff publishes a printed meeting guide for each of its three annual public meetings. ICANN are reviewing this practice and want your feedback. If you attended ICANN 44 in Prague, they ask that you please fill out this short survey on how useful you find the printed guide. Could the same information be provided in other ways, such as through a PDF on the meetings website? Would that be preferable?

The survey contains seven questions, one broken into multiple parts so that we can evaluate your satisfaction with different components of the guide. ICANN thanks you for sharing your views with them.

View the ICANN 44 Meeting Guide [PDF, 4.32 MB]

Take the survey https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/S8RJN7Z

This ICANN announcement was sourced from:
www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-3-13jul12-en.htm

ICANN and Governance

ICANN: FY13 Operating Plan and Budget Adopted by Board in Prague

ICANN logoOn 23 June 2012 in Prague, the ICANN Board approved the FY13 Operating Plan and Budget [PDF, 5.11 MB] which was then posted to the ICANN Financials page on 26 June 2012. This document describes the planned core operations and project activities, aligned with the required funding, for the 2013 fiscal year. These funded project activities are based on ICANN‘s strategic priorities as documented in the adopted three year 2013-2015 Strategic Plan, and include input taken from comments and feedback received from the community on both the FY13 Budget Framework posted on 17 January 2012 and the draft Operating Plan and Budget posted on 1 May 2012.

Within the adopted Budget are the approved requests from the Supporting Organizations, Advisory Committees, and Stakeholder Groups. Those additional requests will be implemented in conjunction with the appropriate ICANN staff work and can be found on pages 68-69 in the adopted FY13 Operating Plan and Budget.

Throughout the year, up to date financial information, including the Board adopted FY13 Operating Plan and Budget, can be found on the ICANN Financial Information webpage.

This ICANN announcement was sourced from:
www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-13jul12-en.htm

ICANN and Governance

ICANN Prague Meeting Outcomes: .COM Contract, FY13 Operating Budget and Plan

ICANN logoAfter months of consultations, open public comment processes and discussion, the ICANN Board of Directors made several resolutions at its 23 June meeting. These included authorization of renewal of its agreement with Verisign for operation of .COM, adoption of ICANN‘s operating budget and plan for fiscal year 2013 and approval for delegation of a new internationalized country code top-level domain.

The proposed .COM renewal Registry Agreement significantly improves security and stability of the Internet by modernizing requirements in order to meet up-to-date stability and security standards such as support for Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) and Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC). DNSSEC is a security protocol developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force to protect Internet users by incorporating public key cryptography into the domain name system to digitally “sign” data.

The Board also approved the operating plan and budget for the fiscal year beginning 1 July 2012. The US$82 million budget reflects operational plans for implementation of strategies developed through ICANN‘s planning process. Key priorities include execution of the IANA functions contract, implementation of the New gTLD Program and the stability and security of the domain name system.

Other Board actions included the approval for delegation of a new IDN ccTLD for Oman to the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, and implementation of two Accountability and Transparency Review Team recommendations related to Ombudsman and Nominating Committee activities. The Board also approved Beijing, China, as the location for ICANN‘s April 2013 Asia Pacific Meeting.

This ICANN announcement was sourced from:
www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-28jun12-en.htm

ICANN and Governance, New gTLDs

ICANN: Universal Acceptance of All TLDs – Prague Meeting

ICANN logoUniversal acceptance of all top-level domains is an on-going initiative within ICANN. Our goal is to raise awareness among all Internet users about the diversity of domains on the Internet. In the 1980s and 1990s the number of TLDs was small and they all shared the same basic format – two-character ASCII ccTLDs or a handful of three-character ASCII gTLDs.

This standard format led software vendors and web site developers to build their programs making specific assumptions about what was considered a valid TLD. As long as the software recognized the TLDs, people were able to use them. In the past decade newer ASCII gTLDs longer than three characters were introduced, plus new domains written in various non-Latin scripts — known as Internationalized domain names (IDNs) – were added. In the not so distant future we will be seeing even more TLDs, including IDN TLDs, thanks to the new gTLD program and IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process. This is why ICANN is committed to raising awareness among Internet software developers so they can build their software to ensure compatibility with all domains, rather than relying on outdated assumptions.

During the ICANN meeting in Costa Rica we held a roundtable discussion on TLD Acceptance. A panel of experts shared their experiences with the issue. We heard many suggestions on how to better guide our efforts in raising awareness of this initiative from the experts as well as from the community.

At the upcoming ICANN meeting in Prague we will not have a session specific to this topic. Instead we are reaching out to groups such as The At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC), Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO) and others in order to schedule times to talk with them about the initiative and how they can help raise awareness.

If you have any questions about this effort or would like to schedule a time during the Prague meeting to learn more about the initiative and how you can help raise awareness, please contact ICANN staff at tld-acceptance@icann.org.

This ICANN announcement was sourced from:
www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-31may12-en.htm

ICANN and Governance

Pre-Prague ICANN Policy Update Webinar Invitation

ICANN Prague meeting logoIn order to participate, please RSVP via email to the GNSO Secretariat (gnso.secretariat@gnso.icann.org) to receive the call details.

Whether you plan to participate in the upcoming ICANN meeting in Prague remotely or in person, you’re invited to an update on the background and current status of each major policy issue currently under discussion in ICANN.

The ICANN Policy Staff will provide a briefing on Thursday 14 June at 12.00 UTC and Thursday 14 June at 19.00 UTC, summarizing policy issues across the different ICANN Supporting Organizations, namely the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO), Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO) and Address Supporting Organization (ASO). Amongst other topics, updates will be provided on:

  • Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy
  • WHOIS
  • RAA Improvements
  • Consumer Choice, Competition and Innovation
  • Study Group on Use of Names for Countries and Territories
  • Framework of Interpretation Working Group for the delegation and re-delegation of ccTLDs
  • Joint DNS Security and Stability Analysis Working Group
  • Participation and Engagement activities in Prague

In addition, staff will provide a briefing on the ALAC‘s activities related to current policy development issues of the Supporting Organizations.

The two sessions are duplicates, scheduled to accommodate different time zones. Each session, scheduled to run for 90 minutes, will be conducted in English only. The meeting will be run in Adobe Connect with a slide presentation along with a dial-in conference bridge for audio.

Participants will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of each session. During the course of the webinar, questions may be submitted using the chat function of Adobe Connect. If you are not able to participate in either of the live sessions, the recording of the session will be made available shortly after the meeting. The policy staff is always available to answer any questions that you email to policy-staff@icann.org.

In order to participate, please RSVP via email to the GNSO Secretariat (gnso.secretariat@gnso.icann.org) to receive the call details. Please indicate which call you would like to join, Thursday at 13.00 UTC or Thursday at 20.00 UTC (to convert those times into your local time, see: www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedform.html). We will send you an e-mail reminder before the event with log-in and dial-in details. Please DO NOT RSVP to any other ICANN staff members e-mail address.

This ICANN announcement was sourced from:
www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-2-16may12-en.htm

ICANN and Governance, New gTLDs

ICANN Targeting 22 May To Reopen TLD Application System

ICANN is targeting 22 May as the intended reopening date for the TLD Application System. ICANN anticipates the system remaining open for five business days and close on 30 May. This takes account of the 28 May Memorial Day holiday in the United States.ICANN took TAS offline on 12 April days before it was scheduled to close following a technical glitch that may have allowed some users to see some file names and user names of other users. To date ICANN has seen no evidence that any TAS user intentionally did anything wrong in order to be able to see other users’ information.In the latest announcement by Akram Atallah, ICANN’s COO, it is noted the large majority of users are unaffected by the glitch. But ICANN will continue to review the extensive database of system logs and system traffic, and any new and relevant information that emerges from this analysis will be shared with applicants in a timely way.Even as late as yesterday, 7 May 2012, ICANN’s packet-level research uncovered a new set of instances (in addition to those previously announced) where another applicant might have viewed a set of system-generated file names. It is possible that further analysis will also show that some of the parties that we have notified were not affected, but notice was provided out of an abundance of caution.It is expected there will be over 2300 applications for TLDs by the time applications close. While no date has been given for when applications will be revealed, given ICANN’s original timeframe of 18 days from applications close to the “big reveal”, it would be expected that the TLDs applied for will be revealed sometime around 18 June or shortly thereafter. And given the ICANN meeting in Prague commences on 24 June, it could even happen then.

ICANN and Governance

ICANN: Hotel Booking Links Now Open for 2012 Meetings in Prague and Toronto

ICANN Prague meeting logoICANN recently opened the hotel booking link and conference registration link for its upcoming 44th public meeting to be held 24-29 June 2012 in Prague, Czech Republic at the Hilton Prague Hotel. Additional information about the meeting, as well as ICANN group hotel rates is now available on the Prague Meeting Website.

ICANN‘s 45th public meeting will be held 14-19 October 2012 in Toronto, Canada at The Westin Harbour Castle Toronto Hotel. ICANN group hotel rates are available. Reservations can now be made through the ICANN Meetings Website.

More information about supporting hotels, transportation, and the meeting agenda for both Prague and Toronto will be posted as it becomes available.

ICANN meetings are held three times each year in different regions of the globe to enable attendees from around the world to participate in person. These meetings are free for anyone who wishes to attend, and offer a variety of sessions such as workshops, open forums, and working meetings on the development and implementation of Internet policies.

We also offer several tools for remote participation such as streaming live audio and video, chatrooms, and online question boxes.

This ICANN announcement was sourced from:
www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-2-03apr12-en.htm

ICANN and Governance

Fellowship Application Round Opens for ICANN International Public Meeting 44 in Prague, Czech Republic

ICANN logoICANN is now accepting online applications for the 16th round of the Fellowship program. Successful candidates will participate in the ICANN meeting to be held in Prague, Czech Republic from 24-29 June 2012.

The Fellowship program is open to applicants who are current residents of developing and least developed nations and interested in participating in ICANN and its supporting organizations, constituencies and stakeholder groups. Priority is given to individuals new to the ICANN environment from government and the ccTLD community, as well as those from academic, civil, business and non-profit entities, which are NOT involved in or associated with other ICANN supported travel programs. The program provides the support and opportunity for these participants to gain knowledge on how to have their voices heard in the Internet community and ICANN. More information regarding terms and conditions, as well as eligibility is available online at http://www.icann.org/en/fellowships/ or email at fellowships@icann.org regarding any questions about this process or program.

The Fellowship program arranges the airfare, hotel and a stipend for those individuals selected to participate in this ICANN meeting. Recipients are expected to actively participate in and contribute to ICANN processes, both at the meeting and in the future. As always, registration for ICANN’s meetings is free for anyone wanting to attend.

Applications for the meeting in Prague will be accepted from 00:00 UTC on 7 January 2012 until 00:00 UTC on 20 February 2012. Successful candidates will be posted on the ICANN Fellowship webpage by 6 April 2012.

What Is ICANN?

To reach another person on the Internet you have to type an address into your computer – a name or a number. That address has to be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN coordinates these unique identifiers across the world. Without that coordination we wouldn’t have one global Internet.

ICANN was formed in 1998. It is a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation with participants from all over the world dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. It promotes competition and develops policy on the Internet’s unique identifiers.

ICANN doesn’t control content on the Internet. It cannot stop spam and it doesn’t deal with access to the Internet. But through its coordination role of the Internet’s naming system, it does have an important impact on the expansion and evolution of the Internet.

This ICANN announcement was sourced from:
www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-2-06jan12-en.htm

Domain Name Aftermarket

DOMAINfest Europe Comes to a Close With DayTrading.com Selling for $200K

The business part of last week’s DOMAINfest Europe in Prague was finalised last week with more than 200 people in attendance. Both panels and networking sessions included very lively discussions on trends in European domain name and monetisation issues.

There was also a live auction that is now closed with several names approaching their reserves, including restaurant.com at $4.5 million.

There’s still strong interest in these premium domain assets and the auction is, as has been the developing trend, a buying opportunity but also a marketing platform for premium names — often sales close immediately after the auction as other parties learn of their availability.

The Moniker and SnapNames extended online auction will run for a full week, starting October 6 and ending October 13, 2010, at 15:15 US Eastern time.

Here are the auction results:

19 domains sold, totalling $458,500.00.

Lot Number    Domain Name    Sale Price
380    daytrading.com    $200,000.00
980    etfs.com    $90,000.00
230    officerentals.com    $35,000.00
550    emailservices.com    $35,000.00
540    pillowcases.com    $25,000.00
700    goodmorning.com    $25,000.00
290    pregnancies.com    $12,000.00
410    bali.org    $7,500.00
30    augsburg.com    $7,000.00
480    coatstands.com    $5,000.00
840    bravo.org    $4,500.00
60    makeupsets.com    $4,000.00
810    bedprices.com    $4,000.00
20    satinrobes.com    $2,750.00
470    woolsuits.co.uk    $500.00
150    oralsurgeons.co.uk    $400.00
400    dietcookbooks.net    $300.00
680    minibikes.co.uk    $300.00
270    discountstockbrokers.net    $250.00

Domain Name Aftermarket

DomainSponsor Announces Speakers for DOMAINfest Europe Conference in Prague

DOMAINfest Europe in Prague has announced its keynote, featured speaker and experts who will participate at the conference. The conference runs from 5 to 7 October, 2010, and will be held at the Hotel InterContinental in Prague, Czech Republic.

Information on speakers and the programme is available in the news release below.

DomainSponsor Announces Speakers for DOMAINfest Europe Conference in Prague [news release]

Bas van den Beld, Search and Social Expert to Keynote; Diverse Group of Experts Offer 1-on-1 Learning Opportunities
DomainSponsor®, the domain monetization business of Oversee.net® and organizer of the DOMAINfest® series of conferences, released today its list of speakers and experts for DOMAINfest Europe, scheduled for October 5-7, 2010 at the Hotel InterContinental in Prague, Czech Republic.

“The Prague agenda is designed to not only help attendees get important business questions answered, but to also help them build relationships that will pay dividends beyond our conference.” said Peter Celeste, Senior Vice President of Oversee.net and General Manager of DomainSponsor. “To fulfill our Prague theme of Building Bridges to Build Success, we have identified critical topics and invited leading speakers and experts to share insights and answer one-on-one questions.”

Attendees will be given more than the usual amount of time to network with these experts and with each other. And, for the first time ever, free on-site interpreters will be available to help non-English speaking guests from Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic get the most out of their DOMAINfest experience.

Conference Agenda
The conference begins Tuesday, October 5 in the late afternoon with welcome drinks in the Exhibit Hall where attendees will have a chance to meet with exhibitors. The Wednesday agenda includes informative presentations in the morning followed by a Power Networking session after lunch, and concludes with a Moniker® Domain Auction and a dinner networking party.

On Thursday, instead of more sessions, attendees will have their choice of morning and afternoon relationship-building excursions in and around Prague, followed by a farewell dinner party sponsored by DomainSponsor.

Wednesday Morning Agenda Highlights

Welcome Remarks

Peter Celeste, SVP and GM, DomainSponsor

Opening Presentation – Five Myths About the Domain Industry

Jeff Kupietzky, CEO & President, Oversee.net

Featured Presentation: European Internet Vital Signs – Paul Goode, Head of Industry Relations at comScore.com, will present the latest trends in European user and advertising trends. Paul’s current focus is the unified measurement of panel and census data for both online and mobile.

Keynote Presentation: The Future of Search — Bas van den Beld is a search and social expert, trainer, and well-respected blogger. Bas is the owner of StateOfSearch.com and NetTraject.nl, a Dutch company that advises on international search matters and provides training in search engine marketing and project management.

Wednesday Afternoon Agenda Highlights

Panel and Power Networking Sessions – Meet the Experts Brief panel discussions with the experts will set the groundwork for one-on-one power networking between attendees and panelists. Topics and experts include:

European ccTLD and IDN Opportunities

  • Attendees can refine their ccTLD and IDN plans by joining fellow attendees and respected experts in discussing these opportunities.
  • Hennie Lipman is a domain investor from the Netherlands. He is the world’s largest trader in .mobi domains and a major player with rollouts of numeric .nl domain and short .de domains. His company, Pidom BV, is a registrar for .nl domains and owner of NL.com.
  • Sergey Gorbunov is Senior PR Manager for RU-CENTER, the biggest registrar in Russia and CIS. Sergey has worked for RU-CENTER since 2007, promoting the company’s services abroad and coordinating PR activities with its foreign partners.
  • Daniel Dryzeck is Chief Executive Officer and Founder of ddfund.eu, a domain development fund. A ten-year domain industry veteran, Daniel’s plan is to build a multi-service ccTLD conglomerate in Europe to include a domain fund, auctions, brokerage, appraisals, domain marketplace and registrar.
  • Christoph Grueneberg is the Co-Founder of DomainvermarkterForum, Germany’s largest domain conference that began in 2006. Christoph is also the managing director of Domainvermarkter Ltd. & CO. Kg.

Alternative Ways to Monetize Domain Traffic

  • Attendees can listen and learn from each other and from invited experts about monetization alternatives such as CPA, affiliate networks, and lead generation.
  • Frederick Schiwek is Managing Director & Founder of DomainInvest (DI SA), which was started in 2007 and has become one of the leading European domain companies. He joined Netline S.A., a Luxembourg ISP in 2001, as International Business Development Manager. Frederick then worked with Xavier Buck and Marco Houwen to develop EuroDNS’ international business.
  • Gary Bicker is Publisher Services Director, Affilinet Ltd. Gary is responsible for the delivery of all publisher related activity including negotiating & securing the best possible commercial arrangements for publishers, ensuring that all client campaigns are given the best possible exposure across the publisher base and developing the service & technology offerings to be best of market.

Selecting Keywords That Produce Traffic

  • Experts will discuss European keyword tools and strategies that can help maximize the success of SEO, SEM, and domain name buying efforts.
  • Florian Stelzner is a SEO Consultant for The Reach Group (TRG), which specializes in search engine optimization (SEO). With over ten years in the online industry, Florian has worked with companies including Beate Uhse, Immonet and Europe’s leading social business network, XING, where he was personally responsible for the strategic planning of all SEO initiatives.
  • Thomas Bindl is Founder and CEO of Refined Labs (www.refinedlabs.com), as well as author of various publications and books. He is also an Advisory Board Member at Search Engine Strategies and speaker at industry-leading events worldwide. He has been active in the Search Industry for over a decade.
  • Matej Novak is an Account Director for Ogilvy Interactive in the Czech Republic. His past experience includes working as a Search Strategist and Senior SEO Consultant at Ataxo as well as a Web developer at Planstudio. His background includes strong strategic experience and he is highly respected as a PPC specialist, balancing business objectives with SEO solutions.

European Legal Issues Impacting Domain Investors
This is an opportunity to get free advice on the latest European legal and tax issues impacting domain investment decisions.

  • John Berryhill, Ph.D., Esq. has represented domain name registrants and trademark claimants in numerous UDRP proceedings and federal court proceedings. John has been a long-time advocate for the rights of domain registrants in ICANN working groups and task forces relating to intellectual property and other domain policy issues, and is a representative in the Registrar Constituency.
  • Paul Keating has been practicing law since 1983. He was an equity partner at Carroll, Burdick & McDonough where he was responsible for their business, taxation, and IP group. In 2004, he relocated to Barcelona, Spain and has since begun Renova Ltd., a new rapidly growing law firm that emphasizes intellectual property.
  • Christian Kerschbaum has a legal background that focuses on IT Law, domain law, and copyright law. He has extensive technical know-how in the fields of computer technology, domain names and Internet.

Moniker Premium Live Auction
Moniker® will host a live premium domain name auction on Wednesday, October 6 from 16:00 to 19:00 local Prague time, followed by an extended online-only auction from October 7 to October 14. The SnapNames Live® technology used to run this live auction offers real-time online viewing and bidding from anywhere in the world via a free software download. Auction details can be found at: www.domainfest.com/Prague2010/auction

Thursday Agenda Highlights

Relationship-Building Excursions
Attendees can select one of five different morning and afternoon excursions for Thursday, October 7. Since participants in each excursion share a common interest in that excursion, it acts as a natural icebreaker for building meaningful personal relationships. All attendees from all excursions reconvene as one large group over lunch and dinner to share stories. Details on the excursions are available online at www.domainfest.com/Prague2010/networking.

DOMAINfest Prague Registration and Sponsorship Opportunities Online registration is now open. Visit www.domainfest.com for event details and to register. The cost to attend is currently US$595. Companies interested in sponsorship opportunities can contact sales@domainfest.com.

Keep Up-To-Date On All DOMAINfest News
To keep up with news and updates on all DOMAINfest events, including Moniker and SnapNames Live? auctions, interested parties are encouraged to sign up for DOMAINfest email alerts at www.domainfest.com.

About DOMAINfest
Founded and hosted by DomainSponsor, the domain monetization division of Oversee.net, DOMAINfest® brings domain industry and Internet marketing professionals together to learn, network, and do business. Guests include online advertising experts, domain publishers, domain monetization experts, SEO/SEM specialists, website developers, online marketers, ad or affiliate network suppliers, search advertising providers, venture capitalists, bankers and trademark/legal advisors. Visit www.domainfest.com to review the calendar of upcoming DOMAINfest events.

About Oversee.net
Oversee.net® is the leader in Internet real estate, specializing in monetizing, registering, selling and developing domain names. The company provides an array of managed services to domain investors, corporations, and individuals across more than ten million web sites. Oversee owns one of the largest portfolios of domain names in the world. The company’s unique optimized technology connects consumers and advertisers with highly relevant advertisements. Headquartered in Los Angeles, the company’s core brands include DomainSponsor®, SnapNames®, Moniker® and LowFaresTM. To learn more, please visit www.oversee.net.