News

The CENTR full report from ICANN50 is now published.  The report covers in detail the sessions from ccNSO, GAC and GNSO along with updates relating to the IANA transition and ICANN accountability - two of the meta themes at this recent meeting.  
Click to access the report
 

The latest of CENTRs 'DomainWire Stat Report' is available (Edition 8 - June 2014).  The report provides a global status update on top level domains (legacy gTLDs, new gTLDs and ccTLDs) with a focus on European ccTLDs.  

Included in the report:;

• Global Status of Domain Names
• Top 20 ccTLDs list
• European ccTLD overview 
• High growth ccTLDs for the quarter 
• Article: "New Approaches in Visualising TLD positions"

The CENTR Guide to ICANN50 to be held next week in London has been published.  The report provides an overview of what to expect with some background details on the sessions in the ccNSO, GAC and GNSO.  

Access the report here 

CENTR has published a paper on the ITU’s role and ambitions in the Internet Governance space.

If you ever wondered what the ITU does, why this could be relevant (for ccTLDs) and what you could do to contribute, than this paper is for you. 
 

Article Extract: DNS Belgium
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We have hired 4 new people in the past six months. We are delighted with this boost to the DNS Belgium team and would like to briefly introduce the new faces to you.

Nico Point joined the Operations department at the beginning of this year as network and system engineer. He was previously in a similar position at Option. Nico is passionate about Linux, open source and networks and will certainly make a valuable contribution towards the operational management of our future projects, such as the launch of .vlaanderen and .brussels. 

Kurt Gielen became the 9th member of the Operations department, where he runs a team of 4 system engineers. Together with his team, Kurt will be shaping and rolling out DNS Belgium’s future IT infrastructure and architecture. Before joining us, he worked at Jessa Hospital in Hasselt. With these new appointments, DNS Belgium develops a strong, professional Operations arm. 

The ladies in the customer support department also have a new colleague. Jasper Kesteloot works with us full-time and maintains a general overview of all incoming enquiries and issues raised by our registrars or registrants. Jasper is also, in conjunction with other support staff, responsible for following up on various administrative matters. In the past, Jasper worked in the medical sector in a customer & sales support role for Abbott Vascular.

A brand-new position was created when Ronald Geens began working with us in June. As Product Manager, Ronald is responsible for DNS Belgium’s 3 products. In addition to the long-established .be extension, he will now be helping shape two new products, .vlaanderen and .brussels. Ronald will be mapping out how the 3 product lines evolve in the future and what features or services DNS Belgium will be offering with them. He will also be closely involved in the development of a new registration platform for .vlaanderen and .brussels. Ronald was previously product manager at Newtec.

These new members of the team will help set us firmly on the path to dealing with the challenges that lie ahead.

The CENTR Workshop Jamboree has concluded in Paris last week.  The series of 6 themed workshops spanning 3 days was a chance for staff from the CENTR membership to come together and discussed in detail with their colleagues from around Europe.  

From today, new, short .uk web domains are available alongside .co.uk for the first time ever, with British icon and tech enthusiast Stephen Fry the first person to make the switch.
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CENTR has published it's report on the RIPE68 meeting recently held in Warsaw 

The Report can be found here
 

CENTR has published its latest ccTLD newsletter for May 2014 - :

CENTRnews - May 2014

See all previous editions of the CENTRnews