News

Nominet has been selected by ICANN as one of three Emergency Back-End Registry Operators (EBERO) for new generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) set to launch over the next 12 months.

As an EBERO, Nominet will provide emergency support for any newly launched gTLD registry which encounters technical difficulties. This would involve transferring and maintaining the core operations of the gTLD whilst a longer term resolution is established.

Nominet was chosen as an EBERO for its service excellence, transition team expertise, strong customer support and financial stability. It will now work closely with ICANN to shape and define the service offering to ensure a successful, seamless outcome for all organisations involved.

“The impending new gTLDs represent a new phase in the history of the internet, and we’re delighted to play a key role supporting them as an EBERO, sitting at the heart of the expanding global domain name space,” said Lesley Cowley, CEO, Nominet.

The .ME Registry, operator of the .ME domain name extension, has been spreading Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) awareness, advocating for increased online safety, since it became DNSSEC enabled in late 2010.

The .ME Registry has long been a proponent of DNSSEC, a set of Internet standards that essentially add authentication to DNS to make a system more secure. As most .ME users utilize the domain name extension as a personal identifier and don’t have access to an IT team in the event of a malicious attack, implementation of DNSSEC assures .ME registrants a much safer online experience.

CENTR have released their 'Guide to ICANN46" covering key issues being discussed within the ccNSO, gNSO and GAC along with suggested sessions to attend at the upcoming meeting in Beijing. 

Download the report here

The latest edition of the CENTR Monthly Roundup is available and covers the following

• Overview of ccTLD news from CENTR Members 
• Selected findings from a recent CENTR survey entitled "Launch and Use of IDNs"
• Statistics on CENTR Growth
• CENTR Blog details - "Reputational Studies"

Click to open PDF in browser



For all previous editions, go to the CENTR Document Library

he IE Domain Registry (IEDR), the managed registry for Ireland’s official Internet address .ie, today announced that its 2013 OPTIMISE e-Commerce Website Development Fund is open for entries.

IEDR is calling on SME and micro-business owners nationwide to apply for one of 20 places on this year’s OPTIMISE Fund. The OPTIMISE Fund provides €150,000 worth of professional consultation, training and development support services to small business owners looking to improve and develop their existing online presence in terms of e-commerce capability and functionality. IEDR has doubled the number of winners of the Fund to 20 since it was first established in 2011.

Applications are open to all Irish organisations classified as an SME or micro-enterprise with a .ie website that is hosted online and currently accessible to the public. Further details about the Fund and the online application form are available atwww.why.ie/optimise. The closing date for receipt of entries is 25 April 2013.

Go to Source Article for further details

Afnic is launching a public consultation on setting up a procedure for registering domain names with one or two characters. 

In accordance with the State / Afnic agreement of July 2012, Afnic wishes to set up a procedure for registering domain names in one or two alphanumeric and/or alphabetic characters.

In order to present the work already done and to collect the public’s opinions and suggestions on the future process, Afnic is opening the project to public consultation from March 25 to April 16 2013 at midnight. Through these exchanges, you are invited, among others, to express your opinion on:
 

• Whether or not to use an auction system for the registration of domain names with one or two characters;
• Whether the registration process should be in two phases, beginning with a "sunrise period";
•  whether the "first come, first served" rule should be applied

InternetNZ welcomes a recommendation from the Law Commission that an independent 185 Media Standards Authority be established encompassing both traditional and ‘new’ media.

The new body would define news media standards to be applied to all types of publishers seeking to access the traditional privileges of being part of the news media. These standards would apply regardless of how they publish, whether online or off. This would include broadcast media such as print, radio and television, and web-based media such as Bloggers. Read further...

DENIC, the registry for .de domains, presents the results of the regional domain statistics 2012. It includes 14.3 million domains in 402 German towns and districts. Adding to these numbers are more than 860,000 domains of holders whose place of residence is abroad. In total, about 15.3 million .de domains were registered at the end of 2012. Even though growth has slowed down a little, the general trend of domain development of the preceding years continued in 2012. Read further.. 
 

CENTR has released the report of the IETF86 meeting held in Orlando, Florida

The 86th meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force in Orlando, Florida, saw a leadership change in the top IP-protocol standards body. For the first time in IETF history, an engineer from the mobile sector took the helm - Jari Arkko (Ericsson engineer and long-time IETF contributor) has taken over from US security expert Russ Housley. While Arkko promised to address the hotly discussed diversity issue – and also further internationalization of the IETF, Housley's farwell speech addressed Governments asking them to embrace and officially recognize IETF standards – in reaction to last years controversies over the role of standards of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

The meeting in Orlando saw discussions about the potential new restful Whois protocol and additional add-ons to the DNS including a DNS API and a new DNS Resource Record Type.
The SOPA (Start Of Policy Authority) Ressource Record Type would allow (according to its author Andrew Sullivan, Dyn) to "assert a common assert a common administrative realm by placing a resource record (RR) at DNS names within the policy realm“.

Click to access the full report