<pre>1. The Impending Internet Address Shortage<br>Sometime in the next 6 years, the Internet will run out of space says<br>Information Week. The impending crisis that many discuss can be easily<br>averted through the migration to IPv6, and sooner rather than later.
<br>"We must prepare for IPv4's depletion, and ARIN's resolution to encourage<br>that migration to IPv6 may be the impetus for more organizations to start<br>the planning process," said John Curran, chairman of ARIN's Board of
<br>Trustees, in a statement.<br>The Information Week article covers a number of issues. One is that holders<br>of IP address blocs awarded during the Internet's early days may be sitting<br>on a gold mine because they're not bound by an ARIN contract, they're
<br>theoretically free to sell their IP numbers. They haven't done so because,<br>among other things, there's no money in it at the moment. But if the IPv6<br>migration continues to lag and IP addresses become scarce, holders of legacy
<br>IP address blocs could find it profitable to sell their numbers.<br>One of those who has attained an IP address block and not bound by an ARIN<br>contract is Karl Auerbach who notes the legal status of IP numbers remains
<br>muddy. Auerbach supports making a legitimate market for IP address space,<br>and that IPv6 transition won't be easy.<br>The article concludes noting "One controversial method for dealing with the<br>IP address shortage has been the increasing use of Network Address
<br>Translation (NAT), which effectively creates a private network within a<br>given IP address. ... So perhaps the Net of the future might evolve as an<br>IPv4 public mesh connecting private spaces behind NATs. For that we have
<br>enough IPv4 space for decades." The article notes this scenario runs into<br>trouble when those private spaces try to directly interconnect.<br><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://informationweek.com/research/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199700668">
http://informationweek.com/research/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199700668</a><br><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://crn.com.au/story.aspx?CIID=81716">http://crn.com.au/story.aspx?CIID=81716</a><br><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.circleid.com/posts/arin_faster_migration_ipv6/">
http://www.circleid.com/posts/arin_faster_migration_ipv6/</a><br><br>2. ASIAN POP: Dot Community<br>The impending launch of .asia is covered by the San Francisco Chronicle. The<br>article begins by asking "Is .asia the harbinger of -- or a bridge to -- a
<br>new era of social, cultural and commercial cross-pollination on the world's<br>fastest-growing and most populous continent?" The article notes .asia is the<br>first TLD "to be awarded to a transnational entity without some kind of a
<br>formal government structure."<br>While a large part of Europe, which uses .eu, has a common currency and<br>government, none of this applies to Asia. The article notes Asia's "current<br>status is probably best understood as a hybrid between concept and
<br>convenience. It's an oft-repeated cliche that there are 'no Asians in Asia,'<br>because the continent's inhabitants represent such a wild cultural diversity<br>and deeply competitive history that they have little incentive to embrace
<br>that kind of a pan-regional identity."<br>However the backers of .asia say the Internet itself is dramatic evidence of<br>the overwhelming power of imagined concepts, once they've achieved<br>sufficient grassroots support. Or "put it another way: The entire Internet
<br>is dependent on the idea that if you believe something exists, it exists --<br>even if you can't touch it, hold it or visit it in person. ... And that's<br>why the symbolic importance of giving the continent of Asia its own
<br>designated neck of the 'netwoods can't be denied."<br>As the article notes "over 60% of the world's population and 90 languages<br>reside in Asia ... NOW is the time for the Asian community to establish its
<br>own identity on the Internet."<br><br><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2007/05/22/apop.DTL">http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2007/05/22/apop.DTL</a><br><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.circleid.com/posts/dot_asia_first_tld_transnational/">
http://www.circleid.com/posts/dot_asia_first_tld_transnational/</a><br><br>3. DHS publishes sector-specific protection plan for IT infrastructure<br>Computer World reports "The U.S. Department of Homeland Security released a
<br>broad blueprint of actions that technology companies and government entities<br>can take to mitigate terrorist and other threats against the nation's IT<br>infrastructure. ... The plans are designed to help infrastructure
<br>stakeholders in each area to identify and prioritize key assets that need to<br>be protected and to provide recommendations on how to go about doing that."<br>The article notes "stakeholders in the IT sector include hardware and
<br>software companies, network and security vendors, Domain Name System and TLD<br>operators and ISPs."<br><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomy">
http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomy</a><br>Name=disaster_recovery&articleId=9020680<br><br>4. Academic Group Releases Plan to Share Power Over Internet Root Zone Keys<br>(news release)
<br>The Internet Governance Project unveiled a plan to decentralise control over<br>the process of digitally signing the root zone file using public key<br>encryption as it transitions to a new, more secure technology known as
<br>DNSSEC. This news release says "The need for the plan was made clear<br>recently when news of a U.S. Department of Homeland Security report on<br>DNSSEC implementation triggered international controversy by raising fears
<br>that the U.S. government planned to control the "master keys" to the<br>Internet. The IGP proposal would distribute control over the process of<br>signing the root zone file to multiple organizations, all of them<br>nongovernmental in nature, defusing fears that
U.S. national security<br>agencies will control the Internet's DNS root zone keys."<br><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/530190/">http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/530190/</a>
<br><br>5. PPC Fraud: Every Click Counts...Or Does It?<br>This article on PPC fraud notes research by J.P. Morgan that says "spending<br>on all forms of online advertising will reach $19.2 billion in 2007, with<br>pay-per-click (PPC) advertising at Google, Yahoo and the other major search
<br>engines accounting for half, or $9.6 billion." And as PPC grows, more<br>scammers get interested. Varying studies indicate that PPC fraud accounts<br>for between 10 and 15% of total billing. The article also notes domain
<br>kiting/tasting and uses ICANN figures that purportedly show of the 5 million<br>domains registered each year, only 1 percent are registered with the intent<br>of actually building a functioning Web site, with the rest being "tasters"
<br>or brokers involved in the billion dollar domain selling business.<br><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/news/article.php/3679166">http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/news/article.php/3679166
</a><br><br>6. Debate over Confidentiality of Web Site Registration Information<br>Continues<br>Privacy advocates will have to wait a little longer before they can rest<br>assured that most Web site registration information will be kept
<br>confidential according to this article in <a href="http://Law.com">Law.com</a>. Milton Mueller says "We<br>have the votes to basically just push this thing through, but people are<br>being very delicate about not wanting it to look like we're saying, 'Ha ha,
<br>we outvoted you.' They want to build consensus." The article notes "For<br>privacy advocates the proposed operational point of contact system was a<br>compromise, because they would prefer even more privacy. They argue that
<br>keeping registrant information confidential is no different than an<br>individual exercising the option to get an unlisted phone number."<br><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1179751698776">
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1179751698776</a><br><br>7. ICANN's At-Large Process: Exit, Without Voice by Wendy Seltzer<br>Thomas Roessler and Patrick Vande Walle are supposedly frustrated "at<br>interference and infighting in the formation of the European Regional
<br>At-Large Organization". Roessler "suggests it's 'Time to Reconsider' the<br>structure of ICANN's At-Large, as he feels compelled to promise himself not<br>to get involved with ICANN again." While Vande Walle is "concerned that a
<br>push for 'diversity' became a stereotyped exclusion of experienced<br>participants." Seltzer claims ICANN needs people such as Roessler and Vande<br>Walle as they've "good ideas about how to respond to the public interest in
<br>domain name management. But, controlled by commercial interests who'd rather<br>raise prices on their domain-name monopolies or shield trademarks against<br>potential dilution, ICANN doesn't have the inclination to listen to the
<br>individuals who make up the public."<br><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.circleid.com/posts/icanns_at_large_exit_without_voice/">http://www.circleid.com/posts/icanns_at_large_exit_without_voice/</a><br>
<br>8. Satisfaction with ICANN Wanes<br>ICANN is losing popularity claims Domain Name Wire as a result of their<br>latest survey. Approval declined to 24% of survey respondents who approve of<br>ICANN, down from 33% last year. However "50% of respondents say ICANN's
<br>performance is acceptable, while 26% say it is poor." What the survey<br>doesn't say is that 74% of respondents say ICANN is doing an acceptable or<br>good job. In explaining the survey results, Domain Name Wire says unpopular
<br>new contracts with registries and "ICANN's inaction during the RegisterFly<br>domain registrar implosion" contribute to the decline in ICANN's approval.<br><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://domainnamewire.com/2007/05/21/satisfaction-with-icann-wanes/">
http://domainnamewire.com/2007/05/21/satisfaction-with-icann-wanes/</a></pre>