DCA’s Bekele Expert Witness Testimony to IRP Panel reveals ZACR lacked Valid Endorsements for its .Africa Application

The DCA Vs ICANN IRP has taken a new turn.  According to the newly published documents that include Ms. Sophia Bekele’s expert testimony and the Second Memorial on the Merits by DCA’s legal representatives, new explosive details have been brought to the fore on how the .Africa new gTLD application was processed. Bekele has detailed …

Fin24tech journalist obfuscates .Africa details in Q&A creating undue confusion on status

The .Africa story is still generating lots of reactions even when it is undergoing an Independent Review Process pitting DCA Vs. ICANN.  As a follow up to a recent report on an interview by Gareth van Zyl with Sophia Bekele at Fin24Tech, we found out that the article “Internet domain name ‘dotAfrica’ faces hurdles” was not …

Ip-Watch: ITU Plenipot 14 Outcome Limiting UN Agency Role In Internet Governance Deemed “Success”

  By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch US Ambassador Daniel Sepulveda on the eve of the final celebration of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Plenipotentiary Conference last week said he was “happy” about the results. Asked what he thought was the most important resolution of the three week conference, he told Intellectual Property Watch …

ICANN is not the Internet, U.S. Ambassador Daniel Sepulveda

Multistakeholder Governance at Stake The official U.S. Internet policy calls for preserving a free and open Internet under a global multistakeholder community encompassing Web registries, website owners, and nonprofit organizations. To that end, the U.S. Department of Commerce is working on an overhaul of the current system of allocating domain names through an advisory group …

GNSO Chair Jonathan Robinson awarded the 2014 ICANN Leadership Award at ICANN 51

Jonathan Robinson has been awarded the 2014 ICANN Leadership Award for his contributions to the effectiveness of ICANN’s multistakeholder model. Robinson received the award in recognition of his devotion to the multistakeholder model, his extraordinary generosity of time, energy, knowledge and expertise, friendship and leadership, and his collegial leadership style that has increased civility and …

Oooops no ICANN 51 Gala

ICANN meetings happen three times a year in different locations in the globe, the international meeting normaly organizes an evening Gala where all delegates get to enjoy an easy time. Well according to yesterday’s blog by the Vice President, Stakeholder Engagement – North America Christopher Mondini, there will be no ICANN 51 Gala because they …

Staff vs Stakeholders as ICANN’s accountability comes under the radar

This weekend ICANN launched a new public comment period on enhancing its accountability and governance. However, its approach to the issue has come under fire, with questions raised over the lack of community input into the current process. In June, World Trademark Review reported on a call from the Generic Names Supporting Organisation’s (GNSO) various …

Why we’re boycotting the 2014 Internet Governance Forum hosted by Turkey

Written for indexoncensorship.org By Yaman Akdeniz and Kerem Altiparmak / 20 August, 2014 Renowned Turkish internet rights advocates are boycotting the internet governance conference which this year takes place in Istanbul This year’s Internet Governance Forum (IGF) — a high-profile, United Nations-mandated annual conference on issues surrounding governance of the internet — is taking place …

ICANN announces Accountability & Governance Public Experts Group Members

ICANN’s accountability has been a question of many discussions, and forums especially pending the oversight transition, below is a press release on the latest moves to leverage efforts to fight its accoutability deficiency claims. As described in the 14 August 2014 posting of the Enhancing ICANN Accountability: Process and Next Steps, four respected individuals with …