United Nations continues to undermine Internet Governance Forum
The first preparatory meeting for the 2011 Internet Governance Forum has ended with a significant degree of uncertainty thanks to ongoing bureaucratic delays. Over two days, representatives from...
View ArticleI wish [bang!] ICANN would [bang!] read its own [bang!] papers
Sorry to always be harping on about ICANN; it’s the not exactly the most important organisation in the world. But it is the one bureaucracy I have come to know really well and so just can’t help but...
View ArticleThreatening faxes, dot-xxx and an angry Vint Cerf
One of the more bizarre situations I have found myself in while covering domain name system overseer ICANN, both outside and inside the organization, was at the Vancouver meeting in December 2005. It...
View ArticleICANN public comments: a glacier moving in the wrong direction
I am both happy and depressed to see a public comment period open at ICANN talking about making changes to ICANN’s public comment period process. With appalling inevitability, everything about the...
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Why won’t my van start?
I need your help. And I am counting on you and the power of the Internet to fix an issue dear to my heart. I have a gorgeous 1966 split-screen VW camper van. And rather cruelly I have left it on its...
View ArticleXmas vid about my little girl
We’re heading to the UK for Christmas. I’ve been meaning to try out this online video/picture tool at Animoto for work reasons. The two combined…
View ArticleMy analysis of the broken ICANN culture
I wrote an extensive review of the dot-jobs saga earlier this week on .Nxt called: The case study that could kill ICANN. This afternoon, I saw the Stephane van Gelder had referenced it in a blog post:...
View ArticleWho should control the Internet?
It is going to be a particularly crazy year in terms of Internet policy and governance, maybe even more than so than 2005, when the World Summit on the Information Society happened. NPR used the launch...
View ArticleIs the dark side of new gTLDs starting to emerge?
Last week, I received a highly unusual email claiming that an article on my personal website was libellous and insisting I take it down within a week. Even more unusually, the article was from 2002 –...
View ArticleWhistleblowing and ICANN
A curious email appeared in my inbox this morning. It was titled ‘Concerns at ICANN’, was addressed to the Board, signed ‘A Concerned Employee’, and came through an anonymous Hushmail email account....
View ArticleUncle John
John McLaren was a truly remarkable man: a visionary and a diplomat but most importantly a gardener. Through his skill, knowledge and hard work he turned a 1,000 acre sand dune into one of the most...
View ArticleWhen apps attack
Recently I used a parking app on my phone to pay for street parking. I misjudged it slightly and came back to find out I had a ticket. A quick check of the time and I realized that I’d been given a...
View ArticleDigital phones with style
I was at a warehouse sale in Oakland recently and among the items was a really old wooden telephone. It was a big thing – the sort of phone that you use in very old movies. It was very cool though and...
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Flower fan
The California Poppy is a beautiful thing and once of its remarkable features is that it closes up tightly when it is cold or overcast only to spread out delightfully when the sun beats down. This...
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It should have been 2 out of 3. It ended up 1 out of 5
Looking back at my time in ICANN. While updating my personal website I came across some old articles. One sparked a memory of a document I wrote a few months after starting my job at ICANN way back in...
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ISOC CEO to be decided later this week
A crucial appointment for the future of Internet governance The new CEO of the Internet Society will be decided at the end of the week at a meeting of the ISOC Board. Although the Internet community is...
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ISOC hires Washington insider as new CEO
Kathy Brown pulls key Internet organization closer to US government The Internet Society has hired Washington insider Kathryn Brown as its new CEO. Brown is Verizon’s public policy expert and has...
View ArticleWhat the US government said about IANA in Singapore
Two weeks ago, the US government announced it would transition its role in the IANA functions to the global Internet community. It tasked ICANN with the job of arriving at a transition plan and noted...
View ArticleFCC Commissioner O’Rielly speech on Internet governance
Remarks of FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly Before the Federal Communications Bar Association April 1, 2014 Internet Governance and Freedom Let me begin by thanking the Federal Communications Bar...
View ArticleFor Jo, my dear friend
Joanna Witt was my first love. She spotted me talking to someone her friend knew on the other side of the quad of Rutland Hall and pushed for an introduction. We were in our first year at Nottingham...
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