Key week for ICANN

Legalbrief reports that this week's Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) meeting comes at a turbulent time for the global body with growing concerns over its process for creating new domain name extensions that could reshape the Internet. The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (Cira) is hosting the event, the latest of three annual meetings held each year by ICANN as part of its multi-stakeholder approach to coordinating the Internet's addressing system. A report on the mediacastermagazine.com site notes that there are a number of competing visions for who should govern the Internet and the manner of such governance. Cira continues to be a strong supporter of ICANN's multi-stakeholder approach, and is calling on ICANN attendees to continue to work together to foster a collaborative environment that will create a stable foundation upon which ICANN's new leadership can succeed. Full report on the mediacastermagazine.com site

Cira CEO Byron Holland introduced new ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade, saying: 'the discussions held in this building over the course of the next week will literally be felt around the world'. A report on the thewhir.com site says Chehede described this week's session as a new season at ICANN 'that continues this great work and builds on it'. He said the four main objectives of ICANN are affirmation of purpose, operations excellence, internationalisation, and finally, evolution of the multi-stakeholder model. He said the organisation needs to put in place standard operations mechanisms, and institutionalise management disciplines. 'We cannot continue operating like a startup,' Chehade is quoted in the report as saying. Full report on thewhir.com site

After years of debate and discussion, ICANN last year unveiled a policy that opened the door to hundreds of new domain name extensions. While most Internet users are accustomed to the current generic (dot-com, dot-net, and dot-org) and country-code (dot-za in South Africa) extensions, ICANN's plans will radically change the domain name landscape by creating hundreds of new extensions linked to brand names, geographic regions, and even generic words. The Star reports that the domain name extension allocation process began with an open process that attracted nearly 2 000 applications for new domain name extensions. Once the applications were published, notes the report, the next stage of the process invited comments on the proposals. The 105-day comment period generated more than 10 000 responses, with many applications facing considerable criticism, according to the report. Full report in The Star

In other developments, ICANN has rolled out a new service designed to help users find the information they're looking for on its sprawling website. A PCWorld report notes that the corporation has announced a beta version of myICANN which allows users to sign up for email alerts related to 18 topics, including security, top-level domains and the organisation's WHOIS service. Users of myICANN can also see a stream of their selected topics at myICANN.org, according to the report. It says critics of ICANN have long questioned the organisation's transparency. ICANN officials have defended the group's transparency, but acknowledged that all the information they release can be scattered across the website, according to the report. Officials hope myICANN will increase participation in the organisation, they said. Full PCWorld report