Information Policy

European Internet Governance meeting calls for oversight role for IGF

by Brenden Kuerbis

Reports are emerging from European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG), one of the regional Internet Governance Forum events, of calls for a greater role for the IGF in monitoring Internet governance institutions. During a plenary session held today, "The post-JPA phase: towards a future Internet governance model," there was discussion amongst the European governments and other participants about the role of the IGF in contributing to ICANN's accountability.

http://blog.internetgovernance.org/blog/_archives/2009/9/15/4322423.html

China Mobile passes 500m subs mark

China Mobile has become the world’s first mobile operator to pass the half-billion subscriber mark.

http://www.telecomasia.net/content/china-mobile-passes-500m-subs-mark

Domain Name Growth Slows, But 184 Million Domain Names Registered: VeriSign

While total domain name registrations have continued to grow to a new record total of 184 million, the growth has slowed reports the latest VeriSign Domain Name Industry Brief. Undoubtedly the slow in growth is a result of the global financial crisis. However country code (ccTLD) registrations have continued to grow faster than those for generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs).

http://goldsteinreport.com/article.php?article=9197

Web of the Future: Building a Faster, More Secure and Egalitarian Internet

by Vint Cerf

The origins of the Internet reach back to the 1960s, when exploration of a technology called "packet switching" was pursued by several innovative thinkers. This area of research got a major boost when the US Defense Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA) invested in the development of the ARPANET. This successful experiment in computer resource sharing led directly to the development of radio- and satellite-based systems and to their integration with the ARPANET into what we now call the Internet. Skipping over 40 years of development and inventions (including Tim Berners-Lee's World Wide Web), the Internet has become a global infrastructure for the support of commerce, social interaction, research and governmental services. An estimated 1.6 billion people use the Internet and probably twice that many may be advantaged indirectly by its services. In addition, there are over 4 billion mobiles in use today, of which an estimated 15 to 20 percent have access to Internet-based services. This trend appears to be continuing and highlights the increasing importance of improving the reliability and security of the Internet's infrastructure.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vinton-g-cerf/building-a-faster-more-se_b_293191.html

Twitter Appears Set to Raise $100 Million, Valuing It at $1 Billion

Twitter has trained people to compress their thoughts into 140 characters and given a public stage to both dissidents in Iran and voluble stars like Shaquille O’Neal.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/25/technology/internet/25twitter.html