We have a Swedish saying for when someone you love passes away: He is missed in me. As you now know, our dear friend Tarek has passed away and he is missed in me. There will be many eulogies written about this remarkable man who touched so many. I think many of us have […]

Zoom recently added new settings to increase security and ensure meeting privacy. These new settings will enforce a password on all new meetings scheduled, but will not affect meetings that have been scheduled prior to 29 September 2019. The only participants who will be required to enter a password are those who join a meeting […]

Public Comment is a mechanism that gives the ICANN community and other stakeholders an opportunity to provide input and feedback on ICANN's work. It ensures ICANN and its community "operate to the maximum extent feasible in an open and transparent manner and consistent with procedures designed to ensure fairness" per the ICANN Bylaws. The ICANN […]

Each year, I seek to focus the ICANN organization on strategic opportunities for improvement. A key element of this process is working with the ICANN Board to set my goals for the next fiscal year. As part of our commitment to accountability and transparency, I am sharing my CEO goals for the 2020 fiscal year […]

As you may have seen in the Operating Initiatives document put out for Public Comment earlier this year, one of the initiatives ICANN org will undertake in support of the ICANN Strategic Plan for FY 2021-2025 includes an evaluation of the long-term effectiveness, desirability, sustainability, and financial feasibility, as well as the carbon footprint of […]

In this blog, I share some of the more significant discussions from the ICANN Board workshop that was held earlier this month on 6-8 September in Los Angeles, California, as well as a summary of the key resolutions passed during the public Board meeting. We followed the agenda as detailed in my preview blog. On […]

As the Chair of the Expedited Policy Development Process on the Temporary Specification for gTLD Registration Data Team (EPDP Team), I am pleased to report that the EPDP Team has made crucial progress towards our development of a System for Standardized Access/Disclosure (SSAD) to non-public gTLD registration data, the centerpiece of our Phase 2 work. […]

As we approach the end of the current term of ICANN's regional engagement strategy, we invite members of the ICANN community to become part of the new Middle East Strategy working group. This is part of an effort to continuously provide inclusive and equal opportunities for others to take part in shaping ICANN's regional engagement […]

I have an important message to share with you. The Board has selected Maarten Botterman as the next Chair of the ICANN Board following the process outlined in the Board Governance Committee Practice for Board Engagement in Developing Slate for Board Leadership. I am proud to welcome Maarten as my successor, and look forward to […]

It's been a few months since we last updated you about the Information Transparency Initiative (ITI). Behind the scenes, the team has been hard at work delivering on the project's primary goal of improving the findability of our content. Registry Agreement Search Improvements Today, we're releasing the proposed new search experience for Registry Agreement content […]

Content crackdown: China and Russia plan to sign an agreement to crack down on what they consider “illegal” Internet content, The Register reports. It’s unclear what the agreement will cover but critics already fear the deal will enable the two countries to further crack down on free speech. China has even effectively banned cartoon character […]

It was indeed very sad news yesterday that Tarek Kamel passed away. Despite his suffering and illness, no one expected death could be that close. Just last week I was chatting with friends in common about his persistence in planning to attend the upcoming ICANN meeting in Montreal, with permission from his doctors. That was […]

The recent meeting of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) was notable because of the attention it paid to the climate of the planet Earth. A different set of meetings around the UNGA was about another climate: the one of fear, anger, and violence swirling about the Internet. It was only last March that a […]

We learned the sad news today that Tarek Kamel, one of the global Internet community’s best-known figures, has passed away. An accomplished engineer and statesman, Tarek was highly respected and beloved by all who knew and worked with him. He was a firm believer in our mission and we have benefited greatly from his support […]

News from Internet Society Chapters and Special Interest Groups across the world: Library in a box: This month, the Kyrgyzstan Chapter installed an electronic library called the Ilim Box in secondary schools in the southern part of Issyk-Kul region. The device allows the schools to access educational resources when they don’t have an Internet connection. […]

The 5th Pakistan School on Internet Governance (pkSIG 2019) was successfully held last month in Quetta, Pakistan. This represents a significant achievement for the Internet Society Pakistan Islamabad Chapter as it played an instrumental role in bringing the first-ever Internet Governance event to the provincial capital of Balochistan. For those who may not know, Balochistan has the […]

Today, the Internet Society’s Online Trust Alliance released a new report, the “2020 U.S. Presidential Campaign Audit,” analyzing the 23 top current presidential campaigns and their commitment to email/domain protection, website security, and responsible privacy practices. OTA evaluated the campaigns using the same methodology we used to assess nearly 1,200 organizations in the main Online […]

Anti-encryption demands: Government officials from the U.S., U.K., and Australia have asked Facebook to put a hold on its plans to expand encryption on services like Messenger, CNet reports. “We are writing to request that Facebook does not proceed with its plan to implement end-to-end encryption across its messaging services without ensuring that there is […]

2019 has been a very good year for the Internet in Latin America and the Caribbean. In May, during the 31st meeting of LACNIC, several operators pledged to take steps to make routing security, and the Internet itself, stronger. They joined the MANRS initiative, which includes four simple and concrete steps to improve the Internet’s […]

Every October, we mark National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. From the U.S. Department of Homeland Security website, “Held every October, National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM) is a collaborative effort between government and industry to raise awareness about the importance of cybersecurity and to ensure that all Americans have the resources they need to be safer and […]