ISOC-NY is hosting a forum, "Civic Representation in ICANN: What Now?," tonight at NYU's Warren Weaver Hall from 18:45-20:45 (EDT). IGP's Milton Mueller, consumer advocate Beau Brendler, and longtime ICANN participant Danny Younger will debate the ongoing GNSO reforms occurring at ICANN, and the possible structures for civil society participation in its policy making activities. You can watch the debate live here and join the discussion.   more »

Affirming the results of a 2007 survey and consistent with numerous comments submitted in a 2009 NTIA proceeding on DNSSEC, ccTLD operators have again indicated in a new survey they want ICANN to sign the root. Their request stands in stark contrast to the June announcement made by the DoC which maintained the current root zone management arrangements and recommended Verisign sign the root zone.

The report states:

"Just like in the 2007 survey, an overwhelming majority of the respondents represents the opinion that ICANN/IANA should be the signer of the root zone. The support for ICANN/IANA has even clearly increased compared to the previous study – from 68% in 2007 to 76% in 2009."   more »

The first Internet Governance Forum-USA was held last Friday in Washington DC. During the closing plenary session panelists from all stakeholder groups agreed the IGF is a useful exercise that contributes positively to Internet governance. “(The IGF) deals with global issues, transnational issues, ones that require coordination across political boundaries, and that is probably the most important thing about the IGF,” IGP's Milton Mueller said. “We cannot deal with the Internet in a purely national context. We don’t want to put the Internet back into boxes for the purposes of regulation.”   more »

The government of France has weighed in with a positive statement on the ICANN Affirmation of Commitments. The full text is available here in French and in English.   more »

Yesterday the Board announced its appointments to represent Noncommercial Stakeholders on the GNSO Council. These positions should have been elected directly by noncommercial stakeholders organized in the Noncommercial Users Constituency (NCUC). The only reason they weren't is that the NCUC is being punished for not being sufficiently pliable to Board and staff wishes.* So the Board decided to appoint three of their six representatives for them. How good of a job did they do?   more »