Staff Writer - itbusinessdirect

‘.nyc’ Domain Approved For NYC Online Addresses

July 9, 2013 Staff Writer

NEW YORK — New York City likes to think of itself as a domain like no other, and now it’s close to being able to boast as much on the web. The city has gotten a key approval for a “.nyc” suffix online, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn announced Tuesday. That would mean web addresses could end in “.nyc” instead of such common suffixes as “.com” or “.org.” “Having our own unique, top-level domain – .nyc – puts New York City at the forefront of the…

Update on the Status of our new gTLD Application & Current Engagements with ICANN

July 6, 2013 Staff Writer

DCA’s .Africa application passed all the Evaluation Panels including the technical, operational and financial evaluation criteria, but the Geographic Names Panel Evaluation for the application was not completed. PRLog (Press Release) – Jul. 5, 2013 – Update on Initial Evaluation Result for .Africa Application The Initial Evaluation result for DotConnectAfrica Trust’s application for the .Africa domain name string with prioritization draw number 1005 was released by the ICANN new gTLD Customer Service Centre on Thursday, 4th July 2013. DCA’s .Africa application passed all the Evaluation Panels including the technical, operational…

Online retail begins to click in Africa’s biggest market

July 6, 2013 Staff Writer

The headquarters for this Internet startup is cheekily nicknamed “Graceland” and its co-heads are young Harvard graduates with grand plans who have rapidly expanded the business over the past year. Silicon Valley? Not even close. This emerging world Internet company, called Jumia, is now located in Nigeria, and the founders of the business here say there is no better place to pursue their strategy. Nigeria, Africa’s biggest market of 160 million people, has seen Internet access expand rapidly in recent years, opening opportunities for companies to exploit. While major obstacles…

Brands set to lose ‘closed generic’ gTLDs

July 5, 2013 Staff Writer

Scores of controversial brand-owned generic top-level domains (gTLDs) could be under threat after a ruling on Thursday that defers their approval until further notice. ICANN has ruled that applications for ‘closed generic’ gTLDs – dictionary words not available for public use – must be discussed further with the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC). “The NGPC [New gTLD Program Committee] directs staff to defer moving forward with the contracting process for applicants seeking to impose exclusive registry access for ‘generic strings’ to a single person or entity”, a statement says. Adapted worldipreview.com

Spy program gathered Americans’ Internet records

June 28, 2013 Staff Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration gathered U.S. citizens’ Internet data until 2011, continuing a spying program started under President George W. Bush that revealed whom Americans exchanged emails with and the Internet Protocol address of their computer, documents disclosed Thursday show. The National Security Agency ended the program that collected email logs and timing, but not content, in 2011 because it decided it didn’t effectively stop terrorist plots, according to the NSA’s director, Gen. Keith Alexander, who also heads the U.S. Cyber Command. He said all data was purged…

Ad group blasts cookie-privacy project from Mozilla, Stanford

June 26, 2013 Staff Writer

Interactive Advertising Bureau CEO Randall Rothenberg calls the effort to determine which cookies should be blocked or allowed a “Kangaroo Cookie Court” that will hurt small Internet publishers. The Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School is working with Mozilla on a project called the Cookie Clearinghouse to try to improve Internet privacy controls. The Interactive Advertising Bureau, a group that represents hundreds of Internet advertisers, has attacked Mozilla’s involvement in a Stanford Law School privacy project to judge whether individual Web sites can be trusted to set…

Pirate Bay founder faces jail over Swedish hack attack

June 21, 2013 Staff Writer

Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, co-founder of the Pirate Bay, has been sentenced to two years in a Swedish prison for hacking into a bank’s computers. A Swedish court found Warg guilty of the hack attacks and associated charges of fraud. The attacks were carried out against the Nordea banking group and services firm Logica. Personal data about thousands of Swedes was stolen in the attacks and was subsequently published online. Warg’s accomplice in the attacks, Mathias Gustafsson, was given a suspended sentence and told to seek psychiatric counselling. Adapted from bbc.co.uk

DotConnectAfrica Registry Services Participates in ICANN DNSSEC training at AFRALTI Nairobi

June 20, 2013June 20, 2013 Staff Writer

DotConnectAfrica Registry Services (Kenya) Ltd. (‘DCA Registry Services’) participated in a rigorous two-day training programme on DNSSEC. PRLog (Press Release) – Jun. 19, 2013 – DotConnectAfrica Registry Services (Kenya) Ltd. (‘DCA Registry Services’) participated in a rigorous two-day training programme on DNSSEC that was conducted at the AFRALTI Nairobi on 11 -12 June, 2013. KeNIC, the manager of the .ke ccTLD extension and organizer of the training programme, had also sent invitations to ISOC Kenya Chapter members who also participated.The DNSSEC training will enable DCA Registry Service staff gain essential…

Global Name Branding Challenges & the New Digital Age

June 18, 2013 Staff Writer

ADOTAS — Naming rules originated from common sense, transformed into common laws, and later created the trademark philosophy to govern “naming” as a prime and civil component of businesses across the globe. This centuries-old thinking is almost like what electricity is to the Internet. Basically without the core component they are just useless. The current ICANN gTLD expansion now requires a worldwide awakening, particularly in the diverse domain-name industry that without well-balanced trademark rules, is basically headed toward disaster. ICANN is faced with major policy decisions whether to accept a…