IPv6 and world crisis jokes

Google Public Policy Blog: Why the next generation Internet Protocol matters

[Comments:]

I get really sick of this RUBBISH about running out of ip's in two years. Stop the FUD.

You can't blindly assume that ip address usage will simply just go up and up and up on a predictable arc that ends in disaster. That is FALSE. What needs to happen is for people to question the reasons why, for example, MIT needs to own 16 *MILLION* public ip addresses.

Most corporations already utilize NAT and need almost no public IP address space at all. Many more *could* (and should) move to NAT, but simply refuse.

I have hardly tried to figure out the reason why some people are so reluctant to numbers on numbers: whether you like it or not, IPv4 is running out, period. NAT is a palliative, period. Is it that difficult to get this point?

The comment reminds me of this video:

So, whenever IPv4 comes out, people will begin to defenestrate.

Hmmmm

Sometimes, numbers are not numbers... only.

Michael Geist at CircleID:

WIPO's Misleading Release

The World Intellectual Property Organization put out a release yesterday trumpeting an eight percent increase in domain name disputes handled by WIPO. In 2008 there were 2329 complaints filed with WIPO, the most ever. WIPO uses the increase to raise questions about the possible increase in the number of available generic top-level domains.

While the media covered the story precisely as WIPO hoped (Reuters, Ars Technica), it is worth considering what WIPO did not say. First, WIPO is just one dispute resolution provider under the ICANN UDRP. The other large provider—the National Arbitration Forum—actually experienced a decline in disputes last year. Overall, the number of domain name disputes cases filed increased modestly last year, growing by just over three percent. Second, and more importantly, the growth of dot-com and dot-net domain name registrations grew far faster than the dispute resolution growth as according to Verisign [PDF], that domain name space grew by 12 percent in 2008.

Campaign?

What about a "Save a bit" campaign?

A broader look could emphasize applications... why would one need to keep MSN, Skype, Google Talk, two different browsers running an endless Javascript?

Comunique-se. O portal da comunicação

Para quem achava que o mundo virtual seria a solução para tudo, não se engane. Transformar em bits o que era em papel, por exemplo, trazia a sensação de que o meio ambiente não seria mais afetado pelo vício predatório humano. A questão - e isso poucos ainda entendem - é que meio ambiente não é sinônimo de natureza. Em uma empresa, por exemplo, os computadores fazem parte do meio ambiente.

AP: Hearst hopes Web-only Seattle P-I will turn profit

And that's a hard task.

Somehow, newspapers [all medias, actually] still haven't found a good balance between selling information and selling a product. This is the reason why one will find so many discount coupons, gifts, etc. in magazines and newspapers. This has nothing to do with IG, or maybe has.

People who lived inside the first web bubble are not likely to see another one. Meanwhile, people who are at web's outter borders are rushing to its center as if it would be their only salvation.

Some cases are particularly successful, I wish all were. But let us reflect a bit about the model as a whole.

News | TriCities

When the Seattle Post-Intelligencer transforms into an Internet-only operation Wednesday, it will try to do something it failed to accomplish for years as a traditional newspaper: make money.

Meanwhile, in Kenya

That's great:

allAfrica.com: Kenya: TEAMS Alarmed By Arrival of Seacom (Page 1 of 1)

With the arrival of a private undersea cable on the East African coast, the Kenyan government has moved to reassure stakeholders that The East Africa Marine Systems Cable (TEAMS) is still on course.

(...)

"We have capacity for up to 10 cables because our intention is to make this country a regional communication hub," he [Permanent Secretary Ministry of Information and Communications, Dr. Bitange Ndemo] said.

Million dollar question... or answer

< off-topic >

From Google LatLong:

A look back in time

Historical Imagery also lets you visualize, for yourself, important environmental trends such as the deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest -- no need to try to decipher scientific studies; just look at the images.



Population growth and expansion into the forest in Rondônia, Brazil. Left image taken on June 19, 1975, right image take on September 19, 2001.

How can such thing happen? São Paulo is already the greatest environmental shame for us, we absolutely do not need a rival.

When e-commerce sssssllllllllooooowwwwwwsssss down

I've ordered the book "Where Wizards Stay Up Late" on December from Submarino, the biggest/greatest/one of the oldest Brazilian e-commerce website[s] . OK, by that time they told me it was available, but I  would have to wait 52 days for their deliver... hunf, ok, I hate credit cards... even international ones, my mistake. So, let's buy it via Submarino.

Eighty days later, no news. I call them and tell me they were only a reseller; for this reason, not only the book wasn't available there, or at the place they buy from, but they also told me they couldn't find the book within any of their sellers.

For Christ/Buddha/Allah sake! Pedro Álvares Cabral, the man who "discovered" Brazil, took something like 40 days to cross the ocean 500 years ago! How can a single book take that much to do it? Worse: how can a single book take that much not to do it?

[Almost] Anyone can reach Amazon and Amazon can reach [almost] everywhere in the whole world. So, instead of "feeding" a national website, I will be forced to choose a worldwide one, unfortunately.

This submarine has just got knocked by my Maxwell's silver hammer.

Great article on Brazilian on Sci-Tech

I am not really used to read articles on sciences' onthology anymore, but this one reminded me good old days. Though it discusses Sciences, Technology and Innovations' (CT&I) policies obstacles, somehow, I was pulled back a couple of years.

Tecnologia Social como Pluralismo Tecnológico [PDF]

Este artigo trata dos obstáculos às políticas de CT&I atenderem às demandas sociais.
Por demanda social entende-se o desenvolvimento científico e tecnológico para
desenvolvimento social que passou a integrar a pauta do Movimento pela Tecnologia Social– MTS. O componente 2 tem sido subordinado ao avanço quantitativo das patentes, o que não tratarei aqui senão indiretamente. A questão é outra: há realmente um componente 2 do PADCT vocacionado para a demanda social por C&T?

ICANN Mexico

Interesting speech from Victor Hansen at ICANN Mexico.

I strongly recommend to read the whole transcription, so nothing gets misunderstood.

Joint AC/SO

I'm Victor Hansen, Brazilian representative to the Governmental Advisory Committee.

(...)

>>VICTOR HANSEN: Thank you. I would like to come back to the distinction between gTLDs and ccTLDs.

I cannot agree with this idea that the frontier is blurred between both things, and I would like to present a very clear example.

80% of Brazilian registrants go dot BR. What does it mean? Well, it means that Brazilians are not only interested in low prices, are not interested only in best price for registrations, but they do want to show that they are Brazilian Internet. And since the Brazilian Internet steering committee does a good job in preserving the being faithful to the Brazilian culture values, and so in having a registration policy that meets the targets and expectations of our registrants, then people are faithful to this label, dot BR.

So I think choice has more -- is not only -- is not only linked to market value, linked not only to pricing but is linked also to the sort of image you want to get your domain name associated with.

So I would like to talk of how does this distinction between gTLDs and ccTLDs translate in the expansion of the root.

We are just talking about new gTLDs now, so as to understand of course we will have new IDN ccTLDs. But I would say that geographic TLDs, and now I move to the second point here in the list, shall have much more to do with ccTLDs in terms of the values that are embedded in their management than to gTLDs, generic names.

They are more linked to geographic values, country values or regional values than to market value. And I think in the PDP, this distinction should be reflected.

Thank you.

(...)

Just to answer the question on whether a city could like to become a gTLD instead of a ccTLD against the will of its government, now I think we are entering in a very dangerous terrain here, which is the issue of sovereignty and the issue of legitimacy of local governments.

In this regard, I must recall as all here that when ICANN had to decide which would be the countries, it considered it was not capable -- it was not competent to decide on that, then it relied on a table that was built by ISO.

And I think when it comes to cities and geographic areas, this questions become far more complicated.

I think it's beyond the scope of ICANN's competence to decide who is the legitimate authority to speak on behalf of a particular region, city or state.

So I think, as ICANN has searched for help of ISO for ccTLDs, as it has searched for help of WIPO when it comes to trademark clearances, and it should rely on a body which would be capable and competent to define who can -- who is the legitimate authority in a particular region.

Thank you.

(...)

To mention about this issue, I would like to make it clear about the need for geographic names was raised by the GAC for the first time in the São Paulo meeting in 2006. So this question is not new. And I think something that cannot be affirmed here is that the GAC is trying to on strategic anything. I think our position we've held in this regard is more or less the same as we held in São Paulo in 2006.

But, of course, the GAC is, as we know -- and whether we like it or not -- an advisory committee to the board. So we provide advice to the board. We do not participate in PDP. And we have Bertrand here who feels very strongly that GAC should be involved in PDP. And if we got GAC involved in these issues in an earlier, maybe it would be easier to address it.

Coming to this question, I think we had some good suggestions in a joint meeting the GAC had with the GNSO Council yesterday. I think what we could think about that is, instead of trying to -- because the current recommendation of the GAC with respect to geographic names is that there should be a list previously elaborated by the GAC that would represent geographic names that should be protected either in the first, in the second level. This is the recommendation, the present recommendation of the GAC.

But as there might be problems in implementing that, we could evaluate other solutions to this problem. One of them, I think, would be trying to have a working group, perhaps with people from the GAC and from GNSO, perhaps, which would define a set of criteria that would be considered reasonable for the blocking of particular TLDs. So this group would work on that. And then possible presentations of new gTLDs could be checked against these criterias.

Of course, then we should seek to define which four of these criteria would be set. And we -- and I recognize we do not have an equivalent to, say, WIPO, which would verify names.

But it does not make -- the fact that we do not have such an institution does not make this request less legitimate. Thank you.

Berkman Center: 2007 Circumvention Landscape Report: Methods, Uses, and Tools

Report release: 2007 Circumvention Landscape Report: Methods, Uses, and Tools | Berkman Center

The Berkman Center for Internet & Society is pleased to make available its report on techniques and tools for circumventing Internet filtering:

2007 Circumvention Landscape Report: Methods, Uses, and Tools (PDF)
by Hal Roberts, Ethan Zuckerman, and John Palfrey

As the Internet has exploded over the past fifteen years, recently reaching over a billion users, dozens of national governments have tried to control the network by filtering out content objectionable to the countries for any of a number of reasons. A large variety of different projects have developed tools that can be used to circumvent this filtering, allowing people in filtered countries access to otherwise filtered content.

In this report, the authors describe the mechanisms of filtering and circumvention and evaluate ten projects that develop tools that can be used to circumvent filtering. These tools were evaluated in 2007 -- using both tests from within filtered countries and tests within a lab environment -- for their utility, usability, security, promotion, sustainability, and openness.

The report was completed in 2007 and released to a group of private sponsors. Many of the findings of the report are now out of date, but we present them now, as is, because we think that the broad conclusions of the report about these tools remain valid and because we hope that other researchers will benefit from access to the methods used to test the tools.

The authors find that all of the tools use the same basic mechanisms of proxying and encryption but that they differ in their models of hosting proxies. Some tools use proxies that are centrally hosted, others use proxies that are peer hosted, and others use re-routing methods that use a combination of the two. The authors find that, in general, the tools work in the sense that they allow users to access pages that are otherwise blocked by filtering countries but that performance of the tools is generally poor and that many tools have significant, unreported security vulnerabilities.

Responses from developers of the tools in question are included in the report.