This will be an interesting week. I'm headed to Geneva tomorrow to attend the organizational meeting of the U.N.'s Internet Govenance Forum. I'm working on a paper, responsive to this set of questions, that I hope to finish before the meetings start on Thursday. Like the new gTLD paper I sent to ICANN, it's a principles-based approach to Internet Governance. Principles for the Creation of an Internet Governance Forum. It address most of the questions posed and tries to get at those universal truths that underlie the way everyone thinks about Internet governance.

Here's the list of confirmed attendees so far. I wasn't affiliated with any government or NGO or civil society group, so if you look down that list, you'll see that I'm listed as an "expert." Heh. It comes from this language in the meeting notice: "Other participants who can demonstrate proven interest and/or expertise in Internet related issues will also be admitted." If the governments of the world don't defer to my superior expertise, I'll have to show them my name badge.

One of the problems with being an "expert" though is that I have no compatriots. I'm not from the government; I'm not from a certified non-governmental organization; and, I'm not from civil society. I'm afraid I'll be the Admiral James Stockdale of Internet Governance. But here's why I'll be in Geneva: the Internet is my home. It's the same reason property owners go to town council meetings. I'm a citizen, concerned about what my local government and neighbors might do to the place where I live.
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I'm not excited about the fact that our government has started shooting lawyers. This will be a good week to get out of the country.
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mTLD Press Release: "Mobile Top Level Domain (mTLD) today announced the rollout plan for the new mobile-friendly dotmobi domain name. Dotmobi provides the world's first domain name optimised for consumers using the Internet on a mobile device. The rollout will commence with the "Sunrise Registration Period" for trademark holders in June 2006, followed by the "General Registration" in September. mTLD is working closely with the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), registrars, copyright bodies and site owners to ensure that trademarks are properly protected during the Sunrise Period."

Too bad the .MOBI folks didn't listen to last week's podcast.
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Over the weekend, ICANN posted a very light-weight model agreement for ccTLDs. It's a letter that begins: "Dear Dr Twomey, This letter sets out our understanding of what we have agreed to do in order to demonstrate our commitment to securing and enhancing the stability and interoperability of the Internet’s Domain Name System (DNS) for our mutual benefit and for the benefit of the local and global internet community. To this end we make the following commitments to you...." Why would any ccTLD manager object to this?
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Gillette used its Super Bowl ad to launch a new five-bladed razor, which reminded me of this parody from The Onion two years ago.

Coming Tomorrow: "IPR72: The Internet After the Internet Governance Forum."