...or at least his election is all but a formality. The nomination period has closed, and only Mr. Palage, standing for re-election, was nominated. I expect the Names Council will elect him by acclamation at an upcoming meeting. He will serve a three-year term. Congratulations!

Where to begin?

Sometime I wish I had adopted a blog format with untitled entries, a la Scripting News, so I could just drop notes in here from time to time without it being "a blog entry." Titles just seem to elevate the importance of notes. Not everything that deserves being read deserves a title. Here are several things I've been meaning to post.

I'll be at Esther's PC Forum next week. Can't wait. Look me up if you're going to be there too.

I've been appointed by the At Large Advisory Committee to be a special liaison to the Names Council. I think the official title is "Special Liaison of the At Large Advisory Committee to the Generic Names Supporting Organization of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers." It's a non-voting position, but it also happens to be the longest title in ICANNdom. Cool. I'm excited about the work and grateful for the opportunity to serve ICANN in a more official capacity than resident blogger. I'll be in Mar del Plata. Can't wait, part II. Look me up if you're going to be there too, part II.

In all my spare time -- whew, I've really been swamped lately -- I've been working with the Glendale Educational Foundation. This is a new site launch, so if you have a blog, I'd be grateful for a link. Link it as "Glendale Educational Foundation," please. Next step is Paypal for donations.

I'm curious as to which search engine will pick up the Foundation first.

I posted draft minutes from the recent Glendale Education Foundation Board meeting within 48 hours after the meeting adjourned. What sort of act of God will it take for ICANN to do the same...or at least comply with the bylaws?

I'm getting some flack from the Pho-list noodle-eaters (the GA-list re: music) about my stance on podcast licensing. Yeah, I know your arguments about mechanical rights, but that's not the way I read the statute, and I think the way I've implemented podcasting meets your argument. Enough of the argument though; we're not going to convince each other. I'll keep podcasting -- soon, soon -- and we'll let it all work itself out.

Another reason for the blogging drought: Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.

How do you draw the line between the trade secret itself (illegal) and the report about the trade secret (legal)? That's the hard question.

Speaking of EFF, Wendy is doing God's work.

And speaking of endangered gadgets, TIVO updated itself the other night to offer the TIVO-to-Go feature. Very cool. I'm downloading shows to go for the long trip to Argentina.

I've just subscribed to Tucows' Skydasher. Terrific idea. I already have a bunch of suggestions and wonder where to post my feature requests. First recommendation: let me pick my "search engine of choice" (the phrase I use in my podcasts). I've stopped using Google as a verb -- and Google as a search engine. I'm using Yahoo! and MSN. Both are better than Google... and less evil too. (Caveat: my firm is plaintiff's counsel.)
 
By the way, I recently sold 20% of my position in Tucows. I'm still bullish on the cows, but I thought it was time to take some profit.

I took the family hiking at Vasquez Rocks this past weekend. Wonderful!

I had a strange day last week. A big contract case was gearing up for trial in May. I represented the defendant. A key deposition of the plaintiff was on calendar. Opposing counsel showed up without a witness and offered to dismiss the case. I didn't have to think to long about that one. Done! But, somehow, it doesn't feel like a win. In litigation, the other side doesn't usually just give up. The client is celebrating though, so that's good enough for me.

I'm not really happy about the way .pro is evolving. Credentialed professionals?

Little league starts this weekend and for the second year in a row, I'm coaching a team. Last we were the Braves. This year, the Dodgers. Funny that no one else wanted to be the Dodgers this year.

Here's a marketing message about .PRO.   more »

Here's an announcement (in PDF) on .pro names from Encirca (the registrar for my .pro domain name and my wife's .pro domain name). They've even included a reference to my wife's registration as an example in the ad (she's at www.pain.med.pro and www.pain.pro).

This strikes me as a big deal, as it dramatically changes the market for .pro domain names. My only question is whether the easier registration process will pollute the value of the TLD by allowing persons other than licensed professionals access to .pro registrations. That's easy for me to say since I already have mine (www.internet.pro), and as a U.S.-based and credentialed lawyer, I was in the first wave of the .pro launch. Still, it's a concern. Thoughts? What does this change, if anything?

The SBC DSL line at home has been down for the last week. SBC is blaming it on the rains or something -- I understand that connections are down in spots all over Los Angeles County. This explains why bret.net has been offline (and still is), so if you hit a link that doesn't work, check the URL: the page may have been served from bret.net. Anyway, the repair truck is finally making its way to my house tonight between 4-8 p.m., and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will be carrying a solution.

I have podcasts to download!

Update: Mission accomplished!

Veni Markovski's Statement to the WSIS Plenary: "Dear Mr. President, Dear Colleagues...."

ICANN Statement on IDN Homograph Attacks and Request for Public Comment: "ICANN calls for views and positions regarding both homograph vulnerability, which is not unique to IDNs, and the proposed countermeasures, which include having browser support for IDNs turned off by default, while at the same time not protecting against older forms of URI and domain name abuse."

Here's a Weblog to Add to Your Newsreader: "Truth comes in many forms. ...Vitriol can irritate, but it is often the price of freewheeling discussion and the discovery of important stuff."

But Jerry, you need your own domain name. http://jerrybrown. typepad.com/ jerry/ is sort of cumbersome.

From the CENTR Statement on IDN Homograph Attacks:

The CENTR Statement is well worth reading if you've been following this thread.

The Names Council of the GNSO has issued a call for nominations for Board Seat 14, the seat currently filled by Michael Palage. The nomination period closes on Friday, March 11th. After they are made, nominations will be posted on this page (which is empty as of the date of this post). The vote will conclude on April 1, 2005. The person elected will serve a three-year term on ICANN's Board of Directors.

I need a new registrar. Once upon a time I opened an SRSPlus account and have used that for the bulk of my domain name registrations (I only have about 25 or so). My primary reason for using SRSPlus was that the company provided Los Angeles County as the exclusive forum for litigating disputes and made California law the law governing the contract. That fit me perfectly. After the Verisign-Netsol split though, SRSPlus adopted the policies of its parent Network Solutions, complete with Virginia domain name law and forum in the Eastern District of Virginia. So I plan to get the hell out of Herndon and move my domain names back home to California. In an ideal world, I'd like a Los Angeles-based registrar or, absent that, a registrar willing to give me my choice of forum and my choice of law. Any recommendations?

Just posted (in PDF format): Preliminary Report of the Working Group on Internet Governance Submitted to the Preparatory Committee of the World Summit on the Information Society.

Overheard on the Publc Address System this morning at the Bob Hope Burbank Airport: "Mr. _______, please return to the airport inspection station to retrieve your pair of Levi jeans. Repeat. Mr. ________, please return to the airport inspection station to retrieve your pair of Levi jeans."

From the ICANN Meetings page, here is the agenda for the February 18th Special Meeting of the Board:

• sTLD Issues - Update and discussion of status on all applications including .CAT and .ASIA
• Appointment of individuals to the Interim At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) to a fill a North American and a European vacancy
• Launch of .pro profession specific extension for engineers
• IPv4 Global Allocation Policy
• Approval of Payment for .NET Evaluator
• Other Business

If recent history is any guide, a preliminary report will be available at some remote time in the future, far beyond the time required by ICANN's Bylaws. Official minutes ought to be posted some time in the next year.

Bhavin Turakhia, writing on the Registrar Constituency List: "ICANN is currently reviewing the RAA and intends to make changes and come up with a new RAA by June. This is very important to all of us from the following perspectives...."

This will be an important process to follow. "RAA" stands for "Registrar Accreditation Agreement," which is the primary document that governs a registrar's rights and responsibilities vis-a-vis ICANN.