David Solomonoff, President of the Internet Society of New York (ISOC-NY) gave a talk at the August 2010 monthly meeting of the Manhattan Libertarian Party. David’s theme was ‘Taking Back the Edge: Freedom and the Internet Model’. The meeting took place in the back room of the Ukrainian East Village Restaurant (famous in alternative music circles as the site of a legendary New Order show in November 1981). David spoke about the importance of maintaining the end-to-end principle and the open internet, threatened today by repressive political forces and monopolistic interests. There was some lively discussion with the libertarians about whether regulation was preferable to unwelcome consolidation. David emphasized the bottom-up standards making process that has stood the test of time.

Video/audio is below.

Fellows of the hackNY program, which placed students with NYC tech firms over the summer, demonstrate the results of their efforts at the Courant Institute NYU on Jul 30 2010. Support from fiscal sponsor ISOC-NY with funding from the Kauffman Foundation.

Video is below:

Recognition of pioneering role in Internet technologies and information access for Chinese research and educational communities.

MAASTRICHT, Netherlands, July 28 – The Internet Society today announced that its prestigious Jonathan B. Postel Service Award 2010 was awarded to leading Chinese technologist Dr. Jianping Wu for the pioneering role he has played in advancing Internet technology, deployment, and education in China and Asia Pacific over the last twenty years.

Dr. Wu’s best-known contribution is the development of the China Education and Research Network (CERNET) which he designed and developed to be the first Internet backbone network in China.  Created to establish a nation-wide advanced network infrastructure to support education and research among universities, CERNET has since become the world’s largest national academic network. Since 1998, Dr. Wu has also devoted his time to the design and development of a large-scale native IPv6 backbone in China that now serves to connect over 200 universities and millions of users.

At the second of the Internet Society NY Chapter’s meetings with Hunter Newby, CEO of Allied Fiber, he presented an overview of the company’s plan to encircle the entire USA with a dark fiber ring with carrier neutral access at any point. Allied Fiber’s simple yet forward-thinking “real estate” approach to infrastructure provides de facto the structural separation which has, in other countries, been a boon to ISP competition, giving users access to cheap bandwidth and making network neutrality a moot point. Runs just about an hour. The subsequent Q&A may be made available at a later date.

Video is below:

ISOC-NY is a 501(c)3 corporation, chartered by the Internet Society. Under our By-laws we have to hold elections every two years for our various offices and board of directors.

Voting is now completed in the ISOC-NY 2010 election.

The following are elected to 2 year terms commencing Aug 1 2010.

President

David Solomonoff

Executive Vice-President

Evan Korth

Administrative Vice-President

Joly MacFie

Secretary

Joly MacFie

Assistant Secretary

Richard Knipel

Treasurer

Joseph Shraibman

Assistant Treasurer

Imran Anwar

Director (15 positions)

Evan Korth
Joly MacFie
Tom Lowenhaupt
David Solomonoff
Imran Anwar
Lou Klepner
Richard Knipel
Hannah Kopelman
Glover Wright
Joseph Shraibman

Thankyou to everyone for taking the time to participate.

ISOC-NY extends its thanks to retiring Directors Veni Markovski, Alicia Gibb, and Dave Fletcher.

ISOC NY Election 2010 homepage : http://isoc-ny.org/wiki/Elections_2010

Internet Society Applauds Key Milestone in Domain Name Security Technology

The Internet Society welcomes the significant milestone recently reached in implementing DNSSEC at the highest level of the Domain Name System (DNS), and applauds the efforts by ICANN, Verisign, and the U.S. Department of Commerce that made it possible.

Leslie Daigle, chief Internet technical officer for the Internet Society, said, “We’re excited to see this capstone element of DNSSEC deployment put in place. It signals a new era for operational security of the Internet, and we look forward to new levels of user confidence in network activities using DNSSEC and the services built out from it.”

25 June launch builds on sustained Internet Society efforts to expand and improve Internet access in Africa

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone – 1 July 2010 – In a significant development for the Internet and Internet users in Sierra Leone, leaders from business, government, and the national Internet community gathered in Freetown last week to launch a new Internet exchange point (IXP). The new facility, know as the Sierra Leone Internet Exchange, or SLIX, will allow Internet service providers to interconnect and exchange local data traffic within the West African country rather than over international links. This will promote more efficient, resilient, and less costly connectivity by improving local Internet performance and reducing international bandwidth costs.

Below are the details for remote participation in the ISOC Chapter and member meeting on Monday, June 21 at 1.30pm EST.

This meeting will take place at the ICANN 38 meeting in Brussels, and thus ICANN issues may well predominate, but the agenda is open. All ISOC-NY members are welcome to attend.

Details are also available at: http://isoc.org/wp/chapter-meetings/?page_id=762

Topic: ISOC Chapters and Members Meeting
Date: Monday, June 21, 2010
Time: 7:30 pm, Central European Time (Brussels, UTC+02:00)
Meeting Number: 920 627 959
Password: chapters0610

The Internet Society’s North American Bureau, to which ISOC-NY is affiliated, is lending initial support to a U.S. industry effort to form a Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group (BITAG) to develop consensus on broadband network management practices or other related technical issues that can affect users’ Internet experience. This is a collaborative industry effort to identify and address operational issues that have been at the heart of some of the recent issues attracting governmental attention. Constructively, this activity could result in organized, forward-looking discussion driven by key stakeholders and also provide opportunities to educate and inform policy makers by shedding light on underlying technical issues from the perspectives of diverse stakeholders.

ISOC-NY will have a planning meeting on Jun 14 2010. We will be welcoming ISOC North American Regional Bureau Manager Sally Shipman Wentworth. Sally is representing the Internet Society in planning for a Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group (BITAG) so we are sure to have plenty to talk about. We intend to webcast this meeting live so that other North American Chapters can participate.

What: ISOC-NY Member meeting
When: Mon Jun 14 2010 7.00pm-9pm
Where: Room 412, Warren Weaver Hall, 251 Mercer Street NYC (SW corner of West 4th) (See note below)
Who: All are welcome. Come along for a chat!
Webcast: http://livestream.com/isocny

[Geneva, Switzerland and Washington D.C., 8 June 2010] – As the Internet rapidly evolves into a truly global medium central to all aspects of human affairs, the need intensifies for future leaders to be drawn from all regions of the world and all walks of life. The Internet Society, uniquely positioned to meet this need, today announced the list of potential leaders joining its programmes for 2010.

The Internet Society’s Next Generation Leaders programme blends coursework, practical experience, and mentorship to help prepare young professionals from around the world to become the next generation of Internet technology, policy, and business leaders.

“We are pleased to have 24 promising students currently in the eLearning phase of our programme,” said Bill Graham, responsible for strategic global engagement at the Internet Society. “Five of those will also join 32 others in the coming months, expanding their leadership skills while they learn about the Internet and the Internet Society’s principles, either as Fellows to the Internet Engineering Task Force meetings or Ambassadors to the Internet Governance Forum (IGF).”

Community Grants Programme’s 11th round helps extend Internet’s reach and promote key technologies

[Washington, D.C., USA and Geneva, Switzerland – 25 May 2010] The Internet Society (ISOC) today announced it is funding community-based projects around the world addressing issues such as Internet leadership, education, core infrastructure, local governance, and policy development, with a strong focus on currently underserved communities.

“The diversity of projects awarded highlights the profound importance of the Internet in so many aspects of our lives, in all parts of the world,” said Jon McNerney, Chief Operating Officer of the Internet Society. “The passion and creativity of those developing the projects within their communities drives the Internet Society’s commitment to help bring the benefits of the Internet to people everywhere.”

As part of the ISOC Community Grants Programme, each project will receive up to US$10,000 for efforts that promote the open development, evolution, and use of the Internet for the benefit of all people throughout the world.

** Audio and video now posted below!**

Last October the NYC Department of Information Technology & Telecommunications (DoITT) issued a request for proposals for “services to obtain, manage, administer, maintain and market the geographic Top Domain name .nyc.”. At ICANN’s recent 37th meeting in Nairobi, consensus was reached on the “overarching” issue of intellectual property protection. This leaves only the issue of the final (4th) draft of the Applicants Guidebook, expected before the 38th meeting in Brussels in June 2010, before the much delayed new generic top level domain (gTLD) delegation process can finally grind into action. (One caveat – a policy forbidding cross-ownership of registries and registrars is still not totally set in stone.)

The Internet Society – New York Chapter (ISOC-NY) has for some years been following the .nyc and ICANN process on behalf of the NYC community and, on May 8 2010, hosted a seminar “dot nyc – How are we doing?” at NYU. NYC Council Member Gale Brewer delivered keynote remarks, then vendor Eric Brunner-Williams of CORE Internet Council of Registrars revealed details of their proposal to the City, and Antony Van Couvering of Minds + Machines and Public Advocate Beill DeBlasio’s earlier comments to the City Council were shown in video. There was a discussion “What’s it for?” about possible applications – civic, community, commercial, and “outside the box” – for a local top level domain. Speakers included Tom Lowenhaupt of Connecting .nyc and Richard Knipel of Wikimedia NYC.

Audio/video is below:

In February the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) set out its Proposed Strategic Initiatives for Improved DNS Security, Stability and Resiliency (SSR) and, specifically, proposed the establishment of the Domain Name System-Computer Emergency Response Team (DNS-CERT).

At the  March ICANN meeting in Nairobi CEO Rod Beckstrom endorsed the proposals, citing increased attacks on the DNS system.

The Internet  Society (ISOC) has filed comments stating that 1) there is no evidence of a sudden increase in attacks, increased vulnerability or inadequacy of current arrangements, and 2) that ICANN has jumped the gun with its proposals which are not necessarily within its purview. Indeed it is suggested that ICANN did not even gain the full backing of its own supporting organizations and advisory committees before making the proposals, and this is backed up by the comments of At-Large Advisory Committee Chair Cheryl Langdon-Orr.

ISOC recommends that the proposals be tabled while further consultation is made with the many institutional, national and regional organizations, including existing CERTs, that are already involved in maintaining DNS stability.

ISOC believes it is vital to rely on the Internet model to get the best result. The Internet model relies on open, bottom-up, freely accessible, public, multi-stakeholder, and knowledge-based processes for both technology and policy development.

The Internet Society has announced the results of the 2010 Board of Trustees election.

In the Chapter election, Narelle Clark, of ISOC Australia, has been elected for a three year term.

In the Organizational Member election Eva Frölich and Lawrence Lessig have been elected for three year terms.