Online application form is operational. Submission deadline is 6PM 15th November 2011. Scheme selection process will occur between late Novemeber and December.
Jun
12
2011
12
2011
May
1
2011
1
2011
Policy Process Steering Committee Termination
January 2009 marked the formation of two Steering Committees by the GNSO. These were the Operations Steering Committee (OSC) and the Policy Process Steering Committee (PPSC). Purposes of aforementioned where to charter and coordinate the efforts of five community work teams in developing specific recommendations to implement the improvements to GNSO operations. Two work teams were established by the PPSC, these included the Working Group Work Team (WG WT), which was chartered to develop a new GNSO Working Group Model to improve inclusiveness, improve effectiveness, and improve efficiency. The Policy Development Process Work Team (PDP WT) was the second, which was chartered to make recommendations concerning the development of and transition to a new PDP. WG WT has completed its task while PDP WT has still to submit final documentation. GNSO council has passed a motion to terminate the policy process steering committee.
Apr
29
2011
29
2011
GNSO WHOIS Motion
Additional funding has been requested by GNSO council from ICANN board. This funding would go towards FY 2012 relating to whois studies. Such funding would include a whois registrant identification study ($150,000) (USD) if subsequently approved; the proxy/privacy “abuse” study ($150,000) (USD); and a proxy and privacy “pre-study” ($80,000) (USD).
Mar
3
2011
3
2011
More choice for users on Education 3D Grid
A few weeks ago it was reported that AtMeeting Industries had been sub-contracted by Littlehall Corporation to provide backbone network services for the IDCAS virtual environment, Education 3D Grid (Edu3DGrid.com).
One of the roles which AtMeeting obtained through this contract was the administration of the grids authorization service framework.
First a little background: Each user (called a resident) of the grid is allocated a username consisting of two words (similar in nature to real life). The first name is optional and the user is free to choose any word they like so long as it does not go against the grids terms of service. On the other hand, the surname part is restricted to just a few options. There are many technical and policy reasons for this to be the case. Needless to say it takes a considerable amount of resource allocation to provide additional surnames to the list. Good news for new users today though as AtMeeting has negotiated with Littlehall for the provision of extra surnames to general residents. These will be available for use from midnight (GMT) tomorrow.
The new surnames include; Babka, Baker, Bessie, Bogart, Cinquetti, Dalek, Debs, Electricteeth, Huckleberry, McLuhan, Nilsson, Odets, Rosebud, Trumbo, Ullman, Welesa, Wijaya, Zugzwang.
A number of these are unusual for one reason or another in terms of allocation to general resident community. Historically Littlehall Corporation has only provided rights of use to surnames which are not used as genuine real life surnames. Some of the exceptions listed above to this rule are Baker (common British surname) and Bogart (eg. Humphrey Bogart). Even the names Wijaya and Zugzwang suggest a little added playfulness on the part of AtMeeting. Wijaya (in addition to being a common Indonesian surname) means “victory” while Zugzwang is a German phrase meaning “compulsion to move”. The added surnames are a welcome addition and I look forward to seeing which other ones make an appearance over time.
Feb
24
2011
24
2011
IDCAS February Donations
This month the International Development Council for Academic Studies (IDCAS) has generously released a significant amount of additional funding to a number of non-profit organisations. These organisations include the International Health Research Institute (IHRI) and the 3D Grid Association. Today the 3D Grid Association has issued a press release stating that a portion of these funds will be allocated to the maintenance of technical infrastructural required to operate the following grids over the next two months; AtMeeting (grid.atmeeting.com, operated under contract by Littlehall Corporation), Education 3D Grid/Edu3DGrid (www.edu3dgrid.com), IDCAS 3D Services (now operated under contract by the European Technology Development Association) and Virtual 3D IHRI (virtual.ihri.org). All services supplied by these grids are vital to the continued sucessful development of advanced teaching tools and on behalf of IHRI I would like to thank IDCAS for the provision of this funding.
Feb
22
2011
22
2011
Education 3D Grid (Edu3DGrid) Beta Servers
It has been announced today that both the AtMeeting and Education 3D Grid administration intend to release a beta land development scheme. The principle behind this move is to drive forward an initiative to increase the number of developers and testers on both grids.
As part of this initiative there will be an allowance made for colleges, schools, universities, research bodies and corporate enterprises to register their own region management servers on both grids.
Applications must be made through an online form (http://www.edu3dgrid.com/applications/online/beta/server/regions.asp). No closing date for beta land testing and registration has been announced yet but is expected soon.
Jan
21
2011
21
2011
IDCAS Quarterly Executive Conference
IDCAS Quarterly Executive Conference (Jan 2011, Dublin)
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Jan
19
2011
19
2011
ICANN Post-Cartagena
Interview with ICANN’s CEO & President, Rod Beckstrom, and Chairman of the Board, Peter Dengate Thrush, following the close of ICANN 39 in Cartagena, Colombia.
ICANN Press Conference, 6th December 2010. ICANN CEO & President, Rod Beckstrom, and Chairman of the Board, Peter Dengate Thrush.
Nov
8
2010
8
2010
Upgrade of ICMS Backbone Servers
The last of the ICMS backbone servers were upgraded today to use the ext4 filesystem. Prelimilary testing shows that the time required to perform fsck’s has been reduced by almost 90% across the service. All servers will need to run a full filesystem check to reduce the time of subsequent checks. Many servers performed this during the last maintenance period and are already optimized. This process will be completed during the next 48 hours. Moving to ext4 will offer some other minor performance improvements as well.
Overall service status may be viewed by visiting http://atmeeting.net:4486/icms/
Oct
30
2010
30
2010
Windows Phone 7
Below is a still from the new advert for windows phone 7. The main idea which Microsoft want to get out there is that the phone is so addictive that you wont be able to put it down no matter what your doing.
Windows Phone 7 - Is it truely addictive?
Have seen the phone in action and it seems to have a great deal of potential both hardware and coding wise. Think we should start looking into the possibility of creating an application for internal institute member use. There are many questions which would need to be addressed regarding security and distribution of the application although can certainly see how we could use it in the future.
Photo copyright of Microsoft Corporation.