ICANN't?

Ridiculous pun for a headline, apologies. Some of you will be aware that ICANN, the American firm which governs certain aspects of the internet's technical infrastructure, has been having its latest public meeting in Puerto Rico over recent days.

Bill Thompson has produced an excellent piece for the BBC (read it here) on the issues raised, certainly in more detail than I can provide here.

ICANN has many critics, not only for its strange position as a private 'silicon valley' firm established by the US government in the late 80s (many question its legitimacy as global regulator) but also for some of the bungled decision-making coming out of the organisation.

One key aspect is the opaqueness of ICANN. We have seen alterneative developments, notably the UN-led Internet Governance Forum that point the way forward to a more open, even democratic way of governing the web. This is not to say the two can't co-exist, but we do need to look at the issue. Anyway, read Bill Thompson's report for some more discussion.

We'll be contributing to the debate (in terms of the domain name system ICANN regulates) in the near future with our much anticipated report on localism and the information society. This will have a special focus on the campaigns for city-based domains (.london, .berlin, etc). Interesting stuff - watch this space.

A brief update on something else. The think-tank Compass will shortly be publishing a new pamphlet by our Head of Policy Craig Berry on public service broadcasting in the digital age. More details will follow.

RB