ICANN has released a recently commissioned report evaluating its experience with the introduction of new TLDs. The report notes that the market impact of the new TLDs has been minimal and that the agreements that underpin the new gTLDs reflect a level of detail that may not be needed for future TLDs. Report at http://www.icann.org/tlds/new-gtld-eval-31aug04.pdf
The great internet "flop" is still gravely etched in the imagination, yet notwithstanding the stock market setbacks of a few years ago ecommerce has been making steady progress. According to Emarketer, average on line expenditure in the US grew by 25 per cent in 2001, 15 per cent in 2003 and is expected to advance a further 12 per cent this year.
In Europe, Forrester Research disclosed in February that 60 per cent of the UK's adult population is on the "net" at least once a month, while the figures for Germany (59 per cent), Italy (45 per cent), France (41 per cent) and Spain (29 per cent) also suggest the medium is gaining in popularity. http://www.ebfonline.com/main_feat/in_depth/in_depth.asp?id=489
ISIPP Takes Aim at Domain Spoofers with 'Death by 1000 Papercuts' Strategy.
The Institute for Spam and Internet Public Policy (ISIPP) announced August 16, 2004 a suite of new services designed to help protect online businesses from having their Internet domains misappropriated and used, or "spoofed", in spam. 'Spoofing' refers to someone such as a spammer forging an email header so that it appears that the email comes from somewhere other than the actual source.
These slides present a general overview of the current organizational structure and decision making related to the international Internet infrastructure. The author also indicates that Internet stability should become top concern internationally and identifies key areas where global coordination is needed. Presentation made by Michael R. Nelson, Vicepresident of Public Policy of the Internet Society, at INET 2004 (May 10 - 14, 2004, Barcelona, Spain). 25 slides.
http://www.isoc.org/isoc/conferences/inet/04/documents/InternetGovernance.ppt
The World Bank's infoDev programme has released some useful resources on their website at www.infodev.org . Open Source Software: Perspectives for Development is a resource for IT decision makers in developing countries and includes an overview of some government perspectives on open source, case studies, and tips for decision makers. The other report, The Information Technology Security Handbook, includes a section on IT security and government policy. A companion website at http://www.infodev-security.net/ , while not yet active, has been set up to focus on issues of information technology security for developing countries.
Macedonia has one of Europe's lowest rates of Internet use, followed only by Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Surveys have found that only 3 per cent of Macedonians are online, and those who are only use the web for an average of nine hours per month. http://www.setimes.com/html2/english/040804-VALENTIN-001.htm
Assisted by a UNDP project, Bosnia and Herzegovina plan to develop three e-commerce laws by the end of the year. The laws will focus on electronic signatures, electronic business, and certification authorities.
http://www.fena.ba/uk/vijest.html?fena_id=FSA166052&rubrika=ES
Last week, Australia's Internet Industry Association (IIA) proposed "a new scheme to provide all Australian internet users with free trial antivirus software. In announcing the scheme, IIA chief executive, Peter Coroneos said, 'Statistics available to us now indicate that as many as one in four Australian internet users do not have any protection against the latest viruses. These unprotected users are not only a threat to themselves, but also to other internet users everywhere, because their infection becomes the start of a new chain of attack throughout the internet community...'
"The IIA initiative, supported by major vendor members of the association, is designed to give users access to immediate protection at no initial cost... Mr Coroneos said that the scheme was modelled on the IIA's highly successful antispam empowerment initiative which has seen over 100,000 Australians access the IIA's Nospam page which offers free trial antispam software. 'There is no reason why our National Antivirus Initiative shouldn't result in Australians having the highest rate of installed protection anywhere. That is our aim.'
"...The IIA National Antivirus Initiative page can be accessed at www.iia.net.au/novirus."
Out-Law.com (a British website devoted to IT law) says that the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the American Bar Association (ABA) are conducting a global survey of businesses to probe their understanding of jurisdictional issues related to the Internet. "From 10th August it will be sent out to financial institutions, retailers and manufacturers, as well as internet software and hardware companies, in at least 25 countries. 'This is the largest and most comprehensive global survey ever conducted on internet jurisdiction issues,' said Jonas Astrup, ICC policy manager... It aims to establish the effect that jurisdictional confusion is having on business, and whether there is anything specific that has caused that concern... The survey will be conducted up to the end of September. Results are expected in late October or early November, timed to coincide with progress on the draft Hague convention on jurisdiction and enforcement of foreign judgments in civil and commercial matters.
Brian Bergstein, the Associated Press technology writer, has just posted an interesting article about price discrimination as the "next big thing" in e-commerce. It's based on a paper by Andrew Odlyzko, which is even more interesting: "Privacy, Economics, and Price Discrimination on the Internet." If Odlyzko is right, ecommerce will make the economy more efficient...and more inequitable:
"...Privacy appears to be declining largely in order to facilitate differential pricing, which offers greater social and economic gains than auctions or shopping agents. The thesis of this paper is that what really motivates commercial organizations (even though they often do not realize it clearly themselves) is the growing incentive to price discriminate, coupled with the increasing ability to price discriminate. It is the same incentive that has led to the airline yield management system, with a complex and constantly changing array of prices... Privacy intrusions serve to provide the information that allows sellers to determine buyers' willingness to pay. They also allow monitoring of usage, to ensure that arbitrage is not used to bypass discriminatory pricing."Economically, price discrimination is usually regarded as desirable, since it often increases the efficiency of the economy... On the other hand, price discrimination often arouses strong opposition from the public.
"There is no easy resolution to the conflict between sellers' incentives to price discriminate and buyers' resistance to such measures. The continuing tension between these two factors will have important consequences for the nature of the economy... Governments will likely play an increasing role in controlling pricing, although their roles will continue to be ambiguous. Sellers are likely to rely to an even greater extent on techniques such as bundling that will allow them to extract more consumer surplus and also to conceal the extent of price discrimination. Micropayments and auctions are likely to play a smaller role than is often expected. In general, because of strong conflicting pressures, privacy is likely to prove an intractable problem that will be prominent on the the public agenda for the foreseeable future."
