Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society

Tag: icann

  • TTCS participates in #ICANN meeting in Cartagena, Colombia from Dec 5-10 2010

    (update 3rd Dec 2010 : updated Jacqueline Morris’ status as associate chair of ICANN NomCom – Dev T)

    The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society (TTCS) will be participating in the 39th International Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)  meeting in Cartagena, Colombia  from December 5 to 10, 2010.

    Background about ICANN, At-Large, LACRALO

    At-Large is the name for the community of individual Internet users who participate in the policy development work of ICANN. Groups throughout the world that deal with individual Internet users’ interests can register with and participate in ICANN. The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society is one such group recognized by ICANN as an At-Large Structure (ALS) since 2006. 

    The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society (TTCS), along with 10 other ALSes in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with ICANN to create the first At-Large Regional At-Large Organisation, LACRALO.
    Today, The Latin American and Caribbean Regional At-Large Organisation (LACRALO) includes 36 ALSes  in 15 countries in the Latin America and the Caribbean region. Together, LACRALO represents the regional interests of the At-Large community of individual Internet users in ICANN from Latin America and the Caribbean.
    One of the directors from TTCS, Dev Anand Teelucksingh, is serving as the LACRALO secretariat since 2009. 
    At Cartagena, another director from TTCS, Cintra Sooknanan will also be attending.
    What’s happening at ICANN Cartagena
    Note that Cartagena time is one hour earlier than Trinidad and Tobago time. Many if not all meetings allow for remote participation for live viewing and live transcripts for some of the larger meetings. If you view the meeting schedule and click to a specific meeting, there are participation details for how to remotely connect to that meeting.
    For more details on remote participation, see http://meetings.icann.org/remote-participation

    TTCS’ involvement in ICANN At-Large activities

    As LACRALO secretariat and as the primary At-Large Representative from the Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society, I (Dev Anand Teelucksingh) have been involved with several Working Groups which will be presenting in Cartagena :

    ALAC/At-Large Improvements project

    The goal of the ALAC/At-Large Improvements project is to review and improve both ALAC/At-Large’s participation in ICANN and the ALSes’ participation in At-Large. This will be done through the implementation of the 13 recommendations outlined in the At-Large Review Work Group’s Final Report and detailed in the Simplified At-Large Improvements Implementation Outline.
    We have divided these recommendations into four groups, each of which has been assigned to a work team consisting of ALAC members and regional representatives.
    I am chair of Work Team D : Work team on ALAC’s policy advice development, which is assigned to the implementation of the following recommendations :
    • Rec 8: ALAC may request public comment period be extended to 45 days
    • Rec 12: Consumer representatives should have input into decisions and policy advice
    • Rec 13: ALAC/At-Large policy advice mechanisms should be strengthened.
    I am also a member of  Work Team B : Work team on ALS participation, which is assigned to the implementation of the following recommendations :
    • Rec 3: Remove any obstacles in ALS-RALO-ALAC structure
    • Rec 4: ALS education and engagement
    • Rec 7: ALAC should choose its own communication/collaboration tools
    • Rec 9: ICANN should strengthen its translation/interpretation tools

     

    LACRALO Showcase Working Group

    https://community.icann.org/display/LACRALO/LACRALO+Cartagena+Showcase+Working+Group

    LACRALO will organize a showcase event on Monday December 6 2010, 1800 to 1900 local Cartagena time to :
    • highlight the activites of the ALSes of LACRALO in Latin America and the Caribbean
    • engage in outreach activities for regional Internet user organisations attending Cartagena.
    I am serving as the chair of the LACRALO Showcase Working Group preparing for this event. 
    Cintra Sooknanan from TTCS will be speaking about the TTCS at this showcase event.
    I will also be speaking as the LACRALO secretariat.

    Mike Tikasingh from TTCS, drew three maps of regions of Latin America and the Caribbean showing the ALSes in LACRALO. These maps will be showcased at the event.
    Countries in green shows a country with ALSes (and the pins indicate the number of ALSes in that country)
    Countries in orange shows a country in the LAC region without any ALSes.
    There are 33 countries in the Latin America and Caribbean region. LACRALO has 36 At-Large Structures (ALSes) from 15 countries.

    Also done were ALS factsheets from the region which are being printed and translated for the showcase event. Here’s a draft ALS factsheet showing only a few of the ALSes in LACRALO.

    LACRALO Bylaw Working Group

    Previous LACRALO teleconferences have identified two key issues in how LACRALO operates, according to our LACRALO organising documents 

    The two key issues :

    1. The terms for the LACRALO chair and the LACRALO secretariat. It was generally agreed that the terms of these officer positions should be for two years instead of one year and that persons elected to these officer positions can only serve for two consecutive terms.
    2. how to deal with At Large Structures (ALSes) in LACRALO that are inactive and not participating in LACRALO. Such inactive ALSes affect the quorum for successful adoption of motions in LACRALO meetings, including General Assemblies.

    The LACRALO Bylaw Working Group have been meeting and drafting suggested updates to the operating principles to address these issues: https://community.icann.org/display/LACRALO/Draft+Modifications+to+the+LACRALO+Operating+Principles+2010+-+Highlighted+Changes

     

    At-Large Structure Survey Recommendations Report 2010

     https://community.icann.org/display/ALSurvey/At-Large+Structure+2010+Survey+Workspace

    The 2010 At-Large Structure (ALS) Survey polled the 122 ALSes in At-Large to get current contact information for all ALS representatives and their alternates; to discover what policy areas the ALS Membership is most interested in; and to learn how they prefer to communicate with members of the At-Large community and ICANN At-Large Staff. Additionally, the survey will assist in learning more about the types of At-Large engagement the ALSes are interested in, including the preferred working group format, and whether their Membership is interested in representing the At-Large community at local and regional meetings and contributing to the implementation of the At-Large Improvements project.
    The Survey Analysis WG (which I am chair) is preparing a final ALS survey report to be presented at the ALAC and Regional Leadership Working Session 1 on Sunday, 5 December in Cartagena.

    Persons from Trinidad and Tobago participating in the ICANN meeting in Cartagena

    I note that there are several persons from Trinidad and Tobago that will be present at the ICANN meeting in Cartagena. In no particular order :
    • Dev Anand Teelucksingh, ALS representative from Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society and serving as LACRALO Secretariat
    • Cintra Sooknanan, ALS Representative from Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society in LACRALO.
    • Jacqueline Morris, Associate Chair of the ICANN Nominating Committee, and a a member of the BCEC, which was responsible for the short list of Candidates for the election of the first ever At Large voting Director of the ICANN Board. Also involved with Internet Governance issues (and in TTCS)
    • Tracy Hackshaw, from Ministry of Public Administration of Trinidad and Tobago (MPA) and who helped to organise the DiploFoundation IG event in Tobago as a DiploFoundation alumni. 
    • Patrick Hosein, director at TTNIC, which manages the .tt ccTLD and is serving on the ICANN ccNSO council.

    Questions, Comments, are appreciated.

    Kind Regards,

    Dev Anand Teelucksingh
    Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society at http://ttcsweb.org ; @facebook : http://fb.me/ttcsweb ; @twitter : http://twitter.com/ttcs
    “networking local computer users!”

     

  • TTCS attends Internet Governance Workshop on November 12-13, 2010 in #tobago

    TTCS attends Internet Governance Workshop

    The Diplofoundation in cooperation with the Caribbean Telelcommunications Union

     (CTU) will be hosting an Internet Governance(IG) Diplomacy Training Workshop, during November 12-13th 2010, at the Grafton Beach Resort in Tobago.

     

    The Workshop:

     

    The workshop attendees comprise of persons from the Africa-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP) Group of states. In fact, attendance has been confirmed by professionals from the OECS countries, Barbados, Belize, Haiti, Jamaica,Trinidad and Tobago.

     

    This training workshop will give participants an overview of the multidisciplinary field of IG (including technical, legal, economic, socio–cultural, and developmental aspects) and explain interplay among international, regional and national IG policy processes. It provides an opportunity for officials and professionals from ACP countries to strengthen their overall understanding of IG and to develop diplomatic approach of their country and institution in the IGF process

     

    The Team :

    –

    Ginger Paque, a coordinator of Internet Governance capacity building programme of DiploFoundation and one of the main facilitators

    –

    Rodney Taylor, a Manager at the Caribbean Telecommunication Union (CTU), he will introduce the anchors to the regional (Caribbean) progress and challenges when it comes to the IG and ICT, as well as the CTU work in the field

    –

    Tracy Hackshaw and Sheba Mohammid, the local partners from the TT Government, who will help place focus on  the IG challenges with Small Island Developing States, with examples from Trinidad and Tobago

     

    –

    Shernon Osepa, joining on behalf of ICANN, he shallcontribute his knowledge and expertise on critical Internet resources, especially in relation to the region

    –

    Vladimir Radunovic  coordinator of Internet Governance Projects with DiploFoundation, trainer and facilitor of the workshop.

     

    Useful Links:

     

    The leading material for the workshop is the Internet Governance book, which is available for download free, in pdf format at:http://igbook.diplomacy.edu/

     

    Additionally, there is a Film available : http://www.diplomacy.edu/ig/dvd/which provides an introduction to Internet Governance through the views of leading policy-makers and academics on a wide array of related questions.

     

    Other useful materials from DiploFoundation are available at:http://www.diplomacy.edu/ig/resources/

     

     

    At the regional level, CTU IG framework (“Caribbean Internet Governance Framework Issue 1.0.doc”), as well as the CTU link:http://www.ctu.int/internet-governance

     

    CARICOM provides information on the region at: www.caricomict4d.org

     

    Under the Observatory for the Information Society in Latin America and the Caribbean (OSILAC) there are specific resources in terms of ICT measurement in the Caribbean, an area where there is still a grave deficiency in terms of informing Evidence Based Public Policy http://www.eclac.org/socinfo/osilac/default.asp?idioma=IN

     

    Specifically on the Trinidad and Tobago case there is the recently posted ICT Market Survey results), you may visit publicly available content atwww.tatt.org.tt and on www.fastforward.tt.

     

    The DIPLO Community:

     

    Diplo has a very vivid community of (almost 1000) professionals worldwide involved with IG and ICT policy; they are all gathered online for discussions, mutual contacts and joint work through a professional social network available at: www.diplointernetgovernance.org  The network is open to new professionals and they invite you to join and extend the community – thus further strengthening the within network of Caribbean.

     

  • Content to review regarding the Proposed Framework for ICANN’s FY10 Operating Plan and Budget – comments due April 30th, 2009

    Proposed Framework for ICANN’s FY10 Operating Plan and Budget

    Read about the Proposed Framework at http://www.icann.org/en/public-comment/#op-budget-fy2010

    Related Presentations/meetings held during ICANN Mexico meeting in March 2009

    Monday, 2 March 2009 – Travel Support for Constituencies

    http://mex.icann.org/node/2974

    Thursday, 5 March 2009 – Workshop: Operating Plan

    http://mex.icann.org/node/3131

  • Ministry of Public Administration consultation on the management of .tt ccTLD on Wednesday December 17th – what are your thoughts for .tt?

    The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society has been invited by the Ministry of Public Administration (MPA) to  a consultation on the .tt country code Top Level Domain policy this Wednesday. From the text of the invitation :

    “The .tt ccTLD is the country code top level domain for Trinidad and Tobago. A country code top level domain is an Internet top-level domain, generally used or reserved for a country or a dependent territory. ccTLD identifiers are two letters long, and currently all two-letter top-level domains are ccTLDs. Creation and delegation of ccTLDs is performed by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), and generally corresponds to the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes maintained by the United Nations.

    In some countries they are very popular (.de is the most popular, second only to .com in number of registrations), less so in others. Some countries use the ccTLD as a revenue generator (.tv) while others use it as a national resource and for country branding (.uk, .au). In general, .tt is little known either inside or outside the country, and there has been little interest among most of the local Internet stakeholders in its use or policies.

    The Trinidad and Tobago government has been working on a process to develop a plan for local policy development for the Trinidad and Tobago ccTLD – .tt. It has been run for many years by the ttNIC (a local company), but the time has come to have a national consensus multi-stakeholder policy for the local management of this Internet resource, and an inclusive and transparent consultative process to get there.

    The key objective of this consultation is to get the views of Internet stakeholders on the major policy issues that inform the management of the .tt ccTLD. Other objectives of this consultation include:

    • To present models for ccTLD management

    • To discuss guidelines and best practices for ccTLD management
    • To discuss potential for re-delegation of the .tt ccTLD from the current administrator (TTNIC)
    • To identify prioritised actions, processes and indicative schedules for developing the .tt ccTLD as a national resource”

    There have been many posts on this to the TTCS discussion mailing list (scroll to the bottom of the page for the responses). Your thoughts?

  • Trinidad and Tobago Government to run .tt?

    The Ministry of Public Administration (MPA) has advertised in the daily newspapers for positions in the Trinidad and Tobago Network Registry Centre (TTNRC).

    Ministry of Public Administration ad for IT positions in the Trinidad and Tobago Network Registry Centre
    Ministry of Public Administration ad for IT positions in the Trinidad and Tobago Network Registry Centre

    What is the TTNRC? From the ad :

    “The Trinidad & Tobago Network Registry Centre (TTNRC) is being established with primary responsibility for the administration of the Trinidad & Tobago Country Code Top Level Domain (.tt CCTLD) Registry. The TTNRC’s funclions include the development, operation and maintenance of a National Domain Name System (DNS) infrastructure, including related technologies, policies and best practices, facilitating the expansion of online communication and information exchange and ultimately creating new channels for commerce. The TTNRC will be a functional department of the National ICT Centre within the Ministry of Public Administration.

    The ad then lists three positions available (links take you to the Trinidad and Tobago Government Human Resource website)  :

    The deadline date for applications is given as November 17th, 2008.

    The implication from the notice implies that the Government of Trinidad and Tobago via TTNRC will (or wants to) administer and run the .tt ccTLD currently run by the Trinidad and Tobago Network Information Centre (TTNIC).

    For more background behind the running of .tt, read the Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society’s “Interview with the TTNIC administrator“

  • Fix found for net security flaw in DNS ; multiple DNS implementations vulnerable ; DNS testing tool available

    From the BBC News Article : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7496735.stm :

    Computer experts have released software to tackle a security glitch in the internet’s addressing system. The flaw, discovered by accident, would allow criminals to redirect users to fake webpages, even if they
    typed the correct address into a browser. Internet giants such as Microsoft are now distributing the security patch. Security expert Dan Kaminsky said that the case was unprecedented, but added: “People should
    be concerned but they should not be panicking.”

    “We have bought you as much time as possible to test and apply the patch,” he said. “Something of this scale has not happened before.”

    Mr Kaminsky discovered the error in the workings of the Domain Name System (DNS) about six months ago.

    Other links :

  • TTCS meeting on Saturday 28th June 2008 – IPv6

    The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society (TTCS ; http://ttcsweb.org/) will be having a meeting on Saturday 28th June 2008 at Engineering Consultants at 112A Edward Street, Port of Spain (corner of Oxford and Edward Streets) from 2PM (Doors open from 1PM).

    The topic of the meeting will be IPv6 – What is it? Why do we need it? How do we use it?

    At this meeting, we will be having a presentation from Mr Andre Thompson
    who attended a recent ARIN (American Registry for Internet Numbers) meeting. See our http://www.ttcsweb.org/ipv6 page for more information on IPv6.

    Contribution of $20 towards refreshments is expected. Please CONFIRM if you are ATTENDING OR NOT at http://mobaganda.com/ttcsmeetingonipv6. Thanks!

  • How to apply word wrap to text files viewed in Mozilla Firefox

    As mentioned before, many of the public ICANN meetings have transcripts available within hours after the meetings as text files. However, a disadvantage with viewing the ICANN New Delhi 2008 meeting transcripts with Mozilla Firefox such as the transcript for “Workshop: Update on Internet Governance” held on February 11th, 2008 is that the length of the lines of text are too long for the browser window requiring you to scroll left and right to read the transcript which gets confusing with the likely result that you stop reading the transcript online or try to insert the text in a word processor or text editor to word wrap the text.

    If only there was a way to word-wrap the text in the browser window…………..

    Well, there is an easy solution for Mozilla Firefox users which I discovered, thanks to Tero Karvinen’s article “Making preformated <pre> text wrap in CSS3, Mozilla, Opera and IE”

    To word wrap text in text files displayed in Mozilla Firefox :

    1. Locate the sub-folder called chrome in your profile folder. See http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/edit#profile on how to find where Mozilla Firefox stores the profile folder for different operating systems.
    2. In this chrome subfolder, edit the text file “userContent.css” with a text editor (such as Notepad). Typically, this file does not exist by default. There is a userContent-example.css in this chrome sub-folder which you can rename to userContent.css
    3. Add the following line to userContent.css :
      pre { white-space: -moz-pre-wrap !important; }
    4. Save the file, and restart Firefox for the changes in userContent.css to take effect.

    With this change, any text files you view in Mozilla Firefox will automatically be word-wrapped so that you don’t have to scroll left and right to read the text file.

  • ICANN New Delhi, India meeting from February 10th to 15th, 2008 – how you can participate

    The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) 31st public meeting is being held in New Delhi, India from the 10th February 2008 to the 15th February, 2008. Visit the meeting site at http://delhi.icann.org/ where you can find the complete meeting schedule page where you can filter based on organisational interest (such as At-Large, GNSO, etc).

    As in previous ICANN meetings, you can use Realplayer to view/listen to many of the ICANN meetings live. Note for Trinidad and Tobago, the time diffference is 9 hours and 30 minutes. So the Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) meeting on Wednesday 13th February 2008 from 3:30pm to 5:30 pm is from 6am to 8am in Trinidad and Tobago.

    screenshot of using RealPlayer to watch the webcast of ICANN’s welcome ceremony in New Delhi, India on Monday 11th February 2008

    Often the presentations and relevant documents that are the subject of discussion at the meetings are available for download in PDF format while listening/watching the live stream. Also, such webcast meetings has a web based chat feature which allows you to ask questions and text chat during the meeting with other attendees who are logged in as well as with other remote participants. You can ask someone via the web chat to actually ask a question to the panel discussion. Do check out the ICANN Delhi, India meeting schedule page.

  • Network Solutions accused of Domain Name Front Running

    Via /. is the story that Network Solutions Registers Every Domain Checked at their website. Any domain that is searched on Network Solutions’s website for availability is preemptively registered by Network Solutions if the domain is available. Network Solutions also hosts a webpage at the queried domain, thus forcing you to purchase the domain from Network Solutions instead of another registrar.

    The recent ICANN Los Angles meeting of the Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) had a discussion on this (the video is still up) and had issued an advisory (PDF ; 197K) seeking comments from the public on whether domain name front running takes place.

    I’ve recorded a video today (January 8th, 2008) in real-time, showing that the process occurs less than 2 minutes after querying Network Solutions for a domain.

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG8yJSGUTFA]

     

    The domain in the video queried at Network Solutions is http://ttcs-domain-testing-test-from-trinidad-and-tobago.com/

    Network Solutions has responded to the accusations of domain name front running, calling the pre-emptive domain registeration “a security measure to protect our customers” and that the domain is released just before the end of the 5 day grace period.

    (Edit Jan 9th, 2008 – minor edit to 1st paragraph and added more details on Network Solutions response)