Legitimacy and Expertise in Global Internet Governance

Over the course of the past decade or so, attention among Internet policymakers and scholars has shifted gradually from substantive design principles to the structure of Internet governance. The Internet Corporation for Assigning Names and Numbers in particular now faces a new skepticism about its legitimacy to administer the essential Internet Assigned Numbers Authority function. ICANN has responded to these doubts by proposing a series of major governance reforms that would bring nation-states more into the organization\u27s decisionmaking. After all, transnational governance institutions in other substantive areas privilege nation-states as a matter of course. This Symposium Essay shows that these changes reflect a new era in which ICANN and other Internet policymakers no longer view the Internet as uniquely immune from the geopolitics of the physical world

Systematic composition of distributed objects: Processes and sessions

We consider a system with the infrastructure for the creation and interconnection of large numbers of distributed persistent objects. This system is exemplified by the Internet: potentially, every appliance and document on the Internet has both persistent state and the ability to interact with large numbers of other appliances and documents on the Internet. This paper elucidates the characteristics of such a system, and proposes the compositional requirements of its corresponding infrastructure. We explore the problems of specifying, composing, reasoning about and implementing applications in such a system. A specific concern of our research is developing the infrastructure to support structuring distributed applications by using sequential, choice and parallel composition, in the anarchic environment where application compositions may be unforeseeable and interactions may be unknown prior to actually occurring. The structuring concepts discussed are relevant to a wide range of distributed applications; our implementation is illustrated with collaborative Java processes interacting over the Internet, but the methodology provided can be applied independent of specific platforms

Anonymity, privacy, and security online

Summary of findingsMost internet users would like to be anonymous online at least occasionally, but many think it is not possible to be completely anonymous online. New findings in a United States survey show:  86% of internet users have taken steps online to remove or mask their digital footprints—ranging from clearing cookies to encrypting their email, from avoiding using their name to using virtual networks that mask their internet protocol (IP) address. 55% of internet users have taken steps to avoid observation by specific people, organizations, or the government Still, 59% of internet users do not believe it is possible to be completely anonymous online, while 37% of them believe it is possible. A section of the survey looking at various security-related issues finds that notable numbers of internet users say they have experienced problems because others stole their personal information or otherwise took advantage of their visibility online—including hijacked email and social media accounts, stolen information such as Social Security numbers or credit card information, stalking or harassment, loss of reputation, or victimization by scammers.Authored by Lee Rainie, Sara Kiesler, Ruogu Kang, Mary Madden

A novel pseudo-random number generator based on discrete chaotic iterations

Security of information transmitted through the Internet, against passive or active attacks is an international concern. The use of a chaos-based pseudo-random bit sequence to make it unrecognizable by an intruder, is a field of research in full expansion. This mask of useful information by modulation or encryption is a fundamental part of the TLS Internet exchange protocol. In this paper, a new method using discrete chaotic iterations to generate pseudo-random numbers is presented. This pseudo-random number generator has successfully passed the NIST statistical test suite (NIST SP800-22). Security analysis shows its good characteristics. The application for secure image transmission through the Internet is proposed at the end of the paper.Comment: The First International Conference on Evolving Internet:Internet 2009 pp.71--76 http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/INTERNET.2009.1

ICANN : guilty as charged

Discusses the role of ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), a private not-for-profit California corporation created to manage the Internet domain name system and take the regulatory action that the US Department of Commerce (DoC) was unable or unwilling to handle directly. Considers ICANN's legal status and policy-making activities. Explores the criticisms that have been levelled at ICANN, relating to: (1) the DoC's relationship with ICANN; (2) the violation of competition laws; and (3) the effect of ICANN's actions in Europe

Geoportals: an internet marketing perspective

A geoportal is a web site that presents an entry point to geo-products (including geo-data) on the web. Despite their importance in (spatial) data infrastructures, literature suggest stagnating or even declining trends in visitor numbers. In this paper relevant ideas and techniques for improving performance are derived from internet marketing literature. We tested the extent to which these ideas are already applied in practice through a survey among 48 geoportals worldwide. Results show in many cases positive correlation with trends in visitor numbers. The ideas can be useful for geoportal managers developing their marketing strateg

eCRM in the Travel Industry

We are bombarded with Internet forecasts and statistics every day, however there is little doubt that the Internet has permanently changed the face of travel promotion and distribution. While only a minority of consumers are actually prepared to buy online at the present time, this minority is growing and there are large numbers of consumers who wish to use the Internet for information and communication. Travel and hospitality companies are selling an information-rich product and will need to leverage the full range of offline and e-channels to engage their customers in dialogue. The Internet does not have any respect for geographic or organisational boundaries and companies will have to forge new business models, involving partnerships and customer-driven product design, in order to meet the needs of the online consumer. There are major challenges and opportunities for companies wishing to add the e to their CRM strategy