ICANN chief to step down in early 2016

LIMA, Peru—The head of the non-profit group that oversees all Internet addresses will step down in March 2016. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) President and CEO Fadi Chehadé sent notice to the board on May 21 telling them that he would leave after an annual meeting to be held in Morocco in March.

Hours after the news broke on Agence France Presse (AFP), Chehadé addressed representatives of the regional Internet community gathered in Lima for an annual conference of the Latin American and Caribbean Internet Addresses Registry (LACNIC).

He said that during the remaining 10 months of his tenure, ICANN would redouble efforts to give greater power to the global, multistakeholder Internet community of governments, businesses, organisations and users, so that no single entity would have the authority to determine the future of the Internet.

Chehadé has been overseeing ICANN’s transition away from the longstanding US-centred arrangement toward a more global oversight of ICANN's core responsibility for the Internet.

Chehadé had earlier commended the ICANN staff for moving the organisation from a predominantly US-based operation to a global institution with offices and relationships spread around the world.

At stake in the transition process is the control of a vital stake in the rapidly growing global digital economy, which could exceed 4.2 trillion US dollars by 2016, according to a Boston Consulting Group study.

“As the digital economy grows, the pressure to take control of things will grow as well, and it is incumbent upon us to show that we are prepared and mature and ready,” he said.

For the last 25 years, ICANN has been contracted by the US Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration to manage the assignment of Internet names and numbers globally. That collection of responsibilities is referred to as the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) stewardship function.

Chehadé's resignation will take effect shortly after the US government receives a plan to implement the transition of the IANA stewardship function to ICANN and the global Internet community, including Regional Internet Registries such as LACNIC. A release from ICANN said Chehadé would remain available to support the transition to a new leader after March 2016 as well as to advise the board on the IANA transition.

"I am deeply committed to working with the board, our staff, and our community to continue ICANN's mission as we still have much to accomplish,” Chehadé told AFP.

"I think this is the right time and the right thing to do.”

Chehadé has also also overseen the launch of new top-level domains, such as .google and .cricket. That process that has increased ICANN revenues under his tenure and brought the operations of the nonprofit agency under heightened global scrutiny.

Chehadé said he has accepted a job in the private sector, outside of the domain name space which ICANN supervises. He said he would disclose the name of his new employer later this year.

Originally published: Trinidad and Tobago Guardian

Grenada Launches Business Grants For Innovators And Entrepreneurs At CARCIP Awareness Day

Innovators and entrepreneurs in Grenada will soon benefit from a suite of new grant funding opportunities. The Grenada Ministry of Communications, Works, Physical Development, Public Utilities, ICT and Community Development will launch the business grants and outline the application process at an event called CARCIP Awareness Day.

“Innovative firms and individual drive new products, processes and services that create growth and employment. Innovation boosts productivity, which is the key to faster economic growth and rising living standards,” said Alice Bain, who coordinates the Caribbean Regional Communications Infrastructure Program (CARCIP) in Grenada.

The Grenada government, through CARCIP, has promoted collaboration between industry experts, the private sector and government to generate new opportunities for technology-enabled businesses. The CARCIP Awareness Day will reveal the various opportunities available under the program.

Held at the Grenada Trade Centre Annex on May 19, the event will start with an opening ceremony at 9.30 am, and continue with interactive sessions throughout the afternoon. A slate of technology experts will share perspectives on the potential of telecommunications technology to transform regional business, government and society.

“Technology is a cross cutting sector and has implications for all individuals and businesses. The fact is that the Internet is growing rapidly and no one should be left behind,” Bain said.

The event is part of the wider ongoing effort by the Grenada government to support Internet-based economic growth, under the umbrella of CARCIP. The objective of CARCIP is to increase access to regional broadband networks and advance the development of an ICT-enabled services industry in the Caribbean Region.

Funded by the International Development Association of the World Bank and coordinated by the Caribbean Telecommunications Union, CARCIP seeks to help governments and private sector to harmonise the development of critical telecommunications infrastructure across three participating Eastern Caribbean countries—Grenada, Saint Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

CARCIP Awareness Day is free and open to the public.

Google, Netflix to join Caribbean Internet service providers for historic gathering

If you live in the Caribbean, you don't need to be a computer expert to know that the region's Internet services need to improve.

If your connection falters so often that you've long since stopped calling customer service for redress, then you’ve got a pretty good idea about the challenges of regional connectivity.

Or if you’ve ever tried to launch a web-based startup, but have found yourself at a competitive disadvantage simply because download or upload speeds aren't cutting it, then you have already have a decent understanding of why the region needs more robust Internet infrastructure.

No further expertise needed.

Of course, fixing the underlying issues that cause those problems is another matter, requiring technical expertise, commerce negotiations and a healthy dose of good old-fashioned collaboration.

That’s precisely the mission of the Bevil Wooding, Shernon Osepa and a volunteer group of Caribbean Internet experts going by the name CaribNOG. They are behind the upcoming Caribbean Peering and Interconnection Forum (Carpif) to be held in Barbados from May 27 to 28.

The event is being organised by the Caribbean Network Operators Group (CaribNOG), with support from Packet Clearing House (PCH), the Internet Society (ISOC) and the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU). It will bring together high-level Internet industry players from across the region and around the world.

It marks the first time that Caribbean Internet service providers and major international content providers such as Google, Akamai and Netflix, will be gathering in the Caribbean for this kind of interaction, said Wooding, Internet Strategist with PCH.

"Internet Peering fora are commonplace in other regions of the world. They are used to bring Internet service providers and content providers from across the spectrum of the Internet ecosystem into one space to build relationships, broker agreements and discuss matters related to the development and strengthening of the peering relationships that underpin the Internet," Wooding told the Guardian.

As an outcome of the upcoming Carpif, regional consumers can look forward to a more stable, resilient, efficient Caribbean Internet, he said.

Growing Internet economy Shernon Osepa, Manager of Regional Affairs for Latin America and the Caribbean at ISOC, said "the forum is a testament to the growth and maturity that has taken place in the Caribbean Internet landscape over the past few years."

He explained that the meeting will address “strategies for encouraging and increasing local digital content development, and opportunities for content delivery network operators in the Caribbean.”

Internet exchange point (IXP) operators, infrastructure providers, Internet service providers (ISPs), policymakers and regulators make up the list of registered attendees for the event. The wide range of participants will gain valuable insight into “how the Caribbean can maximise the opportunities that can be derived for greater interconnection and peering," said Bernadette Lewis, secretary general of the CTU.

That organisation has been playing a major role in bringing regional governments into a greater appreciation of the value of creating a healthy regional Internet ecosystem. Strengthening the region’s critical Internet infrastructure is now widely understood to be a necessary first step to strengthening its Internet economy, as online commerce remains a largely underexploited way for local businesses to deliver local services for local Internet users.

Originally published: Trinidad and Tobago Guardian