The rumours are true: CIRA does have a complicated governance structure, and I’m the first to admit the process for electing the Board of Directors can appear convoluted.

Let me explain.

First, though, I think it’s important to provide a bit of background.  CIRA was founded in the late 1990s as a not-for-profit corporation designated to “…administer the .CA (dot-ca) domain space on behalf of Canadian users.” We receive our mandate from Industry Canada.

With the exception of three ex-officio seats (Industry Canada, CIRA’s president and John Demco, who helped establish the .CA domain and CIRA), two thirds of the seats on the Board are intended to provide for broad skills, experience and representation. CIRA’s Board of Directors is intended to be representative of the Canadian Internet community – there are plenty of stakeholders in the work CIRA does and we need to ensure their voices are heard.

Simply put, there are two slates of candidates for seats on our Board of Directors: a Nomination Committee Slate and a Members’ slate. This year, there are four seats to be elected from the Nomination Committee slate (three because their term was up and one due to a resignation) and one from the Members’ slate.

Each year, a Nomination Committee is formed by the Board. There is an open call to apply to fill vacant seats on this Committee. Their mandate is to select nominees, as set out in our Policy on Nominations & Elections, that: (A) represent different regions, cultures, genders and linguistic groups, that are consistent with the diverse make up of the Canadian population; (B) provide necessary professional expertise; and, (C) have significant relevant corporate and/or organizational governance experience.

This year, CIRA received 1,601 applications from which eight nominees were chosen to run for the four open seats from the Nomination Committee slate, using the above criteria.

The remaining third are selected directly by CIRA’s Members. Membership in CIRA is free and open to anyone who holds a .CA domain name. Currently, CIRA has about 15,500 Members.

This year, one of the three seats which are elected from the Members’ slate is open. Members are currently in the process of selecting the candidates who will make it to the election ballot from this slate. To run for one of these seats, an individual (either a member or non-member) must be nominated by a Member. To ensure relevance, Members’ Slate Nominees must secure 20 shows of support from Members to become candidates by September 9, 2010. Note: to provide a show of support, Members had to sign up before August 30, 2010.

There are eight candidates on the Nomination Committee slate. A total of 38 nominees are on the Members’ slate, awaiting shows of support. We’ll be posting the final full list of candidates on September 13, which will include both the Nomination Committee slate and the Member’ slate.

Voting opens on September 22 and closes on September 29 – we’ll post the results of this year’s election on or before October 6, 2010.

The entire process is overseen by an independent returning officer who is not an employee of CIRA.

One final note: To vote in the election itself, the application deadline to become a member is September 17, 2010.

One thing that was clear in the submissions to the Industry Canada consultation is that there is a diversity of opinion with regard to how to go about it. However, three themes were common among the majority of submissions: venture capital (or lack thereof), broadband cost and access, and digital literacy.

Why is this important? A few weeks ago Chris O’Neill, the new Canadian country director for Google, called on Canadian businesses to become more web savvy. It got me thinking about what the factors are that will enable businesses to do just that, and I think the answers are in the submissions to Industry Canada’s consultation.

The fact is, according to OECD reports, Canada has been falling behind its peers with regard to the digital economy (no doubt one of the reasons Industry Canada held their consultation earlier this year). The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), in co-operation with IBM, publishes a white paper that takes a look at nation’s e-readiness. They define e-readiness as “the ‘state of play’ of a country’s information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and the ability of its consumers, businesses and governments to use ICT to their benefit.” In short, how ready and strong is a country’s digital economy. Canada doesn’t fair too well in their report either, having fallen from ninth place in 2006 to 13^th place in 2007. We made our way back up to ninth place in 2009, an encouraging sign.

However, when you look a little deeper into the OECD’s and EIU’s numbers, it starts to become clear that there’s more here than meets the eye. More importantly, it becomes clear the organizations that identified these three themes in their submission to the Industry Canada consultation – including Google – were on to something.

On which indicators is Canada falling behind? Connectivity and infrastructure (read broadband access), a cultural environment conducive to widespread participation in the digital economy (read digital literacy), research and development, and access to venture capital.

Despite the relatively widespread availability of broadband access networks in Canada, the cost per megabyte, and service gaps in rural and remote areas, are barriers to the digital economy. The OECD’s data shows that the average price for broadband service in Canada is twice the rate of that in the U.S, and there are huge swaths of Canada that simply do not have access to service. It’s pretty difficult to establish yourself as a digital leader when a good proportion of your population is on dial-up. That’s why we called on the government to address this situation, as did many other organizations, including Google.

The state of access to venture capital in Canada is alarming. VC investments in Canadian industries is falling, and the sheer number of companies receiving VC is now half what it was in 2003. Deloitte Canada said it best in their submission: “…no country has ever become a leader in creating a digital economy without a healthy domestic VC industry.”

Finally, the Certified Management Accountants of Canada (CMA) state that as many as 40 per cent of working Canadians lack the basic literacy skills needed to participate in the digital economy. Our work with the Media Awareness Network (MNet) on the issue of digital literacy has certainly convinced me that addressing it is of key importance. Digital literacy is a driver of productivity in the digital economy. Without it, we are not going to be competitive. How do we do this as a country? The CMA call on the federal government to work with the provinces and territories to make investments in building Canada’s digital literacy skills. I agree, as does MNet and countless others.

Where are we doing well? Canada has an exceptionally stable business environment, a legal and policy environment conducive to business development and a business and consumer population interested in adopting information and communications technology (ICT). What’s the common thread here? Trust in the systems that build a digital economy.

The safety and security of a nation’s systems – including the DNS – is a major factor in consumer and corporate trust. This is one of the reasons why CIRA called on Canadian governments and businesses to adopt IPv6 and DNSSEC in our Industry Canada submission. I would argue that the fact that the .CA top-level domain is considered one of the safest in the world bolsters consumer and business trust in the system. In fact, our own research (and MacAfee’s) proves it.

There’s good news, too, and lots of it.

Canadians are heavy users of the Internet. In 2009, half of Canadians surveyed in Statistics Canada’s Canadian Internet Use Survey reported using the Internet for shopping, up from 45 per cent in 2007. Two thirds (67 per cent) of Canadians use the Internet for banking, up from 63 per cent in 2007, a clear indicator of trust in the system. It’s interesting to note that in a 2008 survey of Canadian Internet users, 78 per cent of respondents stated that they prefer .CA domain names for online shopping. This is important for Canadian business; in 2007 Canadians placed almost $13 billion worth of orders online (more than half of which went to Canadian companies!).

We’re quickly approaching 1.5 million domain names registered, an incredible number when you realize that the Canadian market is relatively small and that we live next to the largest economic powerhouse in the world.  Canadians are demonstrating their trust in the system by registering .CA domain names. In fact, we’re growing at a rate that the big guys, like .COM, can’t match.  In spite of the recent economic downturn, the .CA TLD has experienced double digit growth – 16 per cent – whereas the generic top-level domains are experiencing a growth rate of a mere six per cent.

I don’t see Canada as falling behind. In fact, I think we’re on the cusp of great opportunity. As a nation, we’ve reached a fork in the road, so to speak. We just need to choose which road we’re going to take. Fortunately, we have two things working in our favour. First, we have a bit of a roadmap – we know what we have to do to get to the place we need to go – the Digital Economy consultation responses have done that for us. Second, we have some experience in these matters. In the early 1990s, we were faced with some pretty difficult choices. We made the right choices with regard to the traditional economy, and results were telling. Canada made it through one of the worst economic downturns in the history of the modern economy relatively unscathed and has become the financial envy of the world.

Moving down the right path this time will involve making the right decisions for the digital economy, and I think we’re well positioned to do just that. In fact, I see Canada as building the foundation on which we can build a strong and sustainable future. We may be doing it slower than some other nations, but I think we’re well positioned to take the right path.

Just a final note: Chris O’Neill, Google Canada’s Country Director will be speaking at CIRA’s AGM as part of a panel on September 21. Perhaps we can continue this discussion there!

What do you think? What are the factors that will enable Canada to become a digital leader?

Of course, there’s a greater urgency for India to adopt IPv6 than Canada or the rest of the developed world. As far as address blocks go, we received more than our share back in the beginning, as addresses were not uniformly distributed. And, the proliferation of mobile devices and access to broadband in India and China will further drive demand for IP addresses in parts of the world that lost out on IP address distribution in the beginning.

Although India has more to lose than Canada does with regard to delaying adoption of IPv6, we’re going to pay the price for complacency if we don’t act soon. While I don’t necessarily agree that “the end of the world has arrived”, the fact is we’re running out of IPv4 addresses. The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) reports that less than 10 per cent of IPv4 address space remains, meaning that there’s about a year before this space is exhausted.

In CIRA’s submission (.PDF) to Industry Canada’s Digital Economy consultation, we state the importance of IPv6 adoption in Canada, and we recommend governments in Canada take a leadership role by leveraging its purchasing power to stimulate IPv6 adoption in Canada. It’s going to be expensive, but time is running out. The end of the world may not be here yet, but we ignore IPv6 at our peril.

I think we’re on the verge of a new trend. The developing world, which has for so long taken second place with regard to technology development and adoption, is becoming the leader.

What do you think about India’s move to adopt IPv6?

However, my bet is we will never see .xxx as a top level domain. The Board decision to move ahead with negotiations is only the first step of many before .xxx can be approved. Following the contract negotiations, the ICANN Board will seek Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) advice on whether the application aligns with public policy principles and the concerns of governments. Only after that will the Board decide whether to approve the contract. We know from previous GAC advice provided on the .xxx matter that governments definitely don’t support the creation of what is essentially an adult entertainment top level domain. I think it’s unlikely their advice will be favorable.

ICANN has always had the obligation to seek and consider GAC advice, and the GAC has always had a role with respect to policy development. However, there have been recent moves pointing to a shift in what constitutes GAC advice, how that advice is delivered, and perhaps the weight with which it is considered. GAC advice appears to be moving from input often put forward after decisions have already been made by the ICANN Board, to playing a more powerful role in the decision making process.

ICANN is in a real bind. On one hand, there is the possibility of legal action from ICM Registry if the .xxx application does not move forward. On the other hand, there is the risk of alienating international governments if GAC advice is not followed. Many even fear that that could encourage an attempt by another international agency to take over some or all of the governance of Internet-related public policy issues and the management of critical internet resources. ICANN surely does not want a perceived weakness of the GAC to be used as fodder to fuel a move by governments to take a more hands-on approach to Internet governance outside of the confines of the GAC. So my bets are on ICANN following GAC advice.

I think the .xxx debacle is just the symptom of something much more historic. I would even say we’re about to witness a tectonic shift in Internet governance, where governments, through the GAC, have far more influence over ICANN’s decisions and policy development than ever before, and certainly more than any other stakeholder group.

Could it be that we are coming to a point where, as the saying goes, all stakeholders are equal but some are more equal than others?

In our submission, we make 19 recommendations, ranging from recommending that the government leverage its purchasing power to spur the adoption of IPv6 to encouraging the government to include the development of a national digital literacy strategy as part of its digital economy strategy.

Fundamentally, however, what we are saying is that in order to create a climate for digital innovation in Canada, steps must be taken to preserve the Internet’s unparalleled capacity for enabling economic growth. At CIRA, we have been calling this capacity the digital economy value chain: the Internet stimulates human creativity with new technologies, outlets and opportunities which leads to innovation in products, services and processes. These products, services and processes improve productivity for individuals and businesses, thereby boosting their – and Canada’s – competitiveness in the global digital economy.

As part of its submission, we’ve developed a graphical representation of the Internet value chain:

The steps CIRA recommends involve ensuring the stability, security and resiliency of the Internet through the development of a DNS-CERT and the deployment of DNSSEC. We also recommend Canada support the bottom-up, consensus-based decision-making framework upon which Internet governance is currently based, through the continuation of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) and to continue to take a ‘light-handed’ approach in the development of policy and regulation with respect to the Internet.

Our submission is available here. Please take the time to read it and let me know what you think.

I am the chairperson of the Strategic and Operational Planning Working Group (SOP WG) of the Country Code Names Supporting Organisation (ccNSO). The ccNSO is responsible for developing and recommending policies to ICANN’s Board of Directors on issues related to country code top-level domains (ccTLDs), and the SOP WG facilitates the participation of ccTLD managers in ICANN’s strategic, operational planning and budgetary processes.

On Wednesday, the SOP WG hosted a fascinating debate on ICANN’s strategic objectives with a panel of experts, including Lesley Cowley, Chief Executive of Nominet; Alexa Raad, CEO of PIR; Fahd Batayneh from NITC; Rob Hall, President and CEO, Momentous.ca; and, Sabine Dolderer, CEO of DENIC. Certainly a panel of heavy hitters!

I was particularly interested when the panel took a look at what the drivers of change and the Internet will be for the next five years (an eternity in Internet years). New technologies are changing users’ browsing experiences, something that will affect how we conduct business in the near future.

Sparks flew, however, when the discussion turned to the political factors that will affect ccTLDs. Some passionate statements were made about the importance of maintaining an open and unregulated Internet.  Last year’s events in Iran were cited as an example as to how important an Internet free from government tinkering is when we develop policies and take actions. I agree with this, but not everybody does. Governments around the world are increasingly waking up and wanting to control the Internet, and there are other international agencies that are attempting to adopt more Internet governance related activities.

Apart from the important role the Internet can play in democracy and human rights, it’s my opinion that it makes economic sense for governments to use a light hand when attempting to regulate the Internet.  The organic, bottoms up nature of the Internet has allowed it to be an environment that stimulates creativity and self expression. Creativity is the foundation for innovation, which is the key driver for economic growth and stability. To put measures in place to regulate or control the Internet, either at the national or international level will affect the very characteristics that have allowed it to be the central driver of the economy of the last decade of the 20^th century and the first decade of the 21^st century.

On the topic of the future drivers of change in the DNS and the Internet, Rob Hall made an interesting comment about how search and the advent of the Chrome Web browser are fundamentally changing the domain space.   Chrome has a search function built right into the address bar, which is directly changing the way in which people navigate to websites. This seems to be a reoccurring theme; I’ve blogged about how the ways in which we both access and use the Web are changing.

In my opinion, we have had a “stable” industry for more than 10 years ( at least the basics of addressing); now a separate, disruptive technology from another industry may completely change our business and the need and/or use for domain names as we currently think about them.

If a transcript or podcast of the debate is posted online, I will be sure to share the link on this blog.

By the way, I’d like to take the opportunity to congratulate Heather Dryden, a Policy Advisor with Industry Canada, on being appointed as the Interim Chairperson of ICANN’s Government Advisory Committee (GAC). The GAC is responsible for providing input to ICANN from governments, specifically on issues of public policy.  Heather is a great champion of the Internet and the DNS in Canada. She is also an ex-officio member of CIRA’s Board of Directors.

In case you are interested, we’ve posted some photographs from the ccNSO and GAC meeting at ICANN 38 on our Picasa page and the CIRA Facebook fan page.

Ingenium Communications, led by Caroline Kealey, took home the International Association of Business Communicators’ (IABC) 2010 Excel Award for Crisis Communications for work with Francis Moran from inMedia Public Relations Inc. and CIRA on the Confickr C worm.

As many of you likely remember, the Confickr C worm was detected in November 2008 and showed the potential of being a significant threat to Internet security. Ingenium assisted CIRA in devising and executing a strategic crisis communications strategy, allowing us to concentrate on protecting Canadians against the Confickr C worm.

It is for this work on the crisis communications strategy that Ingenium has been awarded the 2010 IABC Excel Award for Crisis Communications.

Congratulations to Caroline, her team and Francis!

Here are our high level strategic objectives which are highlighted in the Corporate Plan:

1. Enhance Corporate Reputation

2. Increase .CA Brand Value

3. Achieve Operational Excellence

4. Champion Effective .CA Stewardship

These are pretty high level objectives. Like all corporate plans, it’s the specific activities which achieve the strategic objectives that are the compelling part, and we have numerous interesting activities planned for the next year. The ones I think are of particular interest include the following:

- You may know that CIRA is engaged in a rewrite of its registry management system. I’ve blogged about this in the past, but this activity represents a lot of work for CIRA. It is, likely, the largest single project undertaken by CIRA in its 10-year history. Once we cut over to the new registry management system, it will be much more efficient and easier to register .CA domain names. The new system will be live in October 2010.

- Over the next year, we will be hosting a Canadian Internet Governance Forum, or CIGF. The CIGF will be a cross-country consultation to “take the temperature” of Canadians’ views on the topics of Internet governance and digital literacy. CIRA will develop a policy paper from the findings of the CIGF to be presented to the global Internet Governance Forum, a UN-sponsored, global multi-stakeholder meeting.

- We have also committed to a Community Investment Program (CIP) to support social and economic Internet-related activities in Canada.  Our focus for the CIP will be on governance, internet technology infrastructure (of the soft, rather than “hard” variety), internet education and knowledge, and excellence in the use of .CA. We are going to do some very worthy as well as fun projects and I will most definitely blog about it in the future.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, we do pretty important work at CIRA – as well as some pretty cool stuff. These aren’t just words. As CIRA staff, we will live and breathe this over the next year and we are excited to really get going on the work articulated in this plan. I encourage you to take the time to read it.

Aside for the usual conference goodies (interesting swag, some valuable takeaways, interesting sessions, and great networking), there was a workshop that stood out from the rest in terms of meaning for the domain registry business.  It was a presentation by Aza Raskin (@azaaza) on the future of Web-browsing at a related event called MeshU. Raskin is the Creative Lead of Firefox at Mozilla, the most popular browser in the world.

According to Raskin, the way we browse the Web is going to change dramatically in the next three to five years. Raskin spoke in terms of Web browsers becoming “you-centric.”  What does this mean?

To surf the Web, you login to your browser – your browser knows all of your passwords, knows your contacts, and even knows how you like to interact with those contacts (Facebook vs. email vs. Twitter, and so on). With all of this information, your browser becomes your online identity, your Sherpa, your personal shopper, and even your security advisor. Forget about remembering your passwords, your browser stores them. Looking for a new vacuum? Your browser knows what your friends purchased and will recommend it for you. Want to find a great source for local news? Your browser knows what your contacts read (and, with location-based technology, knows where you are), and will take you there. In essence, the Web now revolves around you. It’s your Web.

Putting aside privacy and security issues for the time being (a topic that warrants its own post), there’s something really interesting going on here. Technology is getting to be more intuitive. As that happens more and more, the Web truly becomes a public space, not a communications medium. It’s a place where people interact, not just on social media platforms, but through day-to-day Web-browsing. Until very recently, we’ve considered the Web a medium for information exchange. No longer – it’s a place where we interact with each other.

It may also signify some changes that will affect the domain name registry business. I can see the future of this radically altering the way we surf the Internet. Instead of finding http://www.cira.ca, our browser will take us to that .CA registry that hopefully all of our friends are members of. If one of our unique selling points as the registry for .CA domain names extensions is the ‘Canadian-ness’ of .CA, what happens to that unique selling point when the likelihood that you’ll type in the website address is greatly reduced?

I look forward to this new generation of intuitive Web browsers. It will certainly enhance our online lives. At the same time, however, it is something that we, as a registry, and the privacy folks need to stay on top of.

According to Industry Canada’s website, Bill C-28:

“ . . . provides a comprehensive regulatory regime that uses economic disincentives to protect electronic commerce and is modelled on international best practices. To enforce the legislation, the bill would use the expertise, and expand the mandates, of the three enforcement agencies: the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, Competition Bureau Canada and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.”

Bill C-27 was a decent piece of legislation and it appears that C-28 is very similar.

As the CEO of the organization that runs the .CA registry and the Domain Name System that underpins it, I strongly support measures to reduce spam. It is the bane of our industry; an incredible amount of traffic on our servers is spam, and it is a drain on our resources.

I encourage Parliament to ensure the quick passage of Bill C-28.