The Republic of South Sudan has officially been designated the .SS country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) in an announcement from the ISO (International Organization for Standardization). As well as the ccTLD, South Sudan was allocated country codes for passports and financial transactions. These codes are a basic requirement for the world’s newest country, the Republic of South Sudan. Remarking on what the establishment of a country code means for a new country like South Sudan, Gérard Lang, Chair of the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency, explains, “ISO country codes are fundamental for the international recognition and activities of a country. Without them, a country cannot have a currency code or Internet ccTLD, or even issue machine-readable passports. “Country codes are essential in banking transactions, as they form part of codes like IBAN (international bank account number), BIC (universal bank identifier). They are also used in various legal, cultural and scientific exchanges which range from numbering of archaeological sites to online identification of a user’s geo-location. One could say that country codes are one of the building blocks underpinning globalisation and, in particular, communication and exchanges on the web. “It was therefore crucial to establish ISO country codes for South Sudan as soon as possible. Now that the process has been finalised, the country can go ahead with other basic tasks like issuing a currency code,” emphasised Mr. Lang. ISO 3166 country codes are widely used as abbreviations to identify countries in contexts such as postal addresses, transportation, passports, library coding systems and online payment systems. Many codes, such as those for currencies and banking, are based on these. They have largely replaced some 70 different systems of country codes developed over time by individual countries, and public and private sector organisations, eliminating potential for confusion. The ISO codes are assigned under transparent procedures by the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency which makes them available free of charge. ISO assigns the codes, but does not determine whether a territory is a country. ISO 3166 codes are automatically assigned to any new member admitted to United Nations and its name listed in either the Terminology Bulletin Country Names or in the Country and Region Codes for Statistical Use (M49 numerical country code assignments) maintained by the United Nations Statistics Division. The two-letter codes are the most commonly used, while the three-letter codes are for special uses where a closer identification of the code with the full name of the country concerned is required. They are used notably in machine-readable passports meeting the requirements of the International Civil Aviation Organization.

The chairman of ICANN until last month, Peter Dengate Thrush, has today been appointed executive chairman of Top Level Domain Holdings, a company that intends to make targeted investments in this space, focusing on both infrastructure technologies and specific top level domains. “Peter will be an outstanding asset to TLDH. Peter and I have worked together as ICANN participants since its inception, and I am very pleased to welcome him as our executive chairman,” said Antony Van Couvering, TLDH’s chief executive officer. “Peter championed successfully the approval of the new [generic top-level domain] programme at the highest levels and with Peter on board I have every confidence we will achieve the same success at TLDH. I can’t think of a better addition to our team – Peter is a superstar in our field, and we are delighted to have him at the helm.” At the last ICANN meeting, the last that Dengate Thrush chaired, the application programme was approved by the board and there will be an application window for new gTLD applicants for three months from 12 January. Dengate Thrush has been involved in ICANN since its inception over ten years ago including through providing comments on the formation of ICANN and serving on the launching group of the ccNSO, who subsequently elected him an ICANN board member in 2005 and then ICANN chair replacing Vint Cerf in 2007. His term on the board, and as ICANN chair, ended at the ICANN meeting in Singapore in late June. Dengate Thrush was also instrumental in the establishment of the Asia Pacific Top Level Domain association and was legal advisor to InternetNZ.

The American Bankers Association (ABA) and BITS, the technology policy division of The Financial Services Roundtable, are working to prepare the financial services industry for potential new financial generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) and have teamed with VeriSign, Inc. the trusted provider of Internet infrastructure services for the networked world, to serve as their exclusive registry operator. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) new gTLD initiative could result in an unprecedented number of new consumer domains.

KEMP Tachnologies Load Master 1500 appliance (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Load balancing solutions provider KEMP Technologies ( www.kemptechnologies.com ) announced on Tuesday it has expanded its European sales and marketing headquarters in Limerick, Ireland. The company previously expanded into Europe, opening its headquarters in Hanover, Germany. The opening of the new office is supported by the Irish Government with the aid of Industrial Development Agency Ireland.

Victoria, Australia 23st October 2010 – With advent of the World Wide Web, virtually every business entity wants to extend their online presence and in this milieu, one name that stands out in the crowd when it comes to design, host and print services is Green Publishing. Green Publishing is a professional Graphic Design, Web Services and Print Management company which has earned an unrivaled repute in these niche industry segments.

What Apple – and Technology – Is Taking Away From Us The weekend was one in which many Americans did a lot of thinking about the freedoms we enjoy. I’m a big fan of technology, but it seems our lives are controlled by the gadgets we surround ourselves with more and more each day. So take a few minutes to set aside your iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry, TV, or game console and enjoy a moment of freedom from your technology.

Since 1985, non-state actors under Jon Postel’s leadership have experimented creating virtual national spaces on the Internet through so-called “country code top level domain names” (ccTLDs). There are 251 ccTLDs on the Internet. In 1998, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) – the newly established coordination body for Internet addresses including ccTLDs – stressed out the principle of private sector leadership instead of public sector administration of Internet identifiers