Tech Review | Digital Advertising's Disruption and Data Addiction (video)

Tech Review (TR 2018-06-30)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech news with commentary, analysis and opinion: Features • 1) Digital Advertising's Disruption and Data Addiction, 2) Four-way competition among China's smartphone giants, 3)Investing: The Week, Investing Notes: It's Summertime & Playing the "Trump",  Crypto, Gold, 4) ICYMI Tech News.

1) Digital Advertising's Disruption and Data Addiction - The advertising industry is in flux and no one can keep up:

CNBC International video above published Jun 26, 2018: advertising executives are facing a lot of questions about the future of their business - and not a lot of answers. CNBC’s Elizabeth Schulze reports from the Cannes Lions festival on disruption in the advertising industry, data monetization and privacy rules such as Europe's GDPR on data protection.

See also:

• The ad-based Internet is dead, but not because of privacy regulations--thehill.com.
• Google rebrands AdWords as Google Ads, consolidates enterprise tools as Google Marketing Platform, and unifies publisher monetization tools as Google Ad Manager--blog.google. 
• Google retires DoubleClick, AdWords brand names--Reuters.com.

2) Four-way competition among China's smartphone giants

source Statista.com (June 26, 2018)

Goodbye Samsung and Apple? Huawei, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi (mi) increasingly dominate the smartphone market in China. Also note that Xiaomi's IPO in Hong Kong valued the company at about $54 billion, roughly half the company’s initial goal--Bloomberg.com.

3) Investing

The Week: NASDAQ Composite -2.4% | S&P 500 Index -1.3% | DJIA -1.2%  | U.S. stocks end Friday broadly higher, major indexes post negative week but positive quarter. For the second quarter of 2018, all three indices ended up: DJIA +0.7%, S&P500 +2.9%, and the NASDAQ +6.3%. For the first half of 2018, the DJIA is -1.8%, the S&P500 +1.7%, and the NASDAQ +8.8%:

NASDAQ Composite

Investing Notes: It's Summertime & Playing the "Trump"

"... summer liquidity is so thin its’ difficult to see where the pressure to really spike a crash would come from. On my PA account – I’m waiting for the moment to pile in if it looks cheap – but not convinced that summer is necessarily a good time to be convinced of anything ... Playing the “Trump” is very much a matter of stripping out the negative bias news flow, working out what is real in negotiations, and assessing the real games being played in Geopolitics. Nothing is quite what it seems ..."--Bill Blain June 27, 2018.

 “The U.S. continues to be the most resilient economy and the source of many upward earnings revisions”--Marketwatch.com June 29, 2018.

Forget the tariff tantrum—S&P 500 is headed 10% higher in 2018, says Blackstone’s Wien--Marketwatch.com June 27, 2018.

Crypto:

Despite being in a mansion-sized doghouse, #bitcoin is still in our thoughts. We recently updated our correlation work on $BTC vs the S&P 500 for our DataTrek Morning Briefing. Does bitcoin’s decline tell us anything about the direction of US #stocks? The math is clear: NO.

— DataTrek Research (@DataTrekMB) June 26, 2018

• Bitcoin drops to $5,860, lowest since October 2017. True Believers with Fake Hopes Got Cleaned Out by Early Movers--WolfStreet.com Jun 24, 2018 "Down 70% from the peak. This is just not fun anymore ... at the moment, bitcoin is even worse – incredibly – than one of the worst fiat currencies in the world, the Argentine peso, which has plunged “only” 35% over the period during which bitcoin plunged 70%. That takes some doing!"
• Inside the Crypto World's Biggest Scandal--wired.com.
• Bitcoin: Mt. Gox bankruptcy in Japan changed to civil rehabilitation, allowing compensation to customers in bitcoin, which will reportedly 'more than cover cash losses'--Fortune.com.
• Blockchain will become 'obsolete' says Geopolitical Futures founder George Friedman--"I've never known any encryption technology not to be broken," Friedman told CNBC at the UBS CIO Global Forum in New York. CNBC also reported some analysts have noted that if and when an emerging technology called quantum computing matures, it could easily decrypt blockchain.

Gold:

• Gold prices mark another 2018 low even as surging dollar pauses--Marketwatch.com June 25, 2018.
• Safe Haven? A bearish ‘death cross’ formed in gold even as trade turmoil rattles stock market--Marketwatch.com June 21, 2018--“Gold is getting bogged down from a stronger U.S. dollar.”

4) ICYMI Tech News:

• Amazon buys online pharmacy PillPack--thehill.com.
• Alibaba v. Tencent: The Battle for Supremacy in China - Jack Ma of Alibaba and Pony Ma of Tencent have built tech titans that dominate China's digital economy--Fortune.com.
• Google v. Apple: There Is A Clear Winner--SeekingAlpha.com. See also 4 Myths about Alphabet (Google)--SeekingAlpha.com.
• Google: Interview of Danny Sullivan, founder of Search Engine Land, who is now Google's “search liaison” giving explanations for the Google search engine's 'errors'--CNBC.com
• The Walt Disney Company ($DIS) can buy Twenty-First Century Fox ($FOXA) provided it sells 22 regional sports networks says US Department of Justice--justice.gov.
• Redfin (NASDAQ: RDFN) (redfin.com): The 'Everything' Of Real Estate--SeekingAlpha.com.
• Sprint and T-Mobile Merger: The 12 Points From The FCC Filing That Signal Merger Approval And Potential Appreciation--SeekingAlpha.com. See also "Examining the Competitive Impact of the T-Mobile – Sprint Transaction"--Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights (US Senate video), June 27, 2018.

• WaPo Unions vs Jeff Bezos: “When Your Owner Is Richer Than God, It’s Easier To Get Uppity”: Discontent At The Washington Post As The Union Targets Jeff Bezos | VanityFair.com. [Editor's note: Bezos still thinking about building Amazon's HQ2 in a suburb of Washington, DC?]

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

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Synopsis of ICANN62 via a Twitter Feed & GAC Communique

Editor's note: kudos to Samantha Dickinson @sgdickinson:

#ICANN62 @ICANN Board #netgov session: @icann_president visited UN, NY, 4-5 June, to meet with Secretary-General, Under-SG, Chair of G77, ambassadors & diplomats. Tarek Kamel tells Board the UN SG is very interested in netgov issues & his interest predates being the UN SG.

— Samantha Dickinson (@sgdickinson) June 23, 2018

#ICANN62 @ICANN Board #netgov session: Tarek Kamel tells Board that ICANN is applying for @UNECOSOC accreditation. Not likely that accreditation will take affect until 2019.

— Samantha Dickinson (@sgdickinson) June 23, 2018

#ICANN62 Community Input to the Charter Development of the GNSO Expedited PDP (EPDP): Heather Forrest presents draft timeline for the EPDP. Time for substantive work by the WG is only 4 months due to need to still do public comments processes within 12-month timeframe.#GDPR pic.twitter.com/Wdn4Qo6XFv

— Samantha Dickinson (@sgdickinson) June 25, 2018

#ICANN62 Post #GDPR Whois/RDS Policy, @enoss: re GDPR’s benefits, the 7 million or so registrants of domain names since GDPR became active will not receive spam, not be inundated
by phone renewal requests, not be subjects to scams that pre-GDPR registrants have been targets of.

— Samantha Dickinson (@sgdickinson) June 26, 2018

#ICANN62 Post #GDPR Whois/RDS Policy, @enoss: without any timely standard from the EU or from #ICANN, registrars had to obtain their own legal advice, in many cases at least 6 months before the 25 May deadline, on how to be in compliance.

— Samantha Dickinson (@sgdickinson) June 26, 2018

#ICANN62 Post #GDPR Whois/RDS Policy, @how5: there’s very little new in terms of data protection requirements in the GDPR. #ICANN has not been in compliance with data protection law for the last 20 years.

— Samantha Dickinson (@sgdickinson) June 26, 2018

#ICANN62 Post #GDPR Whois/RDS Policy, @enoss: users have been anonymous in their use of Whois since its onset. Post-GDPR, there's no way to determine “legitimate interest” without identifying who u are. Whois is an anachronistic set of data that’s public only because of history.

— Samantha Dickinson (@sgdickinson) June 26, 2018

#ICANN62 Post #GDPR Whois/RDS Policy, @how5: to attempt to develop policy to replace the Temporary Specification in 4 months is heroic… and possibly stupid. We need to set ourselves up for success by limiting the amount we attempt to achieve in the EPDP.

— Samantha Dickinson (@sgdickinson) June 26, 2018

#ICANN62 Post #GDPR Whois/RDS Policy, @enoss: if #ICANN issues Temp Spec on access, but if our legal advisors tell us it’s not in compliance with GDPR, then we won’t implement it. If we have to choose between litigating with ICANN or EU, reluctantly choose litigating with ICANN.

— Samantha Dickinson (@sgdickinson) June 26, 2018

#ICANN62 Accreditation & Access to Non-Public Whois Data Post-#GDPR, @how5: That, or cast the net wider, & ask all DPAs globally, because data protection laws exist in more countries than just European ones. https://t.co/sbpFJTu7Xw

— Samantha Dickinson (@sgdickinson) June 26, 2018

#ICANN62 Accreditation & Access to Non-Public Whois Data Post-#GDPR, Michael Palage: It’s been over a decade since @ICANN_GNSO has been able to complete a PDP in 1 year. It’s time to think outside the box. Encourages registrars to come forward with pilots, as @tucows has done.

— Samantha Dickinson (@sgdickinson) June 26, 2018

Personal observation: the prevalence of handwringing, “what we really need to do is” & alarmed, angsty tone of speakers in #ICANN62 #GDPR sessions reminds me of the 1st ICANN meeting to discuss #IANAsteward transition… Only difference is this GDPR thing has truncated timeframe.

— Samantha Dickinson (@sgdickinson) June 26, 2018

"For years people and organisations have had access to a LOT of data. They had unrestricted and complete access to everything. And in some respects they got addicted to that data" https://t.co/XrZgYIpuF3 #icann #gdpr #whois #panama

— Blacknight Solutions (@blacknight) June 27, 2018

Despite reporting to GNSO otherwise, it is clear that ICANN org, as it told GAC today, is going to unilaterally come up with Access model in consultation with the European Data Protection Board and along with its friends in GAC. Clearly community won't be involved. #icann62

— IGP Alert (@IGPAlert) June 27, 2018

#ICANN62 GAC/Board mtg, Russia: supports Brazil’s intervention. If possible, would be useful to begin discussions on how to move jurisdiction issue forward post-WS2 of CCWG-Accountability during #ICANN63 in Barcelona. https://t.co/I1qO12fBYr

— Samantha Dickinson (@sgdickinson) June 27, 2018

#ICANN62 GAC Communique drafting: Panama Communique is adopted at 8:35 pm, Panama time! The Communique will be published tomorrow.

— Samantha Dickinson (@sgdickinson) June 28, 2018

ICANN62 GAC Communique ((pdf) embed below:

Editor's note: more on ICANN62 here and in this coming weekend's News Review on Domain Mondo. 

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The Kindred AI's Robots That Want Your Job (video)

The Kindred AI's Robots That Want Your Job

Bloomberg.com video above published Jun 18, 2018: Conventional wisdom today says that robots will put millions of factory workers out of jobs. In this Hello World segment, journalist Ashlee Vance visits the Toronto headquarters of startup Kindred AI to learn about the cutting-edge technology behind our robot replacements from Kindred AI's refreshingly human co-founders, Suzanne Gilbert and George Babu.

Domain: kindred.ai

Tweets by kindredai

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AI, NTIA, Crypto, ZTE & CyberSecurity Hearings LIVE June 26-27 (video)

ZTE: A Threat to America’s Small Businesses

ZTE: A Threat to America’s Small Businesses | house.gov - "The Committee on Small Business will meet for a hearing titled, “ZTE: A Threat to America’s Small Businesses.”  The hearing is scheduled to begin at 11:00 A.M. EDT on Wednesday, June 27, 2018 in Room 2360 of the Rayburn House Office Building.

"This hearing will examine the imminent threat posed to America’s small businesses by the Chinese telecommunications firm ZTE. The hearing will provide committee members the opportunity to hear from national security experts and cybersecurity firms on steps the administration can take to protect small businesses and American citizens from the dangers presented by ZTE. The hearing will also investigate ongoing efforts being by both the public and private sectors to reduce the challenges small businesses face in dealing with illicit Chinese backed enterprises."

Hearing Notice (pdf); Witness List (pdf)--witnesses:

• Mr. David Linger, President & CEO, TechSolve, Inc., Cincinnati, OH; 
• Mr. Andy Keiser, Visiting Fellow, National Security Institute, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University, Arlington, VA; 
• Mr. Matthew G. Olsen, President, IronNet Cybersecurity, Kensington, MD.

Editor's note: background--

• US government action re: ZTE (pdf)
• ZTE ceased most U.S. operations after the Trump administration imposed a ban in April. After that, the Trump administration reached a deal with ZTE which would allow it to continue doing business, which some in Washington now want Trump to reconsider, but other members of Congress support Trump’s deal with ZTE, noting it is the president’s prerogative to conduct foreign policy. For more read "U.S. senators want Trump to reconsider lifting ban on China's ZTE"--Reuters.com June 26, 2018. 

CyberSecurity: Examining The Trump Administration’s Government-Wide Reorganization Plan, Full House Committee On Oversight And Government Reform, Hearing Date: June 27, 2018 10:00 AM EDT. LIVE video and replay at link above.

The reform plan rolled out Thursday by the Office of Management and Budget makes addressing the federal government's cybersecurity workforce shortage among its priorities. It sets forth actions for OPM (Office of Personnel Management), the Department of Homeland Security, and the Pentagon to take to address the issue.

From the report: "The Federal Government struggles to recruit and retain cybersecurity professionals due to a shortage of talent along with growing demand for these employees across the public and private sectors ... The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), working in coordination with all Federal departments and agencies, will establish a unified cyber workforce capability across the civilian enterprise ... This Administration will work towards a standardized approach to Federal cybersecurity personnel, ensuring Government-wide visibility into talent gaps, as well as unified solutions to fill those gaps in a timely and prioritized manner."

The report (pdf) outlining the reform plan is embed below:

AI - With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

Artificial Intelligence (AI) – With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility - Subcommittee on Research and Technology and Subcommittee on Energy Hearing - Date: Tuesday, June 26, 2018 - 10:30 am EDT.

Hearing Purpose: The purpose of the hearing is to understand the state of artificial intelligence technology and the difference between narrow and general intelligence. The hearing will also examine the types of research being conducted to advance artificial general intelligence technology and explore its game-changing potential and implications.

Witnesses:

• Dr. Jaime Carbonell, director, Language Technologies Institute, and Allen Newell Professor, School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University (Dr. Carbonell will not be present at the hearing.)
• Dr. Tim Persons, chief scientist, GAO 

• Mr. Greg Brockman, co-founder and chief technology officer, OpenAI

• Dr. Fei-Fei Li, chairperson of the board and co-founder, AI4ALL 

NTIA - Reauthorization Act of 2018

NTIA: The Subcommittee on Communications and Technology will hold a hearing on Tuesday, June 26, 2018, at 1:15 p.m. EDT, in 2322 Rayburn House Office Building. The hearing is entitled "DiscussionDraft: National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Reauthorization Act of 2018." [Editor's note: WHOIS & GDPR discussion begins at 1:45:47 in the video above.]

Witnesses:

• The Honorable Michael D. Gallagher, CEO, Entertainment Software Association, Witness Statement (pdf)
• The Honorable John Kneuer, President, JKC Consulting, Witness Statement
• Ms. Joanne S. Hovis, President, CTC Technology and Energy, Witness Statement

Documents: Hearing Notice and Background Memo (pdf)--excerpt:

"Internet Governance: NTIA leads and participates in an interagency effort to develop American internet policy and works directly with stakeholders to develop policies that preserve an open, interconnected global internet, continued innovation, and economic growth. To that point, NTIA has jurisdiction over the Domain Name Service (DNS) and is the U.S. voice in the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)’s Government Advisory Committee, ICANN maintains and enforces contracts with all registrars, requiring them to continue to collect identifying information from registries during the domain registration process. This information is maintained by registrars in a WHOIS database, pursuant to the terms of the registrar’s contract with ICANN. The discussion draft contains a sense of Congress that states NTIA should work to ensure that the multistakeholder model of internet governance maintains the security, stability, and resiliency of the DNS, and that new laws and regulations around the world do not undermine the WHOIS service."

The hearing webcast will also be available at energycommerce.house.gov. The legislative text may be found here. #SubCommTech

Crypto: Protecting Our Elections: Examining Shell Companies and Virtual Currencies [Crypto] as Avenues for Foreign Interference - US Senate Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism, Tuesday, June 26, 2018, at  2:30 P.M. EDT, Dirksen Senate Office Building 226. Presiding: Senator Graham. LIVE video and replay at link above.

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CrowdEmotion, an Emotion-Inspired Artificial Intelligence Company

Interview of Jing-Han Ong, CrowdEmotion

The Banker video above published Jun 18, 2018: Jing-Han Ong, commercial lead, CrowdEmotion, an emotion-inspired artificial intelligence (AI) company, explains how the start-up is using smart devices to capture and index engagement, emotions and body language.

Domain: crowdemotion.co.uk

Tweets by CrowdEmotion

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Micro Class on Laddering and Apple's Strategy on Privacy (video)

Prof G Micro Class: Laddering

L2inc.com video above published Jun 21, 2018: Laddering, from cigarette brands to Apple $AAPL, Scott Galloway says smart brands use this brand strategy to one-up their competition.

Sources:
(00:04) Source: “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,” Mad Men, July 2007. https://imdb.to/2yvu80O
(01:07) Source: Bush-Cheney ‘04, Inc. https://bit.ly/22TVORK
(02:24) Source: “Tim Cook Calls Privacy a ‘Fundamental Human Right’,” Bloomberg Markets and Finance, Jun 2018. https://bit.ly/2IbsC3n

Transcript:
00:01 how do you make your cigarettes we
00:04 breed insect repellent tobacco seeds
00:06 grow it cut it cure it toast it there
00:10 you got it there you go but everybody
00:15 else's tobacco is toasted ... no, everybody
00:17 else's tobacco is poisonous, Lucky
00:21 Strike's is toasted. Well gentlemen I
00:25 don't think I have to tell you what you
00:26 just witness here, I think you do ... In my
00:29 brand strategy course at NYU Stern we
00:31 talked about laddering and it's an
00:33 attempt to D position your competition
00:35 by saying we're this they're this and
00:37 then figuring out what attribute you
00:39 want to talk about that not only
00:40 reflects you in a positive light but
00:42 just as importantly D positions or shed
00:45 your competition in a negative light the
00:47 ultimate laddering and D positioning was
00:49 in 2004 when George Bush's campaign went
00:52 through a series of attributes and
00:53 settled in on that he was resolute even
00:56 when he was wrong he was resolute this
00:58 was the perfect deep positioning of
01:00 Senator Kerry who was seen as a
01:02 flip-flopper this is that ad that one
01:04 George Bush the presidency in which
01:07 direction would John Kerry lead Kerry
01:09 voted for the Iraq war opposed it
01:12 supported it and now opposes it again he
01:15 bragged about voting for the 87 billion
01:18 to support our troops before he voted
01:20 against it he voted for education reform
01:23 and now opposes it he claims he's
01:25 against increasing Medicare premiums but
01:28 voted five times to do so John Kerry
01:30 whichever
01:33 so what does apples key push in terms of
01:36 strategy and communications over the
01:37 last three months its 2d position and
01:40 ladder the rest of big tech the
01:42 Cupertino firm is on a PR tour to
01:44 convince people that unlike its big tech
01:46 brethren its concerned about your kids
01:48 the commonwealth and your privacy Tim
01:51 Cook's privacy is a basic human right
01:54 statement puts a finger squarely in the
01:56 eye of Facebook and Google and was
01:59 convenient because Apple hasn't been in
02:01 the business of collecting data it's a
02:03 little bit like Starbucks saying they're
02:05 worried about offshore drilling it's not
02:06 going to cost them anything to be
02:08 sanctimonious with other people's
02:10 decisions anyways it will be interesting
02:12 to see if Apple's position on privacy
02:15 holds when they start advertising in
02:18 their app ecosystem and their
02:19 advertisers demand the same data on the
02:21 audience they are paying for we see
02:24 privacy is a fundamental human right and
02:27 so to us it's right up there with some
02:31 of the other civil liberties that make
02:35 Americans what they are you as defines
02:38 us as Americans Apple also has said they
02:40 too are looking for a new headquarters [second campus]
02:42 but are not going to engage in a beauty
02:44 contest the results in a win-lose for
02:46 municipalities this is essentially
02:48 sticking their finger in the eye of you
02:50 guessed it Amazon saying hey guys we're
02:53 better than you finally Apple has built
02:55 the most addictive technology for kids
02:57 but at the recent Worldwide Developer
02:59 Conference what took center stage the
03:01 iPhone the home pod no the start with
03:04 safeguards for children's framed as
03:06 digital wellness which includes a
03:07 families page with educational material
03:10 for parents and a downtime app which
03:12 allows parents to put usage limits on
03:14 different installed apps Apple is
03:17 consciously uncoupling from the rest of
03:18 big tech it's a passive-aggressive sure
03:20 so is buying your wife an amazing
03:23 Mother's Day gift and while you're
03:25 saying with that gift I love you you're
03:27 my partner for life you might also be
03:28 saying your gift for Father's Day just
03:31 didn't cut it remember me the guy who
03:33 woke up in the middle of the night to
03:35 feed those little monsters so you could
03:37 head off to Goldman Sachs at 5:30 in the
03:38 morning and be a master of the universe
03:40 which by the way is pretty damn
03:41 emasculating well it's time you stepped
03:43 up with a great gift for
03:45 big dog ruff we'll see you next week I
03:51 can't believe people actually watch that
03:53 stuff
03:55 [Music] Song: “I Woof You” by Heiakim https://bit.ly/2IeAp0A

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News Review | ICANN62 Panama City, Policy Forum, 25-28 Jun 2018

Domain Mondo's weekly internet domain news review (NR 2018-06-24) with analysis and opinion: Features •  1) ICANN62 Panama City, Policy Forum, 25-28 Jun 2018, 2)Other ICANN news: a. UPDATE ICANN v. EPAG (Tucows), b.ICANN Handbook for Registry Operators, c. ICANN FY17 Revenue Sources, and more, 3) Names, Domains & TMs: MMX + XXX et al, and more, 4) ICYMI, 5) Most Read.

1) ICANN62 | Panama City | Policy Forum 25-28 Jun 2018

Twitter hashtag #ICANN62  | Time in Panama: 

ICANN62 schedule (subject to change), schedule times are local Panama (24-hour clock)--highlighted sessions below mostly about GDPR / WHOIS and the upcoming EPDP (Expedited Policy Development Process):

Monday:

• GAC: Opening Plenary and Overview of Weekly GAC Sessions 9-10:15, Mon, Jun 25

• GNSO: NCSG - GNSO Board Members Meeting 9-10:15, Mon, Jun 25- GDPR and accreditation model - The future of Temp Spec and its effect on privacy of domain name registrants 

• GNSO: NCSG - Policy Committee 10:30 - 12:00, Mon, Jun 25

• GAC: GDPR Overview 11:00 - 12:00, Mon, Jun 25

• GNSO Working Session 12:15 - 15:00, Mon, Jun 25

• High Interest Session: High Interest Session: Community Input to GNSO Expedited PDP Charter Development RDS-WHOIS2 Review 17:00 - 18:30, Mon, Jun 25

Tuesday:

• GAC: Discussion on GDPR 8:45 - 9:45, Tue, Jun 26

• WHOIS & GDPR GNSO EPDP on Temporary Specification for gTLD Registration Data - Initiation Request and Charter DT meeting 9:00 - 15:00, Tue, Jun 26

• Cross-Community Session: WHOIS/RDS Policy: Post-GDPR Development and Next Steps 15:15 - 16:45, Tue, Jun 26 video replay below:

• Cross-Community Session: Accreditation  and Access to Non-Public WHOIS Data Post-GDPR 17:00 - 18:30, Tue, Jun 26 [Editor's note: ICANN's Livestream replay of this session has no audio- now fixed after complaint filed]: embed below--

Wednesday:

• GNSO - RrSG - GDPR: Tucows' Lessons from 1 Month into Tiered Access 9:00 - 10:15, Wed, Jun 27

• GAC: Discussion on GDPR 9:15 - 10:15, Wed, Jun 27

• Joint Meeting: ICANN Board and GAC 10:30 - 11:30, Wed, Jun 27

• Community Dialogue: A Proposed Governance Model for the DNS Root Server System 13:30 - 15:00, Wed, Jun 27 - Editor's note: see RSSAC037: A Proposed Governance Model for the DNS Root Server System (pdf)

• GNSO: CSG - Open Meeting 15:15 - 16:45, Wed, Jun 27, 2018 [Editor's note: agenda]

Thursday:

• GNSO: CPH/NCSG - GDPR session 8:30 - 9:00, Thu, Jun 28

• GNSO: CPH - GDPR Discussion Group 9:00 - 10:15, Thu, Jun 28

• GNSO Council Wrap-Up 12:15 - 13:15, Thu, Jun 28

• High Interest Session: RDS-WHOIS2 Review 17:00 - 18:30, Thu, Jun 28:

 See graphic below from the GNSO pre-ICANN62 webinar on June 18:

For more background info see last week's News Review 2)c. ICANN WHOIS & GDPR: EPDP (Expedited Policy Development Process).

See also:

• 22 June 2018 Letter from Heather Forrest, Donna Austin, and Rafik Dammak to Cherine Chalaby re: Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP) in relation to the Temporary Specification. ICANN Chairman's response here (pdf) and earlier response here. 
• the Temporary Specification for gTLD Registration Data and the FAQ for implementing the Temporary Specification for gTLD Registration Data at ICANN.org.

• An Access Model for Whois Data that Respects Registrants Rights--internetgovernance.org.
• The ICANN discussion draft on UAM: Another railroad?--internetgovernance.org.

ICANN Meeting & Media Resources:

• Remote Participation via Adobe Connect etc.

• ICANN pre- and post-meeting reports | ICANN.org

• ICANN62 Selected Sessions (LIVE & Replay) on Livestream.com 

• Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) Advice Consideration Process (pdf)

• On Twitter: Samantha Dickinson @sgdickinson 

• ICANNnews | YouTube.com

2) Other ICANN news

a. UPDATE: ICANN v. EPAG Domainservices, GmbH (Tucows)--18 June 2018 Letter from Regional Court of Bonn asking EPAG to comment on ICANN's Immediate Appeal (attaching ICANN's Immediate Appeal papers) (in German) [PDF, 444 KB]--English translation:

Above: English Translation of Letter from Regional Court of Bonn asking EPAG to comment on ICANN's Immediate Appeal (attaching ICANN's Immediate Appeal papers) [PDF, 93 KB] (Unofficial; provided for information purposes only--personal identifiable information has been redacted by ICANN).  ICANN published the above on its website June 22 (UTC) and announced:

"On 13 June 2018, ICANN appealed the Regional Court's initial decision to reject ICANN's application for an injunction, in which ICANN sought a court order requiring EPAG to reinstate collection of administrative and technical contact data for new domain name registrations. Upon receipt of an appeal, the Regional Court has the option to re-evaluate its decision that is being appealed, or affirm its decision and immediately forward the matter to the Higher Regional Court for consideration of the appeal. In this instance, the Regional Court has decided to revisit its initial decision and has asked EPAG to comment on ICANN's appellate papers within two weeks."

More background information at News Review | GDPR Effect: ICANN Sues German Domain Name Registrar.

b. ICANN Global Domains Division (GDD) General Operations Handbook for Registry Operators 01 Jun 2018 | ICANN.org (pdf) [540 KB] Version 1.0:

Full embed below:

See also Registry Services Evaluation Policy (RSEP) Request (pdf).

c. ICANN FY17 Revenue Sources--didp-20180326-1-bopanna-response-01jun18-en.pdf [602 KB] embed below [Editor's note: almost half comes from Verisign + GoDaddy]:

d. SSAC [Security and Stability Advisory Committee] Bios and Disclosures of Interest 15 June 2018 | ICANN.org.

e. ICANN Announces Calls-to-Action for Community Participation in ICANN Reviews | ICANN.org 19 June 2018.

f. CEP and IRP Status Update 20 June 2018 irp-cep-status-20jun18-en.pdf [122 KB].

3) Names, Domains & Trademarks

a. Minds + Machines Group Limited ("MMX") (AIM: MMX) (domain: mmx.co), registry operator  of new generic Top-Level Domains ("new gTLDs"), announced approval from ICANN allowing the acquisition of ICM Registry LLC (domain: icmregistry.com) which operates 4 gTLDs: .XXX, .SEX, .PORN, .ADULT, which will be added to the MMX portfolio. More info here.

b. Domain name registrar Web.com Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:WEB), including its affiliate registrars Network Solutions and Register.com, announced a pending all cash sale of itself for $1.24B to a private-equity affiliate of Siris Capital (siris.com), shortly after activist investor Starboard Value LP reported a 9.4% stake in Web.com. Under the terms of the pending deal, the Siris affiliate will acquire all of Web.com’s outstanding common stock for $25 per share in cash. More information here.

c.  GDPR & WHOIS: OpenSRS’ Tiered Access Directory (Gated Whois) | OpenSRS.com.

d. Domain Name Registrars Scam: The Federal Court in Australia has ordered that domain name registrars Domain Corp Pty Ltd and Domain Name Agency Pty Ltd (also trading as Domain Name Register) pay combined penalties of $1.95 million for breaching the Australian Consumer Law--accc.gov.au, 15 June 2018.

e. Domain Registry Operators and Registrars: Notices of Breach, Suspension, Termination and Non-Renewal | ICANN.org (2013-2018).

4) ICYMI Internet Domain News 

Must-Read: The Failure of Internet Freedom by Jack Goldsmith (pdf) and The De-Americanization of Internet Freedom | Lawfareblog.com.

GDPR emails going unopened | cnbc.com: "The GDPR requires companies to send emails to people on their mailing list who have never bought anything, asking permission to keep emailing them. Most Americans are not opening those emails, and some are using them to unsubscribe. As a result, some email marketers stand to lose 80 percent of their marketing lists -- or face huge fines from the EU if they keep trying to email these people without permission."

5) Four Most Read Posts this past week on DomainMondo.com: 

1. News Review | The State of the Domain Name Industry Q1 2018

2. Tech Review | Netflix $NFLX Shaking Up Disney & Other Media Companies

3. Tech Review | Media Disruption, Mergers & Fear of the Future (video)

4. Rise of the Chief Data Officer (CDO) and Data Protection Officer (DPO)

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo 

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Tech Review | Media Disruption, Mergers & Fear of the Future (video)

Tech Review (TR 2018-06-23)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech news with commentary, analysis and opinion: Features • 1) Media Disruption & Fear of the Future, 2) Time Warner - What AT&T Got For $81B, 3) Investing: The Week, Investing Notes: Short Tesla $TSLA?, 4) ICYMI Tech News.

1) Media Disruption, Mergers & Fear of the Future
AT&T, Time Warner and the Entire Media Merger Frenzy Explained

Wall Street Journal (wsj.com) video above published Jun 14, 2018: From AT&T and Time Warner to the hot pursuit of 21st Century Fox and Sky, media mergers are in full swing. Why now? WSJ's Amol Sharma answers all your questions about the forces driving media deals.

Is the Media Sector Evolving or Devolving?" | inflectioncapital.co: "The media sector is at an existential crossroads. Its content is going direct to the consumer and traditional distributors like cable and satellite will be bypassed. Savings from cutting out distributors will be passed on to the consumer and video content choice should rise, allowing consumers to watch more TV shows and films. Consequently, audiences will continue to splinter and it will become more costly to attract an audience; industry revenue growth and margins will both deteriorate. 21st Century Fox and Disney have taken steps to produce more value for shareholders. However, that value will likely accumulate only at a low-double-digit annual rate. For the remainder of media, value is likely to fall as the companies don’t have a strategy to resolve their legacy dependencies. The tech and telecom titans (AT&T, Apple, Amazon, etc.) that already have adjacent media business will likely only accumulate value from their core businesses, not from their media assets. This is because video packaging and distribution is becoming a profitless business—unless one has massive global scale. Additionally, there is little way for the other tech and telecom titans to buy Discovery, Viacom, AMC Networks, etc. and create meaningful shareholder value. All the needle-moving assets are now taken. In contrast, Netflix has reached such a large scale in subscribers and content-acquisition capability that its market value is likely to accumulate at a rate faster than low double digits." (emphasis added) [Editor's note: for more, read the White Paper (pdf).]

2) Time Warner - What AT&T Got For $81 Billion (closing price per the 8K filing) - AT&T's acquisition of Time Warner closed on Thursday, June 14, 2018. Since then AT&T (NYSE:T):

The chart below shows the revenue of AT&T and Time Warner in 2017 by business segment

Source: Statista.com

See also:

• Revisiting AT&T's Rationale for Buying Time Warner | fool.com

• Why I Am Acquiring More AT&T | SeekingAlpha.com 

• AT&T (NYSE:T) Best Dividend Stock Of All Time Now Trades Cheap--SeekingAlpha.com 

3) Investing

The Week: NASDAQ Composite -0.7% | S&P 500 Index -0.9% | DJIA -2%.
But on Friday (June 22), both the S&P 500 and the Dow ended trading up--S&P +0.2%, Dow (DJIA) +0.5%.

“Underlying breadth points to an eventual new high in price for the S&P 500,” wrote Bespoke Investment Group, in a report cited by Raymond James. The “long-term uptrend channels are still in place.”--Improving market breadth could indicate stock strength ahead | MarketWatch.com 18 June 2018.

"... the stock market - particularly big-tech ... Every dip is met by a wall of buying, ramping the market ever higher ..."--This Is The Greatest Short-Squeeze In History | ZeroHedge.com 20 June 2018. 

Wall Street's Charging Bull

Investing Notes: Short Tesla $TSLA?
Black Swan author Nassim Taleb defended Tesla after an actress posted a video of a Tesla on fire:

There are 150K-200K car fires per annum. You take one event & an emotional statement of an actress & turn it into a statement about the safety of @Tesla. And this is 2018.

I am blocking any commentator who doesn't get it. In this and other similar situations. Finito.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb (@nntaleb) June 17, 2018

On Monday Elon Musk showed off Tesla's newest production line and predicted that those who have shorted $TSLA “have about three weeks before their short position explodes.” But note the report out Friday, June 22, 2018: Exclusive: Tesla to close a dozen solar facilities in nine states--Reuters.com.

Other notes:

• The Cass Freight Index: A Measure of North American Freight Activity | cassinfo.com: shipments and expenditures up significantly. "The US is pretty much the only normalised economy on the planet"--Bill Blain. See also The Huge Ships for the Booming LNG Trade | WolfStreet.com.

• Why heads are exploding at the Fed | MarketWatch.com: at 3.8% unemployment, all of the econometric models indicate we should be seeing a lot more wage and price inflation than we are experiencing, but those econometric models are based upon historical statistics which don't factor in the consequences of the technological and institutional changes that are redefining U.S. labor, commodity and product markets, including the disappearance of the Phillips curve—the hypothesized inverse relationship between inflation and unemployment.

• Euro Risk: "The reasons the European economy remains so anemic are more to do with the Euro – the need to restructure economies at a time of enforced austerity to make the common currency work."--Bill Blain. See also Italy never should have joined the euro, and the ECB can’t rescue it from its next crisis: "Italy could plunge the eurozone into an unmanageable crisis"--MarketWatch.com.

• What about China? Read this week's expose at Axios.com, including intellectual property theft, the link between China's anti-monopoly policies and its industrial goals, etc.

• Global Debt: Are debt crises in Argentina and Turkey a global warning sign? | TheGuardian.com by Kenneth Rogoff. 
• If it’s already carrying significant debt, it’s “really handcuffed”--The Toys “R” Us Bankruptcy and Private Equity | TheAtlantic.com--“Had these companies remained publicly owned, they would have had a much higher probability of being able to adapt, to invest, and to withstand the ups and downs of the economy."--Thomas Paulson, founder of Inflection Capital Management (inflectioncapital.co).

• How U.S. tax reform rewards companies that shift profit to tax havens | Reuters.com.

• Investing Without People (pdf) by Howard Marks, Oaktree Capital (oaktreecapital.com), and Revamping Or Starting A Portfolio Now--SeekingAlpha.com. 

4) ICYMI Tech News:

• Internet Tax: US Supreme Court allows states collect sales tax from online retailers--Reuters.com.
• Regulation: FTC plans to reexamine how it polices tech companies | TheHill.com.
• Yahoo Mail aims at emerging markets and casual users, launches versions for mobile web and Android Go--TechCrunch.com.
• 5G: Ericsson needs industries to embrace 5G to underpin its recovery--Reuters.com.
• Data: The consumer data collection industry is about to explode (opinion June 19, 2018)--TheHill.com.
• Google to invest $550 million in JD.com, China's 2nd largest e-commerce site--cnbc.com.
• Google: More transparency and control in your Google Account--blog.google. 
• Google rolls out web interface for Android Messages enabling texting from desktop and says GIF search, Smart Reply, and more features coming--blog.google.
• Personal tech--pocket-lint.com re: bbc.co.uk/iplayer--How to watch BBC iPlayer in the US and elsewhere. 
• Work: Companies need older workers and here is why--Reuters.com.
• Environment: By 2030, an estimated 111 million metric tons of used plastic will need to be buried or recycled somewhere else—or not manufactured at all according to a new analysis of UN global trade data by University of Georgia researchers--Bloomberg.com.

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
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