The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a private-sector nonprofit constituting one of the major international Internet technical standards organizations, recently adopted a set of measures that increasingly prevents more public accountability to and participation from the Internet community -- including individuals and nonprofit organizations. It also issued its decision regarding nonprofit Internet domain space.

Special NPTalk commentary on the launch of FirstGov Online Government and FirstGov: The Foundation Online government! Oh my! What's happening to the Internet?!? Well, considering the amount of federal government dollars and research which helped to create the Internet and many of the tools necessary to take advantage of the opportunities it offers, government has a legitimate interest, and obligation, to make more of itself available online. The notion of government information access and unimagined service delivery makes one realize just how far we have come in under a decade.

NOTE: This article was updated on 2/15/02 On June 13, the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) issued a request for quotes (RFQ) regarding the management and administration of the .us namespace. This is one of the nearly 250 ccTLDs (country code top-level domains), which, since 1994, have been recognized as public resources for the countries to which they are assigned.

More than three years after the enactment of the Electronic Freedom of Information Act (E-FOIA), most federal agencies still fall far short of its requirements, according to a new OMB Watch report,"A People Armed?" Under E-FOIA, agencies are required to package four categories of information in electronic form for public use. This includes making all official agency pronouncements available through the Internet (or some other electronic means) and providing reference guides for accessing information electronically.