[governance] ICANN to shut down internet for one hour

[Stephane Bortzmeyer]

It seems that this important announcement, made yesterday, was not
forwarded here. Since it has clear relevance with governance issues, I
repost it here:

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/communications/0,1000000085,39377525,00.htm

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ICANN to shut down internet for one hour

David Meyer ZDNet.co.uk

Published: *01 Apr* 2008 10:27 BST

The main domain servers and related infrastructure controlling the 
internet will be powered down for one hour on Tuesday at 12pm, British 
Summer Time.

ICANN, the body responsible for maintaining the registry of domain names 
and IP addresses, announced on Tuesday that it would effectively turn 
off the internet in order to gauge the ecological impact of such a move.

The decision follows the success of the recently observed "Earth Hour", 
in which people around the globe turned off their lights for one hour in 
a gesture towards saving energy.

Unlike Earth Hour, ICANN's "Web-Off Hour" will not operate on a rolling 
basis according to time-zone differences around the world. ICANN itself 
is based in California, and its decision to turn off the internet there 
at 4am means that the UK will be without access for one hour starting at 
noon, British Summer Time.

The time of 4am was chosen in order to cause minimal disruption to the 
Californian economy, given the US's current financial downturn, but the 
impact on the rest of the world will have to be evaluated after the 
fact, said ICANN.

"The earth has been around for billions of years, but the internet has 
only been in existence for decades," reasoned ICANN spokesperson Yu 
Haveena Lough on Monday. Speaking to ZDNet.co.uk, Lough pointed to the 
vast energy consumption of server farms and personal computers, and 
suggested that the total energy saved during Web-Off Hour might be 
equivalent to that saved by pulling almost 956,003 SUVs off the road for 
a year and three-quarters.

ICANN's move is the latest in a string of "green IT" announcements made 
in recent years, as the technology industry strives to reduce its 
negative impact on global ecology.

----- End forwarded message -----
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