Back in September I announced that OpenDNS had been selected as a World Economic Forum (WEF) Technology Pioneer for 2011. This is one of the greatest honors our company has ever received, second only to the recommendations our customers give to their friends and colleagues in spreading the word about OpenDNS.

As a part of the honor, I was invited to Davos, Switzerland last week to participate in the amazing WEF 2011 Annual Meeting. The roughly 1,200 attendees included dozens of heads of state, excellencies, titans of industry, and many worldly luminaries. It was in Davos that I was able to hear Kofi Annan speak about Africa, shake former President Bill Clinton’s hand, have breakfast with Bill Gates and meet many of the leading CEOs in the tech world. It was amazing to participate in discussions on how we will solve the world’s many problems alongside some of the most impressive, powerful, and accomplished individuals on the planet.

I wanted to share some highlights from the week with all of you to give you a sense of the amazing environment that I was allowed to be a part of, and hopefully give you all a strong appreciation for how this will help OpenDNS grow to be an even better service for you and a driving force for innovation over this new decade and beyond.

The entrance to the main hall of the Congress Center where the event is held in Davos, Switzerland

Lots of personal security, drivers in armored cars, and more waiting to get in each morning!

Me (wearing a backpack) waiting to shake Bill Clinton’s hand.

Listening to the President of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Medvedev, talk about protecting communications online and support investments in science and technology.

At breakfast with Bill Gates. Listening to him speak was inspiring and encouraging.

The surge protectors at the World Economic Forum allow plugs from over 30 countries to be inserted. Talk about supporting diverse power requirements!

It wasn’t all meetings, I did get to ski one of the days in the gorgeous Swiss alps. This is at the top of Parsenn, one of the largest mountains to ski on near Davos.

I even got to see some tech-celebs, including the wonderful Robert Scoble.

It’s hard for me to be sympathetic to the entertainment industry and its frustration with online piracy. For the last decade industry executives have consistently focused on using the legal system to protect their aging business models rather than focusing on the innovations necessary to deliver the products and services consumers want.

The entertainment industry’s newest legal tactic, the “Combating Online Infringements and Counterfeits Act,” (COICA), sponsored by Senator Patrick Leahy, has been approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee. While Senator Ron Wyden exercised his right to place a hold on pending legislation — which will stop the bill from traveling to the Senate floor immediately — proponents of COICA can (and most assuredly will) reintroduce the measure the next time Congress convenes in 2011.

This bill is short but significant. For the first time, it will give the government the power to censor the Domain Name System (DNS), one of the most critical pieces of infrastructure for the Internet.

The DNS is like a global phonebook for the Internet: always running in the background and used anytime you do anything on the Internet, including sending email and browsing websites. It’s been running without government interference for the last 25 years and it has helped enable the tremendous economic growth and innovation the Internet has provided to the U.S. and the World over the last two decades.

My company provides DNS services, and in fact one of the many features of our service gives our customers the ability to block sites on their Internet connections. Parents and school administrators block sites they deem unsafe or inappropriate for their children, and business managers block sites they deem inappropriate for a work environment. Ironically, our existence and our technical innovations in the market helped to spawn the idea for the legislation in the first place by showing that blocking sites through the DNS is technically possible. While the technology being proposed is similar, the implementation couldn’t be more different from ours.
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Next week, SysAdmins from around the country will be heading to San Jose, Calif., for the 24th annual Large Installation System Administration conference — and so will OpenDNS!

First, OpenDNS Founder David Ulevitch will be leading a Birds-of-a-Feather session Monday night, Nov. 8 at 7 p.m. He’ll be talking about how to build, deploy and manage a global DNS service, based on our experiences doing just that. His presentation will include time for Q&A and discussion.

Immediately following the talk, we’ll be heading over as a group Gordon Biersch on 33 East San Fernando Street in San Jose (it’s a quick walk from the conference). From 8–10 p.m., enjoy drinks and appetizers — on us! This is your opportunity to meet David personally and ask any questions you have — about DNS in general, setting up OpenDNS on your network or where our next datacenter will be. Please RSVP for the happy hour so we know how many people to plan for. Looking forward to seeing you there!

If you’re going to be at the 23rd annual Large Installation System Administration (LISA) conference in Baltimore, MD next week — and we know many of you are — pencil us in for a couple things:

First OpenDNS Founder David Ulevitch will be leading a Birds-of-a-Feather session Monday night at 7 pm. The topic is “Best Practices in DNS” and David will discuss the state of the Domain Name System, past and present, benefits of integrating security into DNS, DNSSec and more.

Then at 8 pm on Monday night, join us across the street from the convention hall at James Joyce Pub for a happy hour (or two) hosted by OpenDNS. This is your opportunity to meet David personally and ask any questions you have — about DNS in general, configuring OpenDNS on your network or even who he likes in the World Series.

Both events are not to be missed. RSVP for the happy hour event so we know to expect you. Hope to see you there.

OpenDNS Founder and CTO David Ulevitch has been invited to speak about the future of DNS security at RSA 2009 in San Francisco. This is big news for a few reasons – first because more than 2,800 very well-qualified people submitted to speak for only 240 slots, and second because DNS security is arguably one of handful of network security priorities for 2009.

We talked a bit a few months ago about the fact that so many networks remain vulnerable to the DNS hole Dan Kaminsky discovered. Some estimates are as high as 25%, which is amazing given the potential damage the vulnerability represents. Reasons given for the failure to take action are simple — people just don’t know how to patch, or that something as simple as setting up OpenDNS will secure their network.

That’s precisely why David’s talk is so important, and likely why RSA wants him to be there. If you’re planning to be at RSA, David’s talk is one not to be missed. Check it out on Friday, April 24 at 9 a.m. More details here.

Congratulations are in order today to CEO David Ulevitch.

It comes as no surprise to us, and probably you too, that David was named one of BusinessWeek magazine’s “Most Promising Entrepreneurs Under the Age of 30.” (Yes, he’s only 26.) You can read the entire feature here, but the gist is this: The BusinessWeek editorial staff gets together once a year and selects a handful of high-tech entrepreneurs that are clear standouts among their peers. These are people that are expected to do great things over the course of their careers – this year eleven people were awarded the honor.

Given where David has taken OpenDNS thus far and all the significant “firsts” OpenDNS is responsible for, I know BusinessWeek made the right decision including him.

So I flew out to CES for a couple meetings this morning and will be here until tomorrow. If you’re a friend of OpenDNS, are here at CES and want to meet up, give me a call at 415-287-7721 or send me an email david _at_ opendns.com.

For now I’m on the show floor now hanging out and walking around… I’d love to get a chance to meet some of you face-to-face.

I’ll keep this one short.

David will be on the radio tonight. Gene Steinberg, the original Tech Night Owl himself, asked David to talk about the first PhishTank annual report.

Who: OpenDNS CEO David Ulevitch

What: Tech Night Owl LIVE with Gene Steinberg

When: 6 p.m. PST to 8 p.m. PST, Thursday, October 18, 2007

Where: www.techbroadcasting.com

How to listen: go to the Web site and turn up your volume.

If you miss the original broadcast, you can listen later.