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Comments on news posted 2003-12-12 09:20:54: As previously mentioned, shifting control of the internet to the UN (from ICANN) is one of the major debates facing the World Summit on the Information Society. ..
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linicx
Caveat Emptor
Premium
join:2002-12-03
United State
 ·CenturyLink
| If ICANN Can't Who can? I think before any of us take sides in the US against THEM battle for control of the Internet we ought to examine one small piece of United States history. Although this seemingly insignificant event ultimately impacted the world, the event itself was the indirect result of a text messaging tool developed by a small group of graduate students at USC-Berkley to benefit the US Military, and scientific research. For all practical purposes, the first message sent from California to New York via this new medium was the modern equivalent of Alexander Bell's first voice communication. These mechanical mechanical marvels that filled one wall would -after twenty more years of development - become the Internet
So, before there was a Verisign, and before there was an ICANN, there was a working communications system poised to unite the world. Who was going to manage it?
A small group in Virginia who got the nod to manage the most common denominators -- that is the companies, networks and organizations -- were suddenly responsible for the registration and management of all .com. .net and .org domain names and numbers in the world. Unfortunately the small group had a rocky beginning that did not improve with time. Legitimate trademark disputes and registration problems were not quickly resolved. Instead they were greeted with what was to became their personal trademark: arrogance, and by 1996 the "idea" of a replacement for the expensive little first group was a work in progress that was to eventually become known as Verisign after ICANN took control.
To be fair, this little company that was fully ready for the task, wasn't ready for the barrage of applications or the unexpected trademark disputes. They were blind-sided at the outset. Because of ignorance, or poor legal advice they made some very poor decisions that ultimately affected the Internet as a whole. These unwise decisions were then compounded by more decisions that were equally bad. Verisign was a design failure in progress.
Dumping Verisign is not the answer. Throwing out the bad ideas along with the personal arrogance and decision making process that failed is paramount for this company to succeed. Unfortunately they are going to have to eat a lot of crow in the process.
ICANN was never received well as it started out with the idea of being a secret society, answerable only to itself, and to this end the first meetings were held behind closed doors and not in the US. The consensus that came out of these early secret meetings were soundly trashed by the Internet community as a whole. From this early angst, the framework for the ICANN we know today took shape. The Internet is self-perpetuating for the most part. It is the domain owners and thousands of local ISPs who feed the Baby Bell's that build the backbones that connect the root servers that keep the Internet running despite mother nature, old age and human interference.
Gluttony, Sloth, Envy, and Greed have always been the uncivil and untamed vices of the Internet. It will be its undoing unless the men and women who manage our countries world wide learn to act and think like adults and not like spoiled brats in a sandbox. This is not the time for temper tantrums or idle threats, but it is time to get "it" right.
The Internet is not an International problem, nor is it a threat to any one single person unless you consider spam - which can be eliminated with the flip of one switch. The International problem is not the Internet, or even how well the Internet is managed, the problem of the International scheme is emotional and its roots are political just as it was before ICANN. This is a fact of life we can all learn to live with.
My name is Envy. I am not satisfied that my emerging country which cannot feed itself has access to the internet. I am not satisfied that thousands of computers and pieces of equipment were sent to my country to help us help ourselves. I'm not satisfied that hundreds of technicians and teachers traveled at their own expense to teach us. I deserve more. I demand more (even though I have not contributed one cent or lifted one finger to make the internet a better, safer place to conduct business, and even though I turn a blind eye to the millions of spam that leaves my country everyday). I want what you have and I'll use any means available to get it - and don't you forget it. My name is Envy and I am your enemy.
The end does not justify the means. If the UN cannot enforce its own sanctions why should I trust it? if YOU refuse to heed UN sanctions, why should I TRUST you to follow Internet rules laid out by the UN? We all know a leopard does not change its spots in exchange for food or water or a safe haven.
The US is not going to give away its national treasures, its patents or trademarks because a foreign interest demands it -- and we don't expect any other country to do it either. The US does not need the UN, or any other entity, to manage its affairs. Eighty percent of the world's lawyers live in America and collectively they speak the language of every country in the universe. We are already managed to death.
Before we allow you to tear apart that which works well, we should fix what needs to be fixed -- which is what ICANN failed to do. Now don't get me wrong, blaming ICANN is too easy. The problem isn't ICANN and never was. The problem is technology. The Internet developed faster and demanded more than anyone could have reasonably predicted. Hell, it developed faster than anyone could have guessed using the same set of figures. It was a speeding train out of control when ICANN got it. Unfortunately ICANN hasn't done much to alleviate the symptoms or slow the train. Shedding ICANN and then adding yet one more layer of unresponsive, figures with no authority is not going to accomplish a thing except make the mess a little deeper, a little dirtier and a lot more expensive to clean up.
If you want to clean up the Internet form a group of hands-on network administrators from the 1000 largest corporations in the world. Then ask them to rid the Internet of the dry rot, thieves, spam, trojans, worms, viruses, porn and make it safe for all citizens in their country. Oops, there is one small caveat. Those countries who do not fully participate, do not play on the Internet.
The Internet is not in a crisis. There are, however, things that can be done to improve it. ICANN, Verisign, IP, UUNET, backbone owners -- these people all know todays price of eggs. Whether or not anything positive ever happens is up to the corporations, networks and business owners who use the Internet every day in relationship to how much pressure they apply in order to force needed changes.
In the meantime third world countries will continue to cry wolf and complain how they are being mistreated. I am not listening, are you?
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Matt
Take me down to the paradise city
Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
·North State Commun..
| Re: If ICANN Can't Who can? linicx,
I disagree with your reason as to "why" the internet was created.
It was created to prevent the total communication loss if Russia nuked us. That is it. There were no "grand" plans behind it unfortunately. No, "Let's link the world!" ideology.
Even if us Americans would like to think so.
We created it, it was turned over to the NSF and they decided to let "Corporate America" connect to it and then, "Corporate America" realized they could turn a buck by linking other countries to it.
No more no less.
In that respect, I don't see how the UN can claim ANY right to "govern" it.
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Edwards in 2004 | |
| Samwoo
join:2002-02-15
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA
| This Changes NOTHING i say... This changes NOTHING. if the UN self proclaims itself as the controller of the internet and changes something. and the private companies in the united states (and around the world) refuse to change anything. then other countries can't change their systems without breaking their connection to the US (and other countries). the power will go to the people who own most of the internet.
if th US refuses to listen then Canada will probably follow to keep connection between the two countries and private companies in other countries will also say, i want to connect to the Americas and then use the original system. then all other countries will follow as they want access to the largest body of the internet. and the UN could do whatever they want... but no one would listen
for these kinds of situations people listen to whoever is setting the standards.
unless the UN threatens countries with international sanctions (ha!) or military action (hahahaha) they can't do anything to the internet.
Major changes will make ISPs and private networks cry and cry and cry so much that the country they reside in would be forced to satisfy them. I doubt that network administrators throughout the word would allow changes to the system.
The united staes (and canada and maybe germany?) would probably object to any major changes to the system and then what would the UN do?
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All this gives to un power to do is control these things
Internet domain names
IP address numbers
protocol parameter and port numbers
»www.icann.org/general/
the standards for these things are practically set in stone. and i don't see what powers the un would get for being the authority to assigning domain names addresses and ports.
(oh well... maybe the un just doesn't want people registering domain names like www.nukenk.com) but that is so just... lets say stupid. | |
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Synon29
join:2003-09-13
Cabot, AR
| Re: This Changes NOTHING Oh my god, i've said it before and i'll say it again. The un has absoultely no business trying to control the internet. They should keep their hands out of it, and stick to what they do best, which from what I can tell is nothing. I can't believe that we would even let them entertain such an absurd notion. The fact that it has gotten as far as it has is a complete mistery to me. I'm hoping that someone will realize what a horrible mistake this would be and basically tell the un that they need to mind their own business. If not I fear for what will happen to something that we have all come to know and appreciate. | |
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Matt
Take me down to the paradise city
Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
·North State Commun..
| Thank god.... It appears they haven't yet made a decision on total UN Internet control.
From Yahoo! News:
Negotiators could not agree on key questions such as whether a U.N. agency should be created to govern the Internet and whether to create a separate fund for projects to close the technology gap between rich and poor nations.
»story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s···ummit_25
They couldn't even agree on whether a UN agency should govern the Internet, much less on HOW, WHO and WHERE this "agency" should govern.
Geeze....
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Edwards in 2004 | |
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Spiro0
join:2003-08-04
Austin, TX | Isn't this a job for maybe a STANDARDS org? Since when is the UN an international standards organisation? Hey wait, capitalize that.... International Standards Organisation... ISO, doh! | |
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