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                Date: 1999-10-04
                 
                 
                ICANN: Sektierertum,  Zersplitterung, Streit
                
                 
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      q/depesche  99.10.4/1 
 
ICANN: Sektierertum, Zersplitterung, Streit 
 
Der von der nettime-List & anderen Medien bekannte Ted  
Byfield lässt in seiner Analyse des neuen Domain- 
Konsortiums kaum ein gutes Haar  an jenem. 
 
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Ted Byfield 03.10.1999  
 
Notes about the conference "Governing the Commons: The  
Future of Global Internet Administration"  
 
Aside from the "executive" setting - a fastidious array of  
linened tables in a Hilton meeting room just a suburban  
stone's throw from the Pentagon - the two-day conference  
Governing the Commons: The Future of Global Internet  
Administration felt much like a golden-age usenet group  
come to life: alt.conspiracy.org.icann, say. Nowhere else  
could one find a motley group of geeks devoted to the  
fascinating and frustrating project of deconstructing,  
disassembling, or simply destroying ICANN, the Internet  
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.  
 
ICANN is the year-old California-registered nonprofit  
corporation vested by the U.S. Department of Commerce (  
DoC) with "responsibility for the IP address space allocation,  
protocol parameter assignment, domain name system  
management, and root server system management" - which,  
venerable netizen Tony Rutkowski of the Center for the Next  
Generation Internet contended, is "a two person function."  
ICANN sees things in a different light. In a 7 June 1999 email  
from MCI/WorldCom Senior VP Vint Cerf (who advises  
ICANN but is not an officer) to ICANN's Interim President and  
CEO Mike Roberts, discussing ways to finance the cash- 
strapped non-profit, Cerf wrote, "ICANN must succeed or  
Internet will be in jeopardy" - a line that "ought to play well  
with any company whose stock price is dependent on a well- 
functioning Internet."  
 
But how exactly to define "well-functioning"? The minimalist -  
and compelling - answer was advanced by Karl Auerbach, a  
Cisco Systems engineer representing the Individual Domain  
Name Owners Constituency ( IDNO): the net's purpose, he  
said, is the "end-to-end transmission of IP (Internet Protocol)  
packets." It was by doing this reliably that the net succeeded  
long before ICANN came along. To pragmatic networkers, the  
cynicism of Cerf's email is seen as indicative of ICANN's  
ambitions, and his bluster its delusions of grandeur. Were it  
merely a matter of psychology, these tendencies would be of  
little concern; but because ICANN is the nexus of the  
political and commercial forces through which the net's older  
technocratic culture is being supplanted, its actions are  
widely viewed as a putsch in progress.  
 
In the 1 September issue of his COOK Report, Gordon Cook,  
an articulate critic of ICANN, bluntly summarized a sentiment  
that was widely if more cautiously expressed at the  
conference: "ICANN should be put out of its misery and the  
Internet left to run itself." But computers don't build  
themselves, routers don't configure themselves, and severed  
cables don't repair themselves, so Cook (and others who  
speak in these terms) is euphemizing: he means not  
physical networks but "human" networks, the extensive web  
of professional organizations that have maintained (among  
other things) the standards defining everything from client- 
server transactions to the shape of cable connectors. The  
reliability of computers and networks is a testament to the  
competence and coordination of these alphabetical bodies -  
IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force), IAB (Internet  
Architecture Board), ITU (International Telecommunication  
Union), and so on. There are many more.  
 
To credit these groups with their formidable accomplishments  
is not to say they're apolitical or immune to parochial fights.  
On the contrary, they are intensely political and fractious -  
but, nevertheless, largely responsible for developing and  
coordinating the net. It is these organizations that ICANN  
offended - but how? 
 
full text 
http://www.telepolis.de/tp/english/inhalt/te/5345/1.html
                   
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BIG BROTHER AWARDS AUSTRIA 1999 
Fuer Lauschangreifer, Spitzelfirmen, Datenhaendler,  
gestzlich ermaechtigte Ueberwacher 
Reichen Sie Ihre Nominierung ein: 
http://www.bigbrother.awards.at
                   
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edited by Harkank 
published on: 1999-10-04 
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