[IP] Is Icann's importance overstated in the media?
Begin forwarded message:
From: Esther Dyson <edyson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: July 2, 2005 11:12:50 AM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx, Ip ip <ip@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [IP] Is Icann's importance overstated in the media?
ICANN really should manage nothing. it should be the organization
where the members set *policy* for themselves. All it needs to
manage is nonconformance with those policies.
That statement is perhaps a *little* too dry for reality, but it's
the ideal. ICANN should be much lighter-weight than it is, and
should leave most questions - and management - to its member
organizations. It should not have a regulatory function, but more of
a judicial one..... though it does need more than the nuclear option
of banishment/disbarment/deaccreditation for recourse when its
policies are not followed. As it is, any recourse would be so
draconian that most bad behavior goes unchallenged.
Even in practice, yes, its importance is overstated. Most governments
face more pressing problems than who sets policy for the Net. Most
businesses should be running their businesses better rather than
dreaming that a catchy domain name can ensure their success. Yet...
good governance does matter -just not as much as some people think.
Esther Dyson, former chairman of ICANN
At 06:58 AM 7/2/2005, David Farber wrote:
Rhe press has been sloppy on this one djf
Begin forwarded message:
From: Richard Wiggins <richard.wiggins@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: July 2, 2005 5:47:44 AM EDT
To: David Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Is Icann's importance overstated in the media?
Reply-To: Richard Wiggins <richard.wiggins@xxxxxxxxx>
Dave,
Over and over again, media reports say that Icann "manages the traffic
on the Internet." Icann does not do this, and never has done so.
Icann's name literally is "Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers." Icann took over the simple, but vital, function provided by
ISI at U Southern Cal: map domain names to IP addresses.
If Icann would have merely stuck to this purpose, the world would be a
better place. It is silly to claim that Icann manages the traffic of
the Internet, but that seems to be a mantle that Icann, at times, was
glad to assume.
If Icann simply managed the now ancient function of mapping names to
numbers, I doubt the ITU and Europe would have much of a problem with
it -- assuming that Icann did so efficiently and at a reasonable cost.
It has always seemed to me that Icann has a basic choice: do a simple,
but vital, function very well, in which case you can succeed in
performing an important role -- or aspire to rule the Internet, in
which case the world will take you down.
/rich
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