techno-politics was Re: [governance] Bloomberg - The Overzealous

[Karl Auerbach]

On 01/20/2013 08:35 PM, Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote:
> Karl Auerbach [20/01/13 18:52 -0800]:
>> The big issue is not SINGULARITY of DNS roots but rather CONSISTENCY.
> 
> once you open that can of worms, what you get is
> 1. Anybody - consistent or not - can set up a root server

"can of worms" - reminds me of the "can of worms" called "anycast" that
was adopted despite ICANN?  It was certainly a good can of worms to
adopt, it is not without potential complications and risks, but it added
a lot of value to the internet.  To put it another way, what may be a
can of worms to one may be a useful solution to another.

One may toss aside idea just because some may find it contains some
potential risks; but one should not coerce others to also toss aside
that idea - those others may be more capable, may be willing to accept
the risks, or may find the risks to be fanciful.

Anybody can, today, establish a root without asking any questions or
permission.

As a test I ran my own root for several years; I found absolutely no
problems.   I even tried to induce problems.  (As you may know, my
business is to create tools to put internet protocols under stress so
that implementors can create better systems.)

A few years back when I was on the ICANN board of directors I dredged
around and discovered that the Taiwan was using competing roots.  They
didn't know they were - they had run a test (much like Jon Postel wanted
to do) and kind of fumbled the return to the status quo ante and thus
left the experimental competing root in place for many months.  The
interesting part was that users did not notice.

Consistency means just that - consistency; if you (or your agent, i.e.
your ISP) uses a root that gives you surprises, then you can switch -
and the ICANN/NTIA/Verisign root will always be there if you want to use it.

No one is compelled to use a competing root; and no one should be
compelled to refrain from using a competing root.  Otherwise the claim
that the internet allows innovation at the edges becomes a mere fairy
tail told to children.

There are a lot of people who don't want anyone to change the internet
status quo.  It is rather like when the old AT&T spread Fear,
Uncertainty, and Doubt - and downright faux technical claims - to try to
ban a passive plastic widget that people could attach to their
telephones - the Hush-a-Phone -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hush-A-Phone_v._United_States

	--karl--


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