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<DIV><SPAN class=324460304-28102005>An interesting take on the Internet
governance issues from the leading South African on-line business
journal.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=324460304-28102005></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=324460304-28102005>MG</SPAN><BASEFONT
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<HR>
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<P><FONT size=3><B>Domain names battle threatens Net</B></FONT><BR>In the
golden haze surrounding the mystic city of Tunisia, a small group of elite
merchants of the information age will once again try to figure out the future
of the Internet in November. They will fight out their agendas and try hard to
make sense out of the ongoing cyber warfare.
<P>If there were a major split or a major breakdown of the Internet then whom
would be the real beneficiaries? Right now, no one. <BR><BR>The
politico-technocrats and the neo-cybernauts have taken a weird posture on this
issue. The entire argument is over who will control the naming system, the
basic early architecture that allows the creation of URLs and domain name
management.<BR><BR>Invented and perfected by America, the current elementary
architecture is under global pressure, ! as many countries want their own
naming system and controls. W! ith over 200 countries in the game, it is very
hard for the United States to call all the shots.<BR><BR>Furthermore, the
initial naming convention based on the early issuance of dot-com and dot-net
were all based on tooty-fruity casual naming, and never incorporated any
deeper understanding of the global naming laws. The initial idea was based on
making a quick buck, as it was expected that the entire universe would
register and be happy with the first five available suffixes - com, net, gov,
edu and mil. And a large number did, at the peak at millions names per
day.<BR><BR>It made for good revenue for the early, hand-picked registrars.
But now the global players want to do their own thing. <BR><BR>The Internet of
today is no longer a place for the computer literate; it now exists for the
global illiterates. Totally unexposed to any layers of innovations, the almost
illiterate masses around the world are direct beneficiaries of the system.
Just like using a TV with an on and off swi! tch, the masses are doing the
same with the Internet.<BR><BR>The impact of e-commerce offering accessibility
to information, goods and services has become so powerful that it has shaken
the economic and socio-cultural foundations of the developed countries. With
the genie out of the bottle, the world is questioning whether a single country
should be in charge.<BR><BR>The United States is openly isolated and being
pushed to relinquish control, or the more aggressive nations will simply
develop their own Internet ... which would be a global disaster, a major
earthquake for e-commerce, causing the most disruptive global shockwave to our
daily lives that mankind has ever seen. <BR>The end of cyber presence,
corporate branding, corporate image and identities, e-marketing and the entire
e-commerce driven corporate communication systems. The end of website driven
marketing and branding.<BR><BR>For some strange reason, the mystical ICANN,
with its mathematical theorizations, has pe! riodically sprayed some aromatic
ideas on how to expand its ar! chitectu re to the global players. <BR><BR>It
did work for the first five years during the earlier dark ages of the Internet
time lines. Now the atmosphere is scented with an entirely different mood. The
romantic backdrop is over and the honeymoon is turning into divorce
battles.<BR><BR>Despite all the back room and hush-hush maneuvers, this small
group of global techno-bandits, rightly or wrongly, have far too much control
over what we cherish and what we use the most - our information. <BR><BR>Until
there are very open and public discussions on this subject, the global
audience will remain almost oblivious to the delicate tightrope walk that
occurs whenever the ICANN circus comes to town. Unless there are some
mind-bending and body-stretching exercises done to deliver more oxygen to the
brain, the deal brokers are slowly but surely approaching disasters. For now,
there can be no direct beneficiaries to this dangerous game.<BR>
<P>[27 Oct 13:21]
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