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<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN class=334034004-29102005>A
correction George, I said that it is "the" leading "ON-LINE" business journal...
(I perhaps misspoke and should have said A leading SA on-line business
journal...</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=334034004-29102005></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=334034004-29102005>MG</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader lang=en-us dir=ltr align=left><FONT
face=Tahoma size=2>-----Original Message-----<BR><B>From:</B> George Sadowsky
[mailto:george.sadowsky@attglobal.net] <BR><B>Sent:</B> October 29, 2005 3:31
PM<BR><B>To:</B> Gurstein, Michael;
governance@lists.cpsr.org<BR><B>Subject:</B> Re: [governance] FW: Domain names
battle threatens Net<BR><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>Michael,</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>I think that you have done us a favor by posting this piece.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>On the one hand, I am relieved to see that our current U.S.
administration does not have a monopoly on ignorance and
misunderstanding.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>On the other hand, and far more important, this piece from what you claim
is the leading South African Business journal fills me with
apprehension. This sounds like text from a bad science fiction
novel, or from the sermon of a charismatic religious bigot. It points to
a misunderstanding of gigantic proportions of the current situation, process,
governance, and the way the world works.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>If U.S. Government representatives were to read this, they would use it
as strong evidence that the U.S would be out of its mind to loosen their
control of the Internet by one bit.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>The serious question is how do we deal with such feelings. One can
understand the desire of the whole world to be a part of the Internet
community and to reap its benefits, but this kind of understanding is not
likely to help. This type of misinformed jingoistic thinking will only
serve to deepen the gulf that artificially divides us today.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Regards,</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>George</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<SPAN></SPAN>~~~~~~</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>, At 9:05 AM -0400 10/28/05, Gurstein, Michael wrote:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE cite="" type="cite">Content-class:
urn:content-classes:message<BR>Content-Type:
multipart/alternative;<BR><X-TAB>
</X-TAB>boundary="----_=_NextPart_001_01C5DBC0.5264A4AC"<BR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE cite="" type="cite">An interesting take on the Internet
governance issues from the leading South African on-line business
journal.</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE cite="" type="cite"> </BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE cite="" type="cite">MG</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE cite="" type="cite">
<HR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><B>Domain names battle threatens Net</B><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.<BR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>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.</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>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></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>[27 Oct 13:21]<BR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<HR>
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<BLOCKQUOTE cite=""
type="cite"><BR>_______________________________________________<BR>governance
mailing
list<BR>governance@lists.cpsr.org<BR>https://ssl.cpsr.org/mailman/listinfo/governance</BLOCKQUOTE>
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