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Net</title></head><body>
<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 type="cite" cite>Content-class:
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Content-Type: multipart/alternative;<br>
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<blockquote type="cite" cite>An interesting take on the Internet
governance issues from the leading South African on-line business
journal.</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>MG</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" 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>
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