[governance] FW: Domain names battle threatens Net

[George Sadowsky]

Michael,

I think that you have done us a favor by posting this piece.

On the one hand, I am relieved to see that our current U.S. 
administration does not have a monopoly on ignorance and 
misunderstanding.

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.

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.

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.

Regards,

George

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

, At 9:05 AM -0400 10/28/05, Gurstein, Michael wrote:
>Content-class: urn:content-classes:message
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>	boundary="----_=_NextPart_001_01C5DBC0.5264A4AC"
>
>An interesting take on the Internet governance issues from the 
>leading South African on-line business journal.
>
>MG
>
>Domain names battle threatens Net
>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.
>
>If there were a major split or a major breakdown of the Internet 
>then whom would be the real beneficiaries? Right now, no one.
>
>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.
>
>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.
>
>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.
>
>It made for good revenue for the early, hand-picked registrars. But 
>now the global players want to do their own thing.
>
>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.
>
>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.
>
>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.
>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.
>
>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.
>
>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.
>
>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.
>
>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.
>
>[27 Oct 13:21]
>
>
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