[governance] For you as an Internet user, what is a "Critical Internet resource"?

[Milton L Mueller]

-----Original Message-----
From: McTim [mailto:dogwallah at gmail.com] 

>Sorry, Milton, I was just messin with ya,

McTim, it's so amusing when you try to do this. You always fail. 

>the 
>"global routing table" is merely a phrase used 
>in routing discussions. There really is no
>such animal.  No one CAN have policy authority over 
>something that exists in peoples heads as an abstract concept.

I'm afraid you are quite wrong. Almost everything that humans have
"policy authority" over is represented by an abstract concept: the
nation, property, the DNS root, you name it. 

If people responsible for running networks use a phrase like "global
routing table(s)" to describe something (and they do) there's a very
good chance that the phrase stands for something meaningful, and that
there is utility in describing it as such. 

Take for example the phrase "the electromagnetic spectrum." That is an
abstract human concept. There is no "spectrum" to be found in nature; it
does not really "exist" in the sense that a chair exists. It is a schema
humans use to classify electromagnetic energy so that they can manage
and use it better. But try to coordinate radio frequency use without
that concept. You can bet that it matters a lot how we decide to carve
up the spectrum; how we define it, how policies are applied to it.
Hundreds of billions of dollars at stake.

>> Currently, Tier one ISPs make those decisions in an autonomous,
>> self-regulatory manner.
>
>See above, whoever told you that one was pulling your leg m8.

No, sorry, you're incorrect. When you say: 

>These folk determine their own routing policies 
>(who they peer with, what routes they "listen to", etc). 

That sounds to me very much like "ISPs make those decisions in an
autonomous, self-regulatory manner."  Maybe you don't understand that
language, but from a regulatory/institutional standpoint that's what is
going on. 

Bottom line, McTim: want to have an honest dialogue, in which both of us
might learn something from the other? Or not? When are you going to stop
pretending that no one on this list knows anything about the technical
infrastructure but you? 
You end up making yourself look bad, not me.

--MM


____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.cpsr.org
To be removed from the list, send any message to:
     governance-unsubscribe at lists.cpsr.org

For all list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance