[governance] DoC/ICANN induced Localization Balkanization

Wed Jun 17 10:51:40 EDT 2009

Good points to bring up Yehuda.  Yes we must start asking ourselves
questions.  The guide to the answers are contained in RFC 2826.  Thats an
informational publication which provides a pretty good guide for managing
the name space.

Root should broadcast a standard set of TLDs - however one arrives at it.

Now I do think the term Balkanization a bit harsh.  Because the
balkanization that has occurred to day is balkanization by necessity.  The
Chinese have considered IANA a joke since long before ICANN came into
existence.  The Chinese have realized that the DNS is the most important and
integral part of national infrastructure.

They were the first to recognize the political consequences of having their
own TLD system.  If the U.S. government goes a little kooky and deletes .cn
from the IANA legacy root infrastructure they will be up a creak without a
paddle,  so to speak.  Obama even addressed the issue in his cybersecurity
speech.

Thats why they created national infrastructure and have by default ensured
the commercial expansion of their own national domain space - completely
independent of the U.S. government.  No strings attached. They have full
backups on .cn and all their IDN TLDs.  And anycast the root announcements.

But this is necessity.  No government on earth should trust either the U.S.
government or the clowns at ICANN with their national infrastructure.  A
nation state that does not run their own domain name infrastructure is a
captive of the U.S.

Balkanization by necessity - control of national infrastructure due to the
necessity to ensure stability - commerce, communications, and the economy.
An outage of which would cause vast damage to commerce, communications and
the economy of any nation.

On Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 9:09 AM, Yehuda Katz <yehudakatz at mailinator.com>wrote:

>
> >Soon, without tremendous
> streamlining and cutting of costly bureaucratic regulation and extensive
> milking of their historical position granted by the DOC through the JPA,
> ICANN will more quickly be recognized as just another option for getting
> a TLD live

Exactly.  ICANN is just another root like any other.  But ICANN can show
leadership and be inclusive.  Unfortunately I'm a realist and know ICANN is
incapable of leadership.

I've personally been involved with two inclusive name space systems one on
continental Europe and another in Turkey.  Government supported roots I
might add.

The experiment was moving very rapidly.  I could see a day when people could
create a TLD for six bucks.  The TLD or root space zone files are the same
as the .COM zone.  What is the size of that file these days - approx? 70
million names? 100 ?

In any case the same rules apply to both zones.  It is completely possible
to have millions of TLDs activated overnight.  There are technical purists
who will insist that it flattens the name space.  I consider that argument
bonkers.  The same technical principles that apply to .COM also apply to
root.

in the "Inclusive Name-Space" in which all the other root
> systems work for market share, ...

Well the inclusive name space is a set of principles designed to stop the
balkanization or root fragmentation caused by ICANN's inflexible disposition
toward listing valid TLDs - like the Chinese TLDs.  The Chinese did try to
get their TLDs listed at ICANN.  But the usual  bureaucracy at ICANN got in
the way of any progress and the Chinese gave ICANN the finger and moved on.

The whole ICANN IDN escapades and fiasco on internationalized domain names
is a running joke.  They work already - lets get on with listing them.
Almost every non ascii country is ready to go.

Meanwhile back in ICANN land where fairy tails abound a plenty they are
pretending to conduct a so called experimental introduction of iTLDs into
the IANA root.  They work already - let's go.

It's a joke.  The balkanization of iTLD DNS has been going on for a long
time now.  And the evidence of that is in every log file on every root
server world wide.  I wrote about this back in 2003 - which see URL.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/02/05/dud_queries_swamp_us_internet/

basically - most of you don't see the Internet.  You see the IANA version.
So when a URL from a non IANA root system like the Peking University example
http://北京大学.中国/ <http://xn--1lq90ic7fzpc.xn--fiqs8s/> any time someone
clicks on the URL they end up generating an error at the root servers.

Now imagine 300 million people email friends sharing data and URLs - those
URLs leak outside of china and you end up with an astronomical error rate at
the ICANN roots.  Balkanization is creating major stress on the IANA root.

This is proof ICANN has failed form a technical perspective.  They promised
the U.S. government that they would not cause harm to the internet.  The
error rate at the root clearly show they have failed in that promise.

>
> Is the issue really that the DoC/Icann JPA 'policy' that forces a kind of
> Localization?

No.  It's the lack of co-operation from ICANN and the snail progress to get
any thing done as the wheels of bureaucracy go round and round.  ICANN has
mystified the DNS and now it must continue to play the role of high priest
of DNS.  In civil service land ICANN is known as a crown of thorns.

A lot of civil servants are involved too.  Some like the ICANN bureaucracy -
it keeps them busy and employed.  Others who like to get the job done simply
get frustrated by ICANN and usually give up.

ICANN is a perfect bureaucracy - lot's of activity - no results - big
budget.

Competitively speaking as a root it sucks.

>
> That China's dns-version creates a Balkanization in the Icann scheama (and
> perhapes Yours)?

Not mine.  When I click on the Chinese character URL above for Peking
University I can see China.  There is no error.  It is ICANN that is
balkanized from the network by choice.  People here can choose to simply
change their ns provider to one that sees china.  I know the Cesidian and
Pirate party see China.  So I don't consider myself balkanized.  I actually
feel rather liberated that I can see China and regret other don't.  Native
language URL's I think add a certain warmth and cultural value to the
surfing experience.

>
>
> Does this 'policy' create a censorship upon the Technolgy and Wider
> DNS-Spectrum (e.g.: the "Inclusive Name-Space"}? or not.

I don't think censorship is the issue here.  I think what you have is a lack
of common sense and stubbornness at ICANN in recognizing the obvious - there
is no root monopoly - there is just the peoples will and a name space
expanding around them they no longer control. There are legal issues.
Lot's.

I certainly don't feel censored as I can surf to Peaking University in
Chinese.  But certainly I can understand you feeling a bit censored.   So
yes - I guess it would be censorship.  But thats only because of the
complete lack of common sense at ICANN.

regards
joe baptista

-- 
Joe Baptista

www.publicroot.org
PublicRoot Consortium
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