sorry if you've seen this one already. I tend to lose track...
Cheers
Kerry
New York Times
October 19, 1998
U.S. Expected to Support Shift in Administration of the Internet
By AMY HARMON
Clearing the way for the global Internet to be governed without
governments, the Clinton Administration is expected today to commit itself
to hand over the administration of the computer network to a nonprofit
corporation under a proposal that has won broad support.
Ira C. Magaziner, the adviser to President Clinton who has been overseeing
the contentious transition of what has traditionally been a United States
Government function to the international private sector, said the
Administration's endorsement would depend on the adoption of certain
amendments advocated in rival proposals.
At stake is who will decide how to dole out names and addresses like those
with the suffixes ".com" and ".net" among cyberspace's rapidly growing
population, and who, if anyone, will make money in the process.
In addition, the proposed new organization is seen as a model for policy
making for a medium that crosses geographical as well as socially
constructed boundaries.
The Administration's long-awaited decision comes in the wake of the death
last week of the plan's key proponent, Jonathan B. Postel, at age 55.
Postel was one of the Internet's most revered technical wizards. He had
administered the infrastructure of the Internet address system under a
Federal Government contract since he invented it 30 years ago.
In recent months he had sought to build a consensus beyond the ranks of
technologists to include corporate, nonprofit and international interests
in forming a new body that would make policy decisions.
Magaziner said the announcement, originally planned for yesterday, was
delayed as he and Commerce Department staff members called around to see
if support for the new entity, known as the Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers, or Icann, would hold firm without Postel to
lend his considerable credibility to the project. But as electronic
eulogies for Postel circulated over the Internet, it seemed his coalition
would remain intact, albeit with some adjustments. "Nobody anticipated
this would happen, and Jon will be sorely missed, but it underscores the
necessity of making this transition," Magaziner said. "Part of the design
was to move beyond depending on the structure that was based on the
Internet's historical origins."
Obstacles to true consensus, however, remain.
The California-based corporation proposed by Postel has been criticized
from several quarters for not providing a structure that is democratic
enough.
Governments in Latin America and Africa, for example, complained that
their regions were not represented on the corporation's proposed board.
Proposals submitted to the Commerce Department by dissenting international
coalitions argued that the board should be held more accountable to the
Internet's diverse constituents and that proper financial controls needed
to be imposed.
Network Solutions Inc. of Herndon, Va., which has distributed domain names
under an exclusive contract from the Government for the last five years and
would see its monopoly end when the plan goes into effect, has also
objected to the Icann proposal. The company generated revenue of $37
million in the first half of this year by registering names with the
".com," ".net," ".org" and ".edu" suffixes.
Magaziner said that the Administration's consent to the Icann proposal
would hinge on its supporters' reaching an agreement with those calling for
a more open organization. But he may also face opposition in Congress.
In letters to Magaziner and to Commerce Secretary William M. Daley last
week, Representative Thomas J. Bliley Jr., Republican of Virginia and
chairman of the Commerce Committee, criticized what he called the "closed
door" process initiated by Postel's group.
Bliley suggested that the proposed board be made up of a majority of
United States representatives and asked for an explanation of the legal
basis for turning over control to the new corporation. "I am concerned
about the manner in which the process of privatizing the governance of the
D.N.S. has apparently unraveled," Bliley wrote. "A loss of credibility in
the Internet community at large will seriously undermine the ability of
the new corporation to administer the Domain Name System and the stability
of the Internet itself."
Donald Heath, chairman of the Internet Society, a nonprofit coalition of
the network's technical organizations, disputed Bliley's version of the
facts. "Let me be blunt: it appears to me that his office might have been
misinformed if not manipulated by people who want to preserve the status
quo, and by that I mean a monopoly of Network Solutions," Heath said. "Jon
never did anything behind closed doors in his life."
A spokesman for Network Solutions said the company had had "no contact with
Bliley."
Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company
Kerry Smith,
Department of Information Studies,
School of Social Sciences & Asian Languages,
Curtin University of Technology
GPO Box U1987, PERTH WESTERN AUSTRALIA 6845
phone 61 8 9266 7217 fax: 61 8 9266 3152)
http://www.curtin.edu.au/curtin/dept/sils
(PLEASE NOTE: I am on study leave from July 20th 1998 until the New Year.
I will not be accessing my email on a daily basis).