An
Alternative to ICANN?
Recently I
was asked, what alternative to ICANN will stand up to
global scrutiny?
An
interesting and worthwhile question. For starters, the
Internet contracts, agreements and standards oversight
should be moved under the sphere of the Federal
Communications Commission, not the Department of Commerce
where it remains today. The DOC has commerce, not
communication, as its priority. But the purest, most
inclusive activity on the Internet is communication. Do
you trust the DOC to look out for the interests of those
on the Internet who do not fuel economic
growth?
Or perhaps
the US role in the Internet should be moved under a new
governmental agency, FIA (Federal Internet
Administration). I don't know how the airline industry
works, but some of the difficult issues facing Internet
administration seem to have parallels with that
industry--global and borderless standards and
cooperation-- to make it all work. The airlines are
privatized while the Federal Aviation Administration
coordinates U.S. standards. Isn't that a better model
than putting unaccountable power in the hands of a
private, non-profit corporation led (until September
2000) by 10 people who hold their positions through a
secret, not representative process.
ICANN has
made some egregious errors. We don't know whether the
mistakes can be attributed to newness, cluelessness,
ineptness, malice or power-mongering. Nonetheless,
recalling the optimism that greeted the first IFWP
meeting last July in Reston, at what point can we declare
this experiment in privatization a failed effort and
begin to join in the exploration of an alternative way to
handle the technical coordination of the
Internet?
ICANN has
given us a Rubik's cube structure set in a briar patch.
Even the people on the DNS subscriber lists have trouble
keeping up with all the changing bylaws, weekly
son-of-emailbox-spawns, resolutions and international
ICANN road show. The whole process seems remarkably
convoluted. Wouldn't an FIA be an improvement?
by
Ellen Rony
September 24, 1999
