Re: [ga] ITU Resolution 102 -- four years later

["Roberto Gaetano" <ploki_xyz@hotmail.com>]

Ross Wm. Rader wrote:

>
>Someone more versed in the matter might want to correct me, but a layperson
>could simply read the resolution thusly;
>

I'm not more versed than you, and do not want to correct you, but will 
nevertheless propose a different reading.
What the ITU is doing is simply to encourage its members to participate 
*directly* in the management of the process. This does not mean that the ITU 
wants to candidate itself to replace ICANN (although it is not impossible 
that some people in the ITU might think so).

But maybe the interesting question is, rather than arguing again over 
"bureaucracy", "government vs. private sector", and the usual amenities, 
"why is this position different from the previous position?", namely the 
encouragement to participation in the entities that manage the process.
My answer is simply that it is because ICANN has failed to address some of 
the concerns of the members of the ITU, and therefore the ITU is encouraging 
its members to take direct action to correct the problem.

Some of you might remember the comments of Wilkinson and Twomey about 
representation in ICANN, I think it was in Yokohama, but I might be wrong. 
They both stated that, should ICANN fail in providing a mechanism for 
representation of the individuals (the discussion was about AtLarge 
Directors), governments would have stepped in.
Some oldcomers might also remember that this was exactly my point in some 
discussions at the times of the IFWP, and in the creation of ICANN: let's 
try to have self-governance, but be aware that we better get it right the 
first time (and therefore be prepared to compromise for the sake of broader 
consensus rather than to push one specific solution upon other unwilling 
stakeholders), because we might not have a second chance.
Well, here we go.

But this, as I said, does not mean that the ITU will take over. It only 
means that the governments cannot accept a situation in which a supposedly 
private entity, de-facto run by one of the Governments of the world, has the 
power to rule over the Internet world-wide.
ICANN is exaggerating now, and is stretching the thing too far.
On one hand it seems incapable to curb the monopolistic/oligopolistic 
ambitions of some powerful actors, and on the other hand is denying 
representativity to the less powerful, like individual users.
On one hand it allows free hand to the major gTLD, and on the other hand it 
is trying to impose unnecessary rules to the ccTLDs, that should be 
answerable to their local community (and to their individual governments), 
not to a centralized body.

But where do we go from here?
It was Karl, if I remember correctly, who advocated that there was no need 
to have just one organization that fulfills all tasks and duties of the 
current ICANN. We could have a "functional" breakdown allocating tasks to 
different entities (existing ones, or created "ad hoc").
If this is the way to go, it might well be that one or more functions be 
delegated to the ITU. For instance, the assignment of IP addresses, that 
seems similar to the management of the frequency spectrum or the telephone 
system, and seems to be perfectly adequate for an International Treaty 
Organization. Or the management of the A-root, a typical thing that should 
be protected by international law, and not be left under the authority of 
one Government.
Of course, other tasks might be completely out of scope for the ITU, or even 
for any other similar organization, and should be left to a different body 
or mechanism.

Comments?

Best regards
Roberto


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