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

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

Stephane Bortzmeyer wrote:
>
> > 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.
>
>And will they do better than, say, the current RIRs? In what way? Will
>they "take", at least, some of the many unused IP addresses from the
>North to give them to the South?

I donīt think that the point is whether they will do better than the RIRs, 
because the overseeing body (ICANN, or in the example the ITU) will not 
"replace" the RIRs, but only provide the primary allocation to RIRs that 
will "fine tune" the process, possibly under guidlines provided by the 
overseeing body.
Anyway, since you ask, my answer follows.

Yes, indeed.
First of all, it already happened for other media (E.164, RF, etc.). The 
point is that North and South are represented in the ITU via the member 
states, while ICANN is representative of the one and only member state. This 
member state used to have North and South, but that was 1.5 centuries ago, 
and Iīm sure that when you mean distribution between North and South you 
mean something else than the fight in the US Civil War. I shall add ;>), 
just in case.

>
>I'm not interested in which bureaucracy will manage the Internet. I'm
>interested in the actual policy they will follow.
>

Exactly.
The ITU bureaucracy might be heavier than the "consensus building process" 
of ICANN, but is surely more transparent.
The problem is, in this case, who should decide about the policy for 
distribution of IP addresses. Up to now, it has been IANA, with certain 
criteria. I am not criticising these criteria, Iīm just saying that to give 
to one university in a country of which I donīt remember the name more 
addreses than to China is a criterion that had its validity in times when 
the Internet was mainly a research network, not in times when it is a tool 
for commerce and economic development.
With all its limits, the ITU, and specifically ITU-D, has done a lot for 
supporting the South of the world. It still is a body where the South of the 
world has its voice, surely more than in ICANN, and the policy they will 
follow will be decided by the Member States.

All of them, not just one.

Regards
Roberto


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