[ga-roots] Re: Community Roots or Red Herrings

[Kendall Dawson <kendall@obs-us.com>]

At 10:03 AM 5/10/2001 -0700, "William X. Walsh" wrote:

>Hello Kendall,
>
>Thursday, May 10, 2001, 9:26:41 AM, Kendall Dawson wrote:
> > ICANN needs to take a "proactive" stance on this matter instead of 
> sticking
> > their heads in the sand. ICANN can pretend that there is no such thing as
> > alternative roots -- but, one day they will wake up and find out that more
> > people are using alternatives than the traditional a-root. MultiBind is
> > only the beginning. Companies like New Net will be popping up all over the
> > place (I saw a new one yesterday).
>
>And what is the problem, exactly?

No problem at all. I fully support the alt.roots and companies like New 
Net. My point was that ICANN should admit to themselves (and the public) 
that the alt.roots exist and are not going away. And, a policy to prevent 
colliding TLDs should be discussed.

>ICANN can't develop policy prohibiting privately run alt.roots, and
>what alt.roots do is outside of the oversight of ICANN.

True - but both of them affect each other. It's like the ability to open a 
restaurant. Anyone can open their own restaurant and sell food. But, they 
have to meet minimum state requirements to do so. The state doesn't try to 
tell you how to run your restaurant...but, they do make sure that your food 
is safe and doesn't create a problem for the general public. ICANN's 
primary goal is "stability of the Internet".

The current ICANN policy regarding alt.roots (putting on the blinders) -- 
will eventually lead to major problems.

>So there really is nothing for ICANN to do.

Yes there is -- open a dialogue about the alt.roots. ICANN cannot make or 
enforce policy for the alt.roots but, they can discuss it. If AT&T wants to 
lay cable in an area run by a Regional Bell.... the Bell is not allowed to 
dictate policy for AT&T, but they can discuss the impact to their business 
and their customers and hopefully establish a plan to deal with it. ICANN 
prefers to just pretend the issue doesn't exist. "What problem? There is no 
problem."

>I seriously doubt that the alt.roots will ever be able to claim they
>are in more use than the real root system.  To make statements to that
>effect as fact, and then use those "facts" to justify a policy is a
>fallacious way of developing policy.

I disagree with you on this. What exactly is the "real root system" ??? At 
the rate they are going... it won't be long (5-10 years) before alt.roots 
overcome ICANN's root. People are sick and tired of the stuff that ICANN is 
pulling: no representation for non-commercial interests, complete pandering 
to NSI and WIPO, closed-door meetings, and only telling  half of the truth.

I'm not just talking about US Internet users either.. the rest of the world 
is quite pissed and sees ICANN and the US Gov't control of the Net as a 
prime example of America's "Manifest Destiny" in action. I'm not presenting 
this as fact. I'm just pointing out two things:

1) People around the world aren't happy with ICANN
2) People around the world realize that there are alternatives

The question is -- what is ICANN going to do about it?






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