[ga] ICANN exists to facilitate, not to coerce

[Karl Auerbach <karl@CaveBear.com>]

In an ongoing exchange, the following statement was made with regard to
ccTLDs as a justification for ICANN to impose obligations and restrictions
on ccTLDs:

> ...  If you want to simply proclaim that each ccTLD is an
> island, which demands connectivity to the authoritative root but has no
> global responsibilities

That statement is based on a faulty understanding of what the Internet is
- a voluntary aggregation of entities who voluntarily chose to adopt or
replace certain conventions of communication as their individual needs
require.

As part of that voluntary aggregation it was discovered that there is
usefulness in having namespaces and in connecting those namespaces.

A DNS root is merely a bridge to connect namespaces.

I frequently walk and drive across the Golden Gate Bridge.  As a work of
engineering and art it has considerable intrinsic value.  But its function
is to join two bodies of land and two populations of people.  It is a
bridge that would not have been built, no matter the aesthetics or
engineering challanges, but for those bodies of land and populations of
people.

The Golden Gate Bridge, like the ICANN/NTIA DNS root, exists to link
entities more important than itself.  The relative importance of the
Golden Gate Bridge is understood.  Its board of directors exists at the
pleasure of, and to serve, the counties on either side of the bridge; it
does not dictate policy to those counties.

The ICANN/NTIA root serves merely to link more important entities, TLD 
namespaces.  Its role is subservient, not dominant.

ICANN's job is merely to establish the technical parameters so that
groups, such as ccTLD communities, that wish to communicate can do so.

ICANN exists merely to facilitate, not to coerce.

		--karl--







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