Re: FW: [registrars] the iana function

[Eric Brunner-Williams in Portland Maine <brunner@nic-naa.net>]

Elana,

I first met Carl Malamud at some social after InterOp '91 -- it was the fourth
and last shownet our team did for Dan Lynch's operation. He'd just finnished a
book-length puff-piece for Dan on the Wonders Of The Internet (TM). He was an
ernest guy in a room full of NOC guys -- Auerback, Romkey, Bridgham, Knolles,
Brunner, Vixie, Truit, Manning, ...

Rick and I know people over a decade of Valley transactions, some of whom
participated in the .ORG bid, most of whom didn't. I'm pretty sure we all
still trust each other to not disclose, and not conflict, and work carefully
and responsibily while knowing far too much about far too many players in
our industry.

I won't loose a moment's sleep over Rick's having worked with Paul and
Carl on .ORG, or my own having worked with RCOM and SWITCH on the same
bid.

I'm still loosing sleep over whether ICANN can be reformed. The cost and
scope of the IANA function isn't a cause belli, but there are others. You
won't be able to swing a cat in hallway at IETF-56 without hitting someone
who'd love to see IANA (and the IETF) freed from the entangling alliance
(with ICANN), and perfectly willing to fob this mess (names) off on the ITU,
and its constituency (UN Member States).

Lets not rush in that direction, nor rush to risk error or injury. Instead,
lets all have a beer.

Cheers,
Eric