Re: [wg-review] Intake from the GA ML

[Sandy Harris <sandy@storm.ca>]

"Cade,Marilyn S - LGA" wrote:

> What about the ITU?  The ITU is controlled by/responsible to individual
> governments, with no input from individuals, and minimal from private
> sector, and none from NGOs' that I am aware of. Check out what it costs to
> be a sector member, as industry, and you'll soon get the sense that it isn't
> cheap.
> 
> And, then, there is the issue that the ITU is primarily responsible for, and
> accountable for telecom issues, and fairly busy at that... Are they the
> right forum to deal with Internet issues and are they able to move quickly
> enough to deal with the issues facing ICANN.

That strikes me as a very scary notion, given the history. Back in the mid-80s
the International Standards Organisation did a lot of work on networking. The
ITU's predecessor, CCITT, was much involved.

As I see it, that effort was largely wrong-headed, and a large part of the
reason was involvement of too many telephonists with little comprehension of
computer networking. Fortunately, it failed quickly and without doing too much
damage, eclipsed by TCP/IP.

The definitive commentary on this (and likely the funniest technical book ever
written) is Padlipsky's "Elements of Networking Style". Several chapters of it
are available as RFCs 871 to 875.

The notion of putting ITU, CCITT, ISO, ... in charge of anything do with the
net still terrifies me.
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