On Sun, 28 Nov 1999, Esther Dyson wrote:
> Ken, I've already said most of what I have to say, and you can go find it
> and repeat it as well as I can.
>
> I think ICANN is heading in more or less the right direction despite its
> many imperfections, and I want to help make it better. It is not governing
> the world, and god forbid *anything* should be put to a global vote. It is
> trying to organize bottom-up courtesy of the people most concerned with the
> Net's infrastructure, and draw them in through outreach. It implements its
> policies through contracts, not by "governing."
George Orwell would appreciate this sort of English.
ICANN is "trying to organize bottom-up". This is why it was imposed on
the Internet by a small group that has never been clearly identified. No
broadly based Internet group ever asked for ICANN or has endorsed it.
ICANN is here "courtesy of the people most concerned with the Net's
infrastructure". The totally naive, those not fluent in this NewSpeak,
would confuse this group with, for example, the Internet service providers
who operate most of the Internet infrastructure. The fact that ISPs as
a group do not endorse ICANN, the fact that ICANN ignores ISPs' input --
these are irrelevant. Because, after all, ICANN is trying to "draw them
in through outreach".
Most importantly, the fact that ISPs, like most of the rest of the people
most concerned with the Internet's infrastructure, have no interest in
signing contracts that give away control over their assets to ICANN --
that's totally irrelevant.
The Internet has many legitimate organizations that draw such authority
as they have from the endorsement of those that they represent. ICANN
is not one of them.
--
Jim Dixon Managing Director
VBCnet GB Ltd http://www.vbc.net tel +44 117 929 1316
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Member of Council Telecommunications Director
Internet Services Providers Association EuroISPA EEIG
http://www.ispa.org.uk http://www.euroispa.org
tel +44 171 976 0679 tel +32 2 503 22 65
