Ronda Hauben wrote:
> So the U.S. government is setting up a body that *no* membership
> or any other forms could check and oversee. To put such
> fabulously rich public property as the domain names, the IP
> numbers, the protocols etc into the hands of a private entity
> under any condition is only an invitation for corruption,
> conflict of interest and massive theft.
In these circumstances not even the most
rigorous and open of membership structures
will prevent massive abuse. This, combined
with all of the other errors in compound
that are known as ICANN inded sets up a
more or less permanently exploitative
body apparently set to occupy the entire
governance of the Internet. Which pretty
much renders this medium nul and void in
the long term as an appropriate vehicle of
open, free and public communications.
Now on to a potential solution. Merely
fighting for the dominance of good people
or factions within a basically unfair
hierarchical structure inevitably leads
to the same cul de sac when those same
folks are either compromised or pass out
of power. So the struggle within the
framework is doomed I'm afraid. Even trying
to set up a parrallel or competing "good"
hierarchy leads to the same slippery slope
sort of slide. What then?
We will have to resort to some solution
that does *not* depend upon central authority
and a "hierarchy scales" solution. Some route
around and clever series of constructs that
allows every citizen, community group,
political party, company or what have you,
an address, identity and localization
minus all of the scrabbling for power and
sheer craven profiteering. It is my opinion
that this is far more easily accomplished
by "dumbing down" the network rather than
the current motion towards smarting it up.
The whole idea is to simply plug and play.
Removed from all of the tables and approvals,
fees and master lists, bottlenecks and penny
ante dictatorships. Plug it in and go. No
more applying for this or allowing 24 hours
of propagation time for that. Instant and
universal connectivity without undue difficulty,
hienous surviellance mechanisms or complex
network architectures prone to catastrophic
failure. How this will be achieved seems to
be a matter of determination and ingenuity.
Which is in abundant supply down here even
if it rather scarce in the hallowed virtual
halls of the high and bloody mighty "Internet
Community". Do-able? Yessirrree Ma'am!
Bob Allisat
Free Community Network _ [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://fcn.net _ http://fcn.net/allisat
http://robin.fcn.net
