Thursday, May 6, 1999
Cato Institute, Washington D.C.
Milton Mueller, David Post, and Beckwith Burr were the panelists at
a well-attended forum on Internet governance today at the Cato
Institute in Washington D.C.
Milton Mueller and David Post began the proceedings with
well-formulated arguments that what was occurring was indeed the
creation of an Internet government, and that attempts to ignore or
hide the fact were impeding a serious approach to it. Beckwith Burr
added her usual time-worn clich�s about the process being on
schedule, et cetera, et cetera, and added that "the Internet should
be run by the people who use the Internet". Strangely, this remark
was not met by laughter, although it was followed by a prolonged and
pregnant silence. The man sitting next to the author of these lines
seemed to be bursting with the compulsion to inquire if Ms. Burr had
meant to say "by the people who use the Internet and have over
$100,000 for lawsuits", or "the people who use the Internet and are
members of ISOC", or "the people who use the Internet and have
connections in Washington", but the fellow restrained himself,
albeit with difficulty, and spent the rest of the conference biting
his lip and staring at his shoe.
Interventions from the audience in the Q&A period included an apt
reminder by Don Tellage of Network Solutions, Inc., that the people
presently conducting the ICANN process had not been elected to do so
and were chosen by a yet-unknown and dubious process. Michael
Sondow, of the ICIIU, confronted Becky Burr in his usual ungracious
way with the contradictoriness of her testimony at the House of
Representatives hearing on DNS in October, when Ms. Burr had said
both that "We are not creating a United States Government chartered
corporation or anything of the sort" and that "We will be entering
into a contract...fully authorized by the powers of the Secretary of
Commerce..." Mr. Sondow asked Ms. Burr to clarify, in the light of
such disingenuous testimony, whether or not, in the event that ICANN
is sued, the U.S.G. will grant it immunity. She answered in the
inimitable Burr style that maybe yes, maybe no, only time will tell,
tra-la-la.
Interestingly, the conference was attended by some persons not
habitually seen at these sorts of gatherings. There were present,
for example, three gentlemen in suits who are identified in the
roster of attendees only as being from "Washington, D.C.", who never
spoke, and who had the air of being anxious to leave as soon as
possible and report back to their superiors, awaiting no doubt in
some basement office of the CIA. John Hall from the Embassy of
Australia was there, overseeing his government's hegemony in ICANN's
Governmental Advisory Committee. Jim Harper from the House Committee
on the Judiciary was there, possibly to see if these Internet sorts
were as evil as Mr. Sondow says they are in the posts he incessantly
copies to the House. Notably present also was C. Lincoln Hoewing (we
won't hazard a guess as to what the "C" might stand for), identified
in the roster as pertaining to "Bell Atlantic Government Affairs",
which we take to mean the telco lobby; Mr. Hoewing, perhaps not
unexpectedly, did not appear overly in need of liquid refreshment
when the gathering left the auditorium at 2:00 P.M. to reconvene in
the foyer, where the Cato had prepared lunch.
The pastrami sandwiches were excellent.
