[ncdnhc-discuss] ICANN Reform: Role of ITU

[Kent Crispin]

On Wed, May 01, 2002 at 07:06:36AM +0900, Chun Eung Hwi wrote:
> Dear Dave Crocker and Michael Froomkin,
> 
> > This line of thinking continues to ignore two, fundamental constraints:
> > 
> > 1.  The hierarchical nature of the DNS requires a single, logical control 
> > over allocation/assignment policy.  Any effort to "devolve and share power" 
> > must be designed in a way that is compatible with this technical 
> > constraint.  However no proposal for this has been put forward to permit 
> > honest, diligent analysis of its operational feasibility.
> 
> At initial stage, we could consider the regional distribution of root
> servers (copies of A-root). Here, we could also increase the present
> number of those root servers. And at the next stage, we should consider
> any architectural improvement such as distributed root servers. Dave, why
> don't you contribute for that?

This does not address the fundamental constraint that Dave mentioned. 

> > 2.  The ability to reach consensus about things is not much better at the 
> > regional level than it is at the global level.  For one thing, the 
> > construct of a "region" is often quite artificial.  For another, members of 
> > a region often have widely disparate needs and goals.  Again, any proposal 
> > for devolution and sharing of power needs to attend to this core fact of life.
> 
> So far as RIRs are concered, we have already done in that way. Obviously,
> "region" is quite artificial as much as the formation of ICANN. Global
> community is much more diverse and complicated than a region has disparate
> needs and goals.

This is an invalid generalization.  Sometimes (not always, of course) a
larger scale actually improves the possibility of consensus, because a
regional conflict can be too intense for the parties directly involved
to even contemplate a compromise -- eg, the Middle East. 

In fact this very effect may well apply to ICANN -- it is fairly 
certain that a compromise to establish the new gTLDs would never have 
happened without ICANN providing a forum for it to happen.

> ICANN is too much centralized to be a global consensus
> structure.

Proof by repeated assertion.

-- 
Kent Crispin                               "Be good, and you will be
Technical Support Manager, ICANN            lonesome."
crispin at icann.org,kent at songbird.com                    -- Mark Twain