PAB Progress Breaks Out in Geneva Wired 6:30pm 27.Jul.98.PDT

From: Sascha Ignjatovic (sascha@isoc.vienna.org)
Date: Tue Jul 28 1998 - 05:13:13 PDT


               
http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/14031.html

               Progress Breaks Out in Geneva
               By Alyssa Katz

               6:30pm 27.Jul.98.PDT
               The pressure was on in Geneva
               for those who hold influence
               over the evolution of the
               Internet. With just 60 days left
               on the US government contract
               with the organization that
               manages domain names and
               addresses, the whole future of
               the Net's naming and addressing
               system was on the table at a
               conference late last week.

               Held on Friday and Saturday, the
               second meeting of the
               International Forum on the White
               Paper, or IFWP, brought together
               more than 300 organizations
               representing a broad spectrum of
               interests. They came to debate
               and refine the White
               House-backed plan for shifting
               oversight of domain names and
               other administrative matters
               from governmental control to an
               independent, international
               organization.

               One significant decision emerged
               from Geneva: Distinguished
               individuals, and not
               special-interest groups, should
               govern over the new,
               as-yet-unnamed organizational
               body that will eventually take
               charge of .com, .net, and the
               others.

               The meeting was sponsored by the
               Internet Society as a conclusion
               to its global INET 98 conference
               and as a follow-up to a session
               that was held in Reston,
               Virginia, in early July.

               According to conference
               organizers, participants
               generally agreed that the
               organization's 15-member board
               should consist of individuals
               who have gained widespread
               respect and trust in the
               Internet community. The group
               also agreed that representation
               of specific interest groups on
               the board should not be a chief
               consideration.

               Instead, the groups will have an
               opportunity to participate in
               councils working on specific
               issues, such as domain-name
               management, protocol
               development, and IP (Internet
               Protocol) address allocation.
               Any decisions made by the
               councils would be subject to
               approval by the board.

               By contrast, the proposed plan
               for private Internet
               coordination, known informally
               as the White Paper, states that
               "management structures should
               reflect the functional and
               geographic diversity of the
               Internet and its users."

               The proposal's architect,
               special White House technology
               adviser Ira Magaziner, won't say
               whether he believes the newly
               revised setup will be any less
               responsive to the needs of the
               larger Internet community. "What
               I think is not important,"
               Magaziner told Wired News. "The
               important thing is what [plan]
               consensus can be built around.
               If the stakeholders build
               consensus around this particular
               structure, then why not?"

               Magaziner, who publicly urged
               the meeting's participants to
               choose an interim board quickly,
               made it a point not to
               participate in any of the
               conference's discussions.

               He and others say they were
               pleased to see previously
               hostile parties -- particularly
               Network Solutions, which
               currently enjoys the exclusive
               contract to provide the bulk of
               domain-name registration
               services, and its aspiring
               competitors -- cooperatively
               enter discussions on the
               still-unresolved question of how
               registration will operate.
               Attendees debated whether a
               central registry should operate
               as a for-profit enterprise at
               all.

               Participants also discussed
               competing ideas for funding the
               corporation, with some
               advocating a membership-based
               structure and others calling for
               a fee to be passed on whenever
               an Internet domain is
               registered.

               Contrary to some fears, the
               conference's European hosts did
               not fight the decision to locate
               the new organization in the
               United States. "The movement
               toward incorporation in America
               is definite," said Internet
               Society president Don Heath.
               "[It's increasingly evident]
               that it's starting not to be a
               problem."

               The eagerness of participants to
               get on with the new Internet
               order was perhaps exemplified by
               Dr. Jon Postel, who has long
               headed the soon-to-be-dismantled
               Internet Assigned Numbers
               Authority (IANA).

               Postel came to the meeting with
               his own proposed bylaws for the
               new organization, which
               conference-goers took to calling
               the "New IANA" for lack of a
               better name.

               Even with the progress made, the
               meeting still left many
               questions unanswered: most
               importantly, who will sit on the
               interim board of directors. It's
               expected that IANA will soon
               float a list of likely
               candidates, and that the spirit
               of cooperation will take over
               the effort from there.

               And if that doesn't work? "We'll
               be in for some interesting
               chaotic times," says Heath.

               The third and final meeting of
               the IFWP is scheduled to take
               place in Singapore on 12 and 13
               August.

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