Re: newIANA (was Fram behind closed doors via opaque channels)

["Jim Fleming" <JimFleming at unety.net>]

-----Original Message-----
From: mueller <mueller at syr.edu>
To: Masataka Ohta <mohta at necom830.hpcl.titech.ac.jp>
Cc: vinton g. cerf <vcerf at mci.net>; discussion-draft at giaw.org
<discussion-draft at giaw.org>; ietf at ietf.org <ietf at ietf.org>;
comments at iana.org <comments at iana.org>; Iana at iana.org <Iana at iana.org>;
List at giaw.org <List at giaw.org>
Date: Sunday, July 12, 1998 8:47 PM
Subject: Re: newIANA (was Fram behind closed doors via opaque channels)


>Mr. Ohta:
>These comments demonstrate the kind of confusion about ISI and IANA that
are
>prevalent around the world. The view that the US government is
"interfering"
>with ISI's activities or the development of the Internet is very strange,
>almost incomprehensible. ISI's involvement with the Internet is purely a
>product of US Government funding. IANA is nothing but a government contract
>with the US Defense Department. Do you want the US Defense Department to be
>responsible for the basic coordinating functions of the global Internet? I
>suspect your answer would be "NO." If so, then it is absolutely necessary
for
>these functions to be moved into an entirely new structure, outside of US
>government control, in the private sector, and subject to global input.
>

For some...IANA has become a religion...


>It may be true that ISI, Jon Postel, or other members of "IANA" have
>developed close personal and professional relationships with people around
>the world like you. Undoubtedly they, and people like you, have helped to
>establish the Internet in other countries in its earlier stages of
>development. These personal relationships are, quite literally, not
relevant
>to the task at hand. The Internet has become a global medium for commerce
and
>communication upon which billions of dollars of investment and business and
>social activity rest. What matters now is the legal and institutional basis
>for the coordinating functions that IANA provided in the past.
>

I disagree...the U.S. Government's White Paper clearly
hands control to Jon Postel and his ITAG. If that is not
the case then please get Mr. Ira Magaziner to post a
public statement to these forums that disputes that. He
could even send it to <comments at iana.org>.


>For this reason it is also a mistake, and a serious one, to think that we
are
>now creating a "new IANA." As a figure of speech, it is acceptable, because
>whatever new organization is created will subsume the functions of IANA.
>However, it is dangerous to use this term, because it obscures the
>fundamental fact that the Internet's coordinating functions are undergoing
a
>radical mutation, making a sharp and irrevocable break with the past. The
new
>Entity will be a global organization, not a US government contractor; it
will
>not be dominated by one person but more of an impersonal institution, with
>its own rules, and subject to much more formalized checks and balances.
This
>is not a "new IANA." It is an entirely new world for the Internet.
>


You might be confusing what is being created for the IPv4/6
worlds and other worlds. As far as I know, these forums are
only for people interested in the IPv4/6 Internet(s). It would be
a serious mistake for people interested in those Internets to
not recognize that Jon Postel and his ITAG will call the shots
via http://www.iana.org.


Jim Fleming
Unir Corporation - http://www.unir.com