IP: New Internet Board Hears Plenty of Skepticism

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

One wonders whether people who trust the Board and feel things are in good hands were motivated to go to Boston over a 
weekend.  I suspect if this had been held in conjunction with an IETF meeting the results would have been quite 
different djf

http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/11/cyber/articles/14domain.html

New Internet Board Hears Plenty of Skepticism

By JERI CLAUSING 


AMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Nearly 200 people from all over the world on Saturday delivered a strong message to the board 
charged with establishing a private system of Internet governance: We don't trust you. 
        
That theme, along with repeated calls for a system that protects the Internet from special interests, were about the 
only things everyone seemed to agree on in the first public meeting of the initial board of the Internet Corporation 
for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). 

Although many criticized the hearing as a dog and pony show, a number of the different groups that have been battling 
for years over how to privatize the administration of the Internet still expressed a reluctant willingness to work with 
the board. The meeting, held at a hotel just outside Boston, was intended to try and reach consensus on the complicated 
organizational issues that still need to be decided for private leadership. 
Asked by the interim board chairwoman, Esther Dyson, how many in the room were optimistic that consensus could be 
reached, about one-third raised their hands. ...