IP: New Web Site to Monitor ICANN

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

> Date: Mon, 28 Jun 1999 12:44:38 -0400
> To: farber () central cis upenn edu (Dave Farber)
> From: David Post <Postd () erols com>
>
> New Web Site to Monitor ICANN
>
> Check out http://www.icannwatch.org/
>
> Edited by David Post, Michael Froomkin and Dave Farber, ICANN Watch will 
> serve as a forum for understandingof, and informed debate about,
> ICANN's role in managing the Domain Name System. 
>
> Reorganization of the Domain Name System, far from being an arcane
> technical detail of Internet engineering, is a pivotal event in the
> history of the Internet. 
>
> Whoever controls the DNS will be subject to immense pressure to stray
> far beyond any limited technical functions because the domain name
> system is the one place where enforceable global Internet policy can be
> promulgated without any of the messy enforcement and jurisdictional
> problems that bedevil ordinary law-making exercises on the Net.
> Businesses, which now realize the huge economic stake they have in this
> medium, and governments, which have spent the last few years worrying
> about how they would ever get back their taxing and  regulatory
> authority over Internet transactions, will view ICANN as the means to
> impose their particular vision on Internet users worldwide. 
>
> With so much at stake, how can we be assured that ICANN will be able to
> resist the pressure that will be brought to bear upon it? Where are the
> checks on the new corporation's exercise of its powers? How can all of
> those with a stake in the Internet's future i.e., all of us -- be
> assured that ICANN will exercise its powers in the best interests of
> the Internet community as a whole, rather than on behalf of one
> particular faction or another? 
>
> ICANN Watch will serve as a forum for understanding and informed debate
> about the implications of ICANN's activities. We have no particular
> viewpoint to push or axes to grind; we will offer commentary and
> criticism from a wide variety of different perspectives, guided only by
> our belief in the power of ideas and informed discussion and debate to
> shape events and institutions. 
>
> We hope you'll check it out.
>
> David Post