IP: ICANN and IBM

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

[please note this is from John Patrick from IBM not me (some IPers 
assume everything they read comes from me :-)  djf]


Dave, recently there has been a lot of discussion about ICANN and the role
IBM plays in the organization's efforts.  A lot of what I have read is
inaccurate and I'd like to use this posting to clarify what's really going
on.

Let me start with my strong belief -- shared by IBM, government leaders
and many technology organizations -- that the Internet is rapidly becoming
the global medium.  Not a medium.  *The* medium.  We already see that
e-business is dependent on the Internet, and we're starting to see people
around the world relying on it for education, disease management,
entertainment, real-time communications and collaboration, and even
government services, to name just a few uses.  In fact, it's hard to see
what won't be dependent on the Internet.   So what makes the Internet work
and who is responsible to ensure it will continue working in the future as
the growth continues?  That's the role that ICANN was designed to play.

We all know that when you type "www.myfavoritewebsite.com," it has to be
translated to an all-numeric address that the Internet infrastructure
understands.  Because the Internet is made up of many heterogeneous and
separately-managed networks, the early Internet inventors and pioneers
realized that a central third party was needed to manage the assignment of
domain names and network addresses so that  "www.myfavoritewebsite.com"
always translated to the correct address, even though different users
would consult different servers to do the translation.

And because most of the early Internet development happened under U.S.
Government auspices, that central third party was originally designated by
the US government.  But now that the Internet is a global entity, there is
broad agreement that having one country be the ultimate authority is
inappropriate.  In fact, it's clear that the central third party needs to
be a global, non-profit, private-sector organization.  And, after a long
and public design process, ICANN (The Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers) was created to fill that role.   IBM was one of the
many private sector organizations that chose to provide input into the
design process, and we felt then, as we do now, that a neutral, global,
non-profit organization is the right choice to oversee the administration
of Internet domain names.

Once the ICANN charter was recognized by the U.S. and the European
governments, the organization was quickly recognized as the legitimate
manager of the domain names and numbers by more than 40 countries and many
of the major private sector organizations with an interest in this area.
The Internet Society, International Chamber of Commerce, Internet
Engineering Task Force, U.S. Council for International Business,
International Trademark Association, Global Internet Project, World Wide
Web Consortium, and all of the Internet IP address registries (APNIC,
RIPE, ARIN, etc) are just a few of the organizations that have publically
supported ICANN.

So who pays for ICANN?  ICANN depends on fees charged to users of its
services.  But those fees will not be determined or charged until ICANN
has a permanent board which will determine the appropriate fee structure.
Right now, ICANN is in "start-up" mode, with an acting board of directors,
and no income.  As a result, transitional funding has been necessary.

Toward that end, there have been some private sector organizations and
companies that have stepped up to help out.  The Global Internet Project
(GIP) initiated a fund-raising program in July 1998, and raised
approximately $400,000.  (Note: I am the chairperson of the GIP.)  Also,
MCI and Cisco have made loans or loan guarantees to ICANN.  IBM has
announced (see following link to letter) a $100,000 grant.
http://www.icann.org/correspondence/ibm-letter-24sept99.htm There are many
others that have contributed and ICANN has posted the names
of these donors on their Web site at http://www.icann.com.  Considering the
support for ICANN in the industry, I expect more
companies will help with funding during this transitional period.

Some people have questioned whether there needs to be an organization
managing the administrative hierarchy; they'd like to see it handled by
some distributed self-managing approach.  And perhaps such an approach
could work *if* we were starting with a clean sheet of paper.  But with
hundreds of millions of people and millions of computers using the Net
every second, there is great risk involved with changing the model.  It
just isn't practical.  ICANN plays a critical role in addressing a narrow,
well-defined list of tasks that define the plumbing of the Internet:
Coordinating the assignment of the top level of the domain name system;
overseeing the root name server system; coordinating the assignment of
parameters for technical standards; and overseeing the assignment of IP
addresses.

In many respects, ICANN is an unprecedented effort by the Internet
community to create a globally representative, non-governmental entity - -
one which will ease the transition of the Internet from a non-commercial,
research network to the global medium.  This transition, unfortunately,
won't be without growing pains.  ICANN has been very open to suggestions
and criticism and has reacted positively to all constructive input.  In a
relatively short period of time, ICANN has taken significant steps to more
effectively manage the core functions I described.  Among its efforts has
been the adoption of a new set of rules designed to reduce piracy and
trademark infringement in the domain name system and the creation of
competition for domain name registrations.

The bottom line is that I believe - and IBM agrees - that ICANN is an
essential organization to ensure the long-term growth and health of the
Internet.   If ICANN were to fail, I think that the likely result would be
governmental agencies - subject, as always, to political influences -
taking over the management of the Internet.    Few people think this a
good idea; I certainly don't.   Neither IBM nor I have any official
relationship to ICANN, but I am happy to say that when ICANN has asked for
help, IBM has been responsive; we intend to continue to provide assistance
and support to ICANN in the future.

So what does IBM get from ICANN by helping them?  Nothing more or less
than everyone else who uses the Internet gets:  stability of the Internet.
  We're helping ICANN through its transition because we think it's the most
effective way to move the authority for Internet names and numbers from
the U.S. Government to the global private sector - in fact, to the
Internet community itself.  And the sooner we can get through this
transition, the sooner the stakeholders of the Internet - individual
users, as well as institutions -  can continue to take advantage of the
Internet instead of arguing about it.

John Patrick
Vice President - Internet Technology
IBM Corporation
http://www.ibm.com/patrick
patrick () us ibm com