IP: Re:GROUPS BEGIN PUBLIC AWARENESS CAMPAIGN FOR INTERNET BOARD Edupage, 30 June 2000

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

> Date: Sun, 2 Jul 2000 13:15:39 -0700
> To: farber () cis upenn edu
> From: Paul Hoffman / IMC <phoffman () imc org>
>
>
> At 7:58 AM -0400 7/2/00, Adam L. Beberg wrote:
> > > It concerns me greatly that what was once a benevolent dictatorship
> > > under the brilliant and wise Dr. Jon Postel, is now a beurocratic
> > > quasi-democracy of 16 year olds without any understanding of deeply
> > > technical issues.
>
> What has come out of four years of intense debate and research on the TLDs 
> (some of which happened when Jon was alive) is the fact that the 
> social/political ramifications of TLDs are much greater than the technical 
> ones. The current infrastructure can probably handle hundred of new TLDs 
> with no changes.
>
> Because there are probably no serious technical issues, the biggest 
> question becomes which forum is the correct place to debate and decide the 
> social/political issues. ICANN has, for better or worse, become the single 
> focus for this, and it is thus appropriate for anyone who is eligible to 
> participate in the ICANN process to do so. It is also appropriate for 
> people who feel that ICANN is not the right place, or that ICANN has the 
> wrong rules, to publicly express the exact changes they think should be 
> made (and *not* to make vague proposals or to complain without proposing a 
> better alternative).
>
> --Paul Hoffman, Director
> --Internet Mail Consortium