So ICANN will oversee domains until 2011 at the earliest. Does this matter? Is anyone worried? I don't have any real problems with ICANN, except with some of the talk of major price increases. Otherwise the status quo is fine for me.
Unless they try to enforce some bad things, I don't mind its existence...anybody worried on that issue?
I do think some improvments in ICANN are called for, but I don't think there's a serious shortcoming and I do think that all of this is still new enough that it's reasonable to work out the governance issues with ICANN rather than just jump to something new and unknown.
ICANN has HUGE shortcomings, which I will list really quickly:
1. Accountability: It has little if any oversight (the Department of Commerce basically rubberstamps everythING that ICANN does anyway).
2. Representation: ICANN has desolved At-large membership to the board of representatives, meaning that there is no user representation at the policy-making level of icann
3. U.S. control - ICANN has minimized the importance of the government advisory council (they can only make suggestions). However, ICANN operates under authority of the department of commerce, and so it will follow U.S. policy.
4. Monopolisation - ICANN is non-profit, but have a massive budget. They are also a monopoly, with all the disadvantages of monopolisation.
5. ICANN seems to operate under tremendous commercial lobby whilst ignoring user interests.
There are others, but thats just a quick overview of the problems that I have with ICANN.
Zach
Althought the problems are existant, do you believe or know some answers and solutions to your own questions? Seems like it'd be hard to fix.
I think ICANN has done a fabulous, fabulous job and the administration fo the registration of the domains has proven to be reliable and godo for the expansion of the internet.
All I know is that since they changed things up a while back and spread domains out and allowed other registrars, prices dropped like 5-10x. I think Zach does have some good points on the current structure and the potential pitfalls they pose.
I can see Zach's points. I guess I'm just not at the level where any of those things seem to effect me personally. Although I'm not overally concerned, I'm glad he brought them to our attention. It's wise to be aware of potential problems.
I do think that it is very important. The internet is used by many many people, including Plumley, and laws which are passed on how the internet is to be used, and what restrictions there are on the DNS, and so forth, affect everyone who uses the internet.
That is why it is important to have a say in laws, because if you (as webmasters, surfers, etc) have no influence over the process, it may very well be used against you. See, for instance, the Verisign deal, which would allow registration prices to be raised annually.
Zach