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