Re: <nettime> Vinc Cerf: The Internet is for Everyone

[t byfield <tbyfield@panix.com>]

geert@xs4all.nl (Sat 04/27/02 at 12:06 PM +1000):

> (Can anyone help to decipher this document? The Internet is for everyone.
> According to Vinc Cerf this is going to be the new ideology of the Internet
> Society. One really wonders what the previous ideology then was. The
> document then goes on and talks about staggering growth, Internet access on
> other planets, the tremendous rise of e-commerce (as if the dotcom crash did
> not happen). Cerf continues the old line of accusing only governments while
> remaining silent over the rise of corporate control over the Internet.
> Completely uncritically of what's going on inside ICANN he calls for
> unconditional support of ICANN, etc. Geert)

cerf is in a very bad position to be criticial of what's going
on inside ICANN: he was the towering figure in creating it, he 
bailed it out when it was running out of money (e.g., a bridge 
loan from his own MCI/worldcom), and he's chair of the board. 

this mantra 'internet is for everyone' is like dyson's 'always
make new mistakes!': a fixture in his .sig for 3+ years.

ISOC is basically dead in the water: the net needs no advocacy
in MDCs, and ISOC's culture isn't very well suited to the LDCs
where it might still be needed. it's been casting around for a
role and goal for a while now; or, rather, the c*b*l that runs
it has been casting around for ways to collapse it into ICANN--
as s pre-captured substitute for the At Large Membership.

oh, yeah: this 'RFC' is three years old: 

     <http://www.ietf.org/IMR/IMR-1999-05>
 
it's no mystery why he'd haul out this chamberpot of PR right
now: ICANN isn't doing very well.

     - karl auerbach, the at-large director for north america,
       is suing them, and ICANN's response is hilariously bad;

     - the RIRs (especially RIPE) are giving it money but not
       much else (e.g., political support or contracts);

     - it's memorandum of understanding with the US govt runs
       out on 30 september, and ICANN has failed to sign docu-
       ments with the ccTLDs and RIRs, which is what it's sup-
       posed to do under the MoU;

     - it just gave away .us to insiders who seriously fucked
       up the TM clearance process, sold thousands of domains
       to non-USers (despite a requirement for US nexus), etc;

     - CEO lynn's 'deform' proposal attracted a *lot* of heat,
       and it remains to be seen whether a petulant brit will
       fare as well as the previous CEO (an ex-US mil guy) in
       front of congress during the inevitable hearings;

     - and they don't have enough revenue to support their ex-
       panding appetite for overpaid mid-level apparatchiks.

cerf presided over all of this, from beginning to end. afaict,
the only mystery is why he still has a good reputation.

cheers,
t

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