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ICANN - The Rudder of the Internet, Does it Need Repair?

The caretaker of the domain names is under fire for lack of direction

by Paul O'Shea

Have you ever thought about who provides the guidance or steering controls to the Internet? If you're like me, you thought about it briefly and then went to another Internet site without finding the answer. Well, believe it or not, it does have a controlling force and some think it is in need of an overhaul.

But before we delve into that let us first consider what is the Internet is. I think of the Internet as something akin to the air that surrounds us - it's there for all of us and no one has more claim than another. Realistically, it's more like radio, it's accessible to everyone, but the stations are under the guidance and control or a governing entity (the FCC in the U.S.). In the case of the Internet the controlling entity would be Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers or ICANN.

ICANN is a non-profit, international association founded in 1998 and incorporated in the U.S. It is the successor to IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority), which manages Internet addresses, domain names and the parameters associated with Internet protocols such as port numbers, router protocols, and multicast addresses. ICANN has a long-term contract with the U.S. Department of Commerce (which is up for review in September), to manage Internet Web site naming practices. The contract's mandate includes oversight of domain name systems; allocation of address space to Internet provider services; assignment of specifications for domain name standards; and management of domain name elements, which are the backbone that underlie the system. ICANN is funded by fees from the companies, or registrars, that sell domain names directly to users throughout the global Internet system, who use them for their Web addresses.

ICANN provides a list of accredited registrars in addition to network solutions that accept domain registrations (see also "What ICANN Does" http://www.icann.org/general/toward-mission-statement-07mar02.htm). The agency is charged with setting policy for the Internet's core infrastructure independent of government control. Therein lies the challenge - to keep the system free and open and not controlled by any government, companies or groups of people.

In September, ICANN's contract to assign the Internet's top-level domain names (TLD) comes up for review. At that time, the U.S. government can take back the domain naming system, but it will face a lot of pressure and opposition from the international community.

One of the issues facing the group is dealing with international issues like the use of character sets other than ASCII (see http://www.icann.org/committees/idn/non-ascii-tld-paper-13jun02.htm ). ICANN also will need to be able to deal with stability of the net as well as ensure growth worldwide. Presently, ICANN has critics who say the group shows favoritism to corporations since these companies receive more voting rights than other participating groups. Critics also believe that corporate interests have hijacked ICANN and can now manipulate the delegation of domain names in ways that allow them to effectively control the use and regulation of the Web, to the detriment of less powerful groups such as universities and other non-profit institutions.

Some critics say that ICANN policies on the creation and application of top-level domain names - such as .com, .edu, .org, .net - have created an artificial scarcity of domain names that has at times led these names to become outrageously overvalued commodities that fetched exorbitant sums on the open market. This may have been addressed by the creation of the seven new TLDs.

Additionally, a controversial proposal has been introduced that could end the appointment of representatives of technical and citizen groups to the ICANN board and limit board members to representatives of business and government. Why does ICANN want to do this? Some officials say that politicians could give the body more authority with national governments and improve its ability to raise funds. Some activists argue that limiting the role of private users will push the balance of power even more in the favor of Western government and business interests.

Another source of pressure on ICANN is the U.S. Congress. Some U.S. lawmakers have promised heightened oversight of the organization before it decides to give ICANN full control of the Internet's domain-name system. I don't know if this is just meddling by the U.S. politicians or something that should concern us.

Another criticism is that the original ICANN management team picked the ICANN board, which is the opposite of how non-profits choose members. The ICANN board has reversed the original rule that they must be replaced with an elected board within one year of ICANN's establishment. This could affect the group's credibility by allowing a good old boy system to prosper.

Presently, ICANN does not have the expertise to deal with major problems it may face, such as the first time a powerful corporation or nation decides not to abide by the domain root system the group has established. For that reason, the European Union says that ICANN must remain a technical, standards-setting body and keep out of public policy issues regarding the Internet. A recent white paper by the EU was titled "Governments are responsible for public policy, not ICANN."

EU officials also said they would prefer that the U.S. Department of Commerce give up control of the root-server system, a master control database of Internet sites that ensures Internet traffic gets to its intended destination. The EU is concerned that the enormous database could be used to determine all the traffic on the Internet. Although there is no evidence that this has happened, the issue has attracted attention especially in light of last year's events.

Another issue bubbling to the surface, especially as the Internet becomes more entrenched around the globe, has to do with how ICANN will deal with standards for non-Arabic numbers and non-Latin letters to enable them to be accessed by any type of browser. The failure to resolve the matter has drawn further complaints that ICANN's cumbersome bureaucracy penalizes its under-served, non-Western constituents.

It makes sense that we do our best to include, not exclude or penalize non-Western users who don't use ASCII characters, in this great, all-encompassing tool. This is our chance to get one step closer to realizing one of the true benefits of the Internet - global interaction.

Resources:

Seven New Top Level Domain Names: http://www.icann.org/tlds/

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