Re: [ifwp] Re: announcement from the Berkman Center

[Jim Dixon <jdd@matthew.uk1.vbc.net>]

On Fri, 28 Aug 1998, Dave Crocker wrote:

> IANA has been doing it's job for more than 15 years.  Most of the folks who
> are strongly active (and vocal) participants in the IFWP process have
> little knowledge of, or concern for, Internet operations. 

Yes, IANA has been doing its job for more than 15 years.  For most of
those 15 years that job has been almost entirely technical.  Insofar
as the job has been technical, IANA has been quite successful.

However, for the last two or three years, IANA has been struggling less
and less successfully with the consequences of the growth of the Internet.
The Internet is no longer a tool of academics and researchers.  It is now
largely and increasingly commercial.  As the Internet emerges, as it moves
towards the centre of everyday life, it is increasingly in collision with
with non-technical values, with existing social, legal, political, and 
commercial structures.  IANA is not managing this collision well.
 
>                                                           Some do, of
> course.  Most do not.  To most participants, this is a political and/or
> legal process, having to do with ideals or with "winning".  It has
> essentially nothing to do with graceful and stable evolution of network
> administration.

Certainly this is true of some participants.  It may be true of most.
But what these participants are bringing with them is an understanding of
the larger world, an understanding that most of those with technical
expertise, including those running the IANA, lack.  We need those people.
Bringing outside expertise into the management of the Internet is not
something that can be done tomorrow, next year, sometime in the next
century.  It has to happen now.  

If IANA is to evolve gracefully, if the co-ordination of the 
management of core Internet functions is to remain stable, then somehow
political, legal, and commercial expertise has to be integrated into
the management of IANA.

True, the people having that expertise will in generally not care much
about network operations.  But if my experience is anything to go by,
they will be extremely concerned with the long-term stability of the
Internet.  It will be up to those with technical expertise to educate 
them on the operational consequences of their proposals.

This is actually nothing new to the Internet community.  The whole IETF
process revolves around subjecting proposals to wider scrutiny.  It is
an iterative and collegial process, a process in which highly qualified
technical experts can be challenged by anyone walking in the door, one
in which anyone who can make a good case will be heard.

> By agreeing to participate, then, IANA essentially would be faced with
> having an equal voice/vote with those who are quite literally ignorant
> about the core subject matter, except possibly as an academic topic.

The question is what the core subject matter is.  

The management of any enterprise looks in and looks out, like Janus.  It
looks in at the core activities of the enterprise.  If it doesn't understand
those, it fails.  

Yes, it is utterly important that those designing the new corporation create
something that is capable of taking on the responsibilities that IANA now
has and carrying out those responsibilities at least as well as IANA does
today.

But it is EQUALLY important that the new corporation be capable of managing
the interaction of the Internet with society at large, in all of its many
aspects.  That is, that management has to comprehend the social, political,
legal, and commercial ramifications of its decisions.  

It should be clear to everyone after the endless and fruitless debates of 
the last two years that while IANA, possibly with some restructuring, is
capable of handling the technical side, it has not done well in handling
the Internet's relations with the larger world.  IANA needs fresh blood,
fresh insight.  This is exactly what the White Paper called for and exactly
what the IFWP is intended to bring into the process.

> Imagine starting a commercial company that way, and then think hard whether
> you would invest.

Yes indeed.  When people are making investments, they don't just look at
technical skills.  They look for a well-balanced management team.  Not just
super-competent technologists, but financial, marketing, sales, and 
management skills.

Would I invest in IANA as it is?  

No. 

Would I invest in IANA with its technical skills and the moral authority
that it commands supplemented by a full range of skills in the larger 
world?  

Yes, if this new expertise were actually integrated into the new entity's 
management as full partners.

> Then think about the risk of this approach for the administrative heart to
> the operational Internet.

The risk to the operational Internet comes from a fragile IANA that is
not capable of managing the collision between the Internet and the outside
world. 

In actual fact, the risk is not all that great, because the operators of
the Internet will simply take alternative paths.  And the role that IANA
has had at the heart of the Internet will fragment and gradually disappear.

We need a strong IANA, a global focal point for the co-ordination of 
Internet activities.  We don't need an Imperial IANA, laying down a new
world order.  However, we cannot continue to rely upon an 
IANA-of-the-techies.  What we need is both technical competence and 
worldly wisdom in equal balance.

> In that context, it not only is reasonable for IANA to consider refusing to
> participate, but there is a line of argument which says that it is
> essential to refuse.

IANA should bring its technical competence and moral authority to the
meetings in Cambridge.  It has nothing to lose, and a great deal to gain,
in doing so.

--
Jim Dixon                                                 Managing Director
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