I think that is where it all went wrong. ICANN is
not supposed to "govern" the Internet. It was supposed to coordinate, which
it has not done at all. It was supposed to cooperate, which it has not done.You
suggest that perhaps a consortium would work, but so far that has not worked.
I have hopes that a TLD trade association to self regulate itself may work for part
of the problem, but there will still have to be cooperation among all the root managers
to avoid the pitfalls of collsions in the DNS. Believe it or not, we were well
on the way to accomplishing this when ICANN selected the collider. Now that
the precedent has been set, it will be much more difficult.
However, as in most
evolution, things seem to work themselves out. As David pointed out, there
are many languages and many dialects within languages and people seem to somehow
communicate. The Internet will also manage to route around the damage caused
by those who try to sabotage it (and that is NOT the alt.roots). The ones who
do not care about the DNS or users will fall by the wayside and the ones who do care
and have the technical know-how, infrastructure and service will prevail.
That
is why I have said that it should be a market choice and not a governance.
Right now there are thousands of TLDs in The PacificRoot and it functions quite well.
It hasn't broken yet, even when hundreds are added in quick succession. The
registry is functioning well also and has been for quite some time. Many ISPs
all over the world are now using that root and it grows daily. We are seeing
a shift in personal choice and I don't see that abating. Soon, the roots will
have to cooperate in order to synchronize and provide that unified root that ICANN
talks about. The only difference is that ICANN does not want to participate.
It wants to control. Well, the world most likely will not go for control by
a single entity. There will always be something popping up to say "we are independent."
It's best to recognize and foster cooperation than to ignore them.
FYI, most of
the roots are cooperating to avoid collsions even now when some of the emerging business
models seem to be opposed to that. The effort will continue because the responsible
root managers realize the necessity. The others? Well... we'll see.
As
for the TLD holders/managers, they are also aware of the necessity to avoid collisions
and are working diligently to resolve the ones that do exist. Again, the ones
who choose not to? Well... we'll see.
In the meantime, the Internet will
continue to route around damage and will right itself simply because people want
it that way, and they should be the ones to drive the market, don't you think?
Oh,
one last thing. ICANN (Jonathan Cohen) said it all boils down to money.
Hmmmm... how many "free" domain names are available through the ICANN approved registries?
There are many in the inclusive name space TLDs, including a few in the PacificRoot
system. Let's not make accusations unless we know from whence we speak, ICANN.
Not everything is based on money grabbing, but there is nothing wrong with making
a profit either. It's service and caring about the users and the DNS that count.