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Author Topic:   War for the World Wide Web
jwhop
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Posts: 2787
From: Madeira Beach, FL USA
Registered: Apr 2009

posted November 18, 2005 12:52 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for jwhop     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
War for the World Wide Web
By Rocco DiPippo
FrontPageMagazine.com | November 17, 2005

Less than nine months ago, the Tunisian government blocked Internet access to the opposition Progressive Democratic Party. Nevertheless, this week the United Nations (U.N.) hosted a summit in Tunisia to determine, among other things, how to maintain respect for online freedom of expression.


Apparently oblivious to the deep irony involved with hosting a conference on digital freedom in a country where such freedom is suppressed, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan describes the main goals of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) conference in lofty terms: "The main objective of the World Summit on the Information Society to be held this month in Tunisia is to ensure that poor countries get the full benefits that new information and communication technologies -- including the Internet -- can bring to economic and social development."

A major task of the WSIS is to insure that emerging nations get access to information technologies. But a more important matter is on its agenda: Who should govern the Internet?

At present, a semi-private entity called Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), under minimal control of the U.S. Commerce Department, manages the assignment of Internet domain names and IP addresses, an important part of the Internet's ability to function. One of the proposals that was discussed ahead of the WSIS conference seeks to transfer that responsibility from ICANN to an organization operating under the aegis of the U.N. Such a transference has been struck down for now, reported the Washington Times yesterday, but "it's clear that the ultimate goal of the U.N. is still to wrest control of the Internet," John T. Doolittle, California Republican, warned after the November 15th conference................

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=20207

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AcousticGod
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Posts: 4415
From: Pleasanton, CA
Registered: Apr 2009

posted November 18, 2005 01:46 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for AcousticGod     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Another U.N. Internet rift develops
By Declan McCullagh
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Published: November 17, 2005, 11:24 AM PST

TUNIS, Tunisia--A brief cessation of hostilities between the United States and its critics on Internet management is raising a new question: Who's in charge next?

According to the agreement inked here this week, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan will create a new Internet Governance Forum that will meet for the first time in 2006. It's supposed to debate everything from spam to computer security to domain name management.

But because it's not clear which organization will be in charge of organizing the forum, a new round of backroom negotiating and political jockeying is already under way. The top two contenders: the International Telecommunication Union, a U.N. body, and the Internet Society, which counts online pioneers from the United States and Europe on its board of directors and is located in Reston, Va.

The stakes are high. Whatever group is in charge of organizing can set the tone for the forum, craft the rules and influence the final result.

"ITU has been requested to play a major role," ITU Secretary-General Yoshio Utsumi told reporters. "I am pleased that the role and responsibilities of the ITU have been recognized and requested to continue to play a major role in these areas. That's my very tremendous achievement."

But Matthew Shears, the Internet Society's Geneva-based director of public policy, told CNET News.com that during the discussions earlier this week, "it became apparent that a number of delegations weren't comfortable with the role of the ITU in this regard."

"I don't think at this stage it's a done deal for anyone," Shears said. "We can't rush into this and determine roles by entities without giving sufficient thought."

A State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the United States favored an approach led by the private sector. (The Internet Society is a private-sector membership organization that boasts 20,000 members in more than 180 nations.)

The ITU is a Geneva-based treaty organization with a budget of $530 million that sets technical standards and coordinates spectrum and the telephone network.

Andrew McLaughlin, Google's senior policy counsel, said he's "mildly concerned" about the creation of the forum.

"If the (forum) is not configured and understood properly, it has the potential to drain off scarce resources from the already existing panoply of existing organizations," McLaughlin said.

The ITU is mentioned in the final agreement, but only in a vague reference that says it can be used if necessary.

During the presummit negotiations, the U.S., Australia and Singapore had pushed hard for an explicit mention of the Internet Society, arguing that it had valuable expertise that didn't exist in the U.N. But Brazil and others opposed the request, and eventually the U.S. apparently decided it wasn't worth jeopardizing the entire agreement.

In something of an ironic twist, the Internet Society once came close to dominating domain name management. When the U.S. government was considering how to privatize those functions in 1996, the society's president chaired a so-called International Ad-Hoc Committee that proposed to take over the job, and to add seven new domain names including .arts and .web.

But that never happened. Instead, the Clinton administration chose to set up the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.
http://news.com.com/Another+U.N.+Internet+rift+develops/2100-1038_3-5958623.html

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