Netburg is a nice place to live. It barely existed a decade ago.
Today it is home to millions of people and corporations worldwide are moving
their headquarters.
Netburg is built of wood, nice dry wood; the kind that catches fire easily.
Netburg has a problem. There are people and groups
around the world who send incendiary devices into Netburg 24 hours a day, seven
days a week, 365 days a year. So far only small parts of Netburg have
burned. But everyone knows that a big fire could happen at any time.
Netburg does not have a fire department. It has thirteen self-appointed
fireman who have invested their own money in trucks and equipment. But those fireman
aren't obligated to put out fires or to be impartial about choosing whose fires
to put out and whose buildings it will let burn. To date these fireman
have had the self motivation, the resources, and good will to do the job.
Six years ago, back in 1998, Netburg's traffic department empanelled a board of fire
commissioners and instructed them to professionalize Netburg's fire prevention
and firefighting systems. Nobody has ever explained why it was the traffic
department rather than the city counsel
or mayor rather that set up the fire commission . And nobody is sure whether the traffic department's actions are
within its scope of authority or not. But that is another tale for another
day.
To help get things started, the traffic department gave Netburg not only the right to
decide who can build a home or business on each street in Netburg but also to charge
a fee for making that decision. The traffic department told the fire
commissioners that they could also levy a yearly charge on every home and
business in Netburg. Few complained at the time: the traffic department
had formerly been charging a $35 yearly fee and the fire commissioners lowered
it to about $15 and practically nobody noticed that that $15 amount was an
arbitrary figure and much higher than could be justified.
The traffic commission, the fire commissioners, and the firemen have worked to create a public belief that no other firemen ought to be allowed into Netburg.
And the commissions have ceaselessly encouraged the public to believe that the commission is protecting Netburg against
fires and that everything is safe and under control.
Unfortunately, Netburg's fire commissioners want to be real estate
commissioners.
As a consequence the fire commission has done nothing to protect against fires. Netburg's
fire commission has no fire station, no fire trucks, no hoses, no ladder.
Netburg is about as well protected against burning down as Chicago was protected
from Mrs. O'Leary's cow.
In the meantime, the fire commission has proven itself rather poor at the real-estate
game. They have allowed only seven new houses to be constructed
in Netburg during the last six years. And those houses are mostly
small, shabby affairs. Some are so ill conceived that they are barely able to stand without being propped up.
Netburg is suffering from a dual curse: it is unprotected against fire and
its real-estate industry is an over-regulated shambles with business practices
that would embarrass even a used-car salesman.
I hope the reader recognizes Netburg as the internet and the fire commission
as ICANN.
What's the point of this tale? It is this: ICANN has done nothing,
absolutely nothing, to protect the internet from disaster.
instead, ICANN has squandered its entire existence pretending to be the Pooh-Bah of
domain-name trademark rules and the Grand High Commissioner of domain name
business practices.
ICANN has not suffered from its digression - ICANN's budget now wants to be
$15,000,000(US) a year. ICANN's directors and staff flit around the world
(and most do not fly coach class!) to be wined and dined and
flattered and partied. And how the law firm that created ICANN is raking
in the legal fees!
The internet, on the other hand, has been left unprotected and vulnerable.
ICANN has not done anything to improve the technical stability of the
internet or to make the upper layer of DNS less vulnerable to attack or
failure. The only protection has come from the efforts of an amazing cadre
of independent actors who, perceiving the vacuum, have stepped in and assumed
the job that ICANN promised that it would do.
These actors, however, are mortal or are institutions that have goals and
budgets that may not always coincide with the level of effort required to
continue in this role.
ICANN, by pretending that it is protecting the net, has created a grave
danger.
The community of internet users has been misled by ICANN to believe that the net
is being guarded. Yet ICANN, because it is engaged in other matters, has
left the internet at risk, protected only by a few volunteers who are free to
walk away at any time.
Netburg, the community of internet users, deserves better.
ICANN seems to be neither willing nor able to do what it was supposed to do in the first place,
which is to
ensure that the upper layer of the domain name system runs reliably, accurately,
and efficiently 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
A city that has a fire department that doesn't care about putting
out fires ought to replace its fire department.
ICANN has had six years to get its act together; there is no sign that it is
improving. The internet community is paying for an ICANN that ensures the
stable technical operation of DNS. We are not getting what we are paying
for. How much longer are we willing to tolerate a status quo in
which the entire internet is put at risk?
[
CaveBear Blog]