On Mar 24, 2008, at 12:48 PM, Evan Leibovitch wrote:
In a previous email you indicated a desire for a public-interest- driven roadmap that might drive future movements in this area. Be careful what you wish for...
First and foremost, I'm an internet user, so I would welcome this. I completely agree with your view of the pyramid, but would want to understand more what ICANN has to do with the general internet vs. its specific area of capability (domains, dns, etc.). Secondly, I work for and internet services provider, so I would welcome this. What's good for the internet is good for users of the internet is good for our business. I don't think that taking a long term view of what is good for the internet should be antithetical to business interests. If specific business do find themselves in this position, well, too bad for them.
What is worth debate is whether such overwhelming dominance by one side of the Internet services transaction serves the public interest or ICANN's longer term legitimacy.
I don't know if this is true. I mean, I agree with you that there is imbalance today, but I'm not sure if the debate would be useful. Some might find it interesting or be persuaded that this sort of dominance isn't tenable, but I'm not sure how many of those folks are out there. In other words, call me naive, but I'm not sure there's a lot of opposition on this point. Anyways, as you've already said, I think we agree :) -r