Karl,
I strongly object to your characterization of ICANN as "abandoning"
the operation of roots and IP address allocation. These matters have
been the subject of discussion for some time. ICANN absolutely
recognizes the critical role of the RIRs and the voluntary root
servers as part of the complex that makes up the operation Internet.
There is still need for coordination of policy among these groups
and the other interested constituents and that is the role that
ICANN will play.
At the completion of the MOU period, ICANN will also be responsible
for the primary root zone file and the server that supplies it to
the rest of the root server operators.
At 01:14 PM 11/29/2003 -0800, Karl Auerbach wrote:
ICANN has abandoned the actual operation of the dns root servers to those
who are actually doing that job. This is a very good thing because the
latter group are not merely extremely competent, but they are also clearly
focused on the job of running root servers and have shown that they do not
care to use their role to enforce someone's idea of intellectual property
protection.
And ICANN has abandoned the allocation of IP addresses to the regional IP
address registries. Again this is a good thing because there are few
within ICANN who remember that this was one of ICANN's three original
purposes, much less understand the technical and economic impact of
address allocation policies. The RIRs, on the otherhand *do* understand
this.
Vint Cerf
SVP Technology Strategy
MCI
22001 Loudoun County Parkway, F2-4115
Ashburn, VA 20147
703 886 1690 (v806 1690)
703 886 0047 fax
vinton(_dot_)g(_dot_)cerf(_at_)mci(_dot_)com
www.mci.com/cerfsup