Should the UN replace ICANN?

[dgridley]

Check out this article:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=582&e=1&u=/nm/20050221/wr_nm/tech_un_dc

What do YOU think?

 

[Mark]

Yeah Great idea - ADD More Politicians and Bureaucrats to the Mix - I'm sure some of the Folks at the UN actually care about their Fellow man ... But they've Never Impressed me much .....

 

[WuLabsWuTecH]

No, I think that iCANN can do much better

 

[Brian]

would be a terrible idea, never have thought very high of the UN, and giving them control of a business type affair would make it even worse

 

[dgridley]

Some good comments, thanks.. anyone else?

 

[TheWatcher]

I think ICANN did a good job managing the existing TLD and country extension. Of course they have to think ahead, helping the consumers on how to minimize spams, fraud and hijacking domains, etc.

Just a thought.
Em

 

[AdoptableDomains]

As bad as ICANN is, the UN would be worse.

Now we have the Oil for Food Scandal. If they can't even manage that trade, imagine them managing the DNS for the world. At least we know where ICANN wastes its money.

 

[primacomputer]

ICANN took a while to reach any semblance of efficiency but I'm reasonably satisfied with how they operate now. ITU, on the other hand is a hyper-bureaucratic organisation rife with the type of slow moving ineffective bad ideas and nepotism typical of most old world institutions that still believe French is an international language.

Anyone who would like to see reg fees back at $100 and have things managed by an organization that makes NSI look like the epitome of efficiency should support the Annan & Son bid to seize control of the internet.

 

[Peter]

The internet has nothing to do with the UN and that is the way it should stay.

If they had any control over it decisions would take years to implement and either reg fees would increase dramatically due to the increased cost (presumably they would suddenly create new positions such as domains minister etc who would as ussual be on extortionate pay schemes and very high expense accounts for only showing up for a little while) Of the tax payers of the countries involved would have to pay.

 

[octobus]

Some people just love to bash the UN? It's nowhere near perfect institution, but would the world be better off without them.

No, I don't want the UN running the DNS. ICANN has done a decent job. The least I want is to have China, Saudi-Arabia and other oppressive regimes to have influence on the only medium that has true freedom of expression on a worldwide scale.

On the other hand US politcs are a bit too dominant in the running of ICANN, considering that the Internet is not limited to North America. Please don't give the excuse that US somehow is the sole inventor behind this. Who came up with WWW, which sparked the exponential growth of the Internet. I doubt that corporations would be paying 7-8 figure sums to speculators for having a generic name email address.

As a whole I'm happy with the current system. Business is good and the Internet is becoming a mature marketplace. I don't think that Namepros, GFY, Sitepoint or any other similar community would exist without a pro-commerce ICANN.

 

[Zeeble]

Your all right, ICANN has done a good job, but I do think that because the internet is spreading so much it is unfair to think that a US org. controls the internet, it should be an international org. which does it.

 

[WuLabsWuTecH]

yes, but The United Nations is for creating world peace and solving world hunger. Taking on the management of domains is not something that diplomats are trained for. That's why we have nerds!!!

 

[theparrot]

nope, UN should shrink not grow

 

[AdoptableDomains]

Your all right, ICANN has done a good job, but I do think that because the internet is spreading so much it is unfair to think that a US org. controls the internet, it should be an international org. which does it.

ICANN has become an international organization, with little input from the DOC, and has become pretty much self-supporting through the fee increases and application fees.

 

[dgridley]

I think putting the UN in charge of "anything" is pretty stupid..

 

[jroy]

I think that things should stay as they are

 

[IAmAllanShore]

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=united+nations&r=f

-Allan

 

[zaros64]

UN + Internet = Horror

 

[Dave_Z]

I guess what some people are looking for is some group to establish a degree
of "legality" on the 'Net, in this case the UN.

Legality be damned...

 

[Numy]

An independant body within the UN (like FAO, Unicef etc.) would be best as far as they don't hire more bureaucrats (don't they have enough already?)
ICANN is part of US government, kind of inacceptable for the "rest" (the 5.8 billions people you know) of the world. Quite understandable imho.