The telephone network and the internet (RE: [ga] ALAC comments onproposed Bylaws modifications)

[Marc Schneiders <marc@fuchsia.bijt.net>]

On Wed, 5 Mar 2003, at 09:46 [=GMT+0100], richard.hill@itu.int wrote:

> > and to the more general problem of how to make policy in the
> > Internet field
> > (which is very different from other media that they are used
> > to regulate,
>
> Once again, I have to state the the ITU-T does not regulate anything.  It
> produces non-binding Recommendations which are developed through a
> bottoms-up, consensus-based process.  Full consensus is required for
> approval of Recommendations.

Thank you for putting the earlier remarks here in perspective. The above
brought up one question to which I have no answer. How would the ITU be
able to deal with a network that is designed in a totally different way
than the one it already knows so well for a hundred (?) years, vid. the
telephone? You can only connect rather dumb machines of one particular
type to the telephone network, and only over one set of 'cables', owned by
one company ("the last mile"). You can connect all sorts of devices, even
ones that you've built yourself to the internet, and you can do that
through a variety of 'cables', including a phone line and a satalite.
Personal computers, routers, printers, security cameras etc. You can even
connect one machine multiple times to the internet.

The variety of devices and the relative dumbness of the network they
connect to are two sides of the one coin we call the internet. Is an
organization like the ITU suitable to take over (some of) ICANN's roles,
since it has such a venerable tradition in coordinating a very different
sort of network, where the intelligence is in the network and not in the
machines, and open standards are _less_ important, or cannot be allowed
even for they will ruin the network?

I would hope that if ICANN is ever replaced, completely or in part, that
it will be by a better organization. In my view that means _less_
regulation, a more open DNS. (Minimal requierements for new TLDs, and only
of a technical nature. No business plans and 13 appendices.) Would this be
possible 'under' the ITU?

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