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Will ICANN Reveal Its True Self To WSIS?
The U.N. World Information Summit (WSIS) meets next Wednesday in Geneva.
It is expected that questions will be raised whether the some or all of the functions performed by ICANN would be better vested in an organization such as the ITU.
I wonder whether ICANN will reveal its true self to WSIS or whether ICANN will continue to obscure itself, its abilities, and its real powers.
ICANN's own bylaws say that ICANN's mission:
is to coordinate, at the overall level, the global Internet's systems of unique identifiers, and in particular to ensure the stable and secure operation of the Internet's unique identifier systems... [emphasis added]
There's that word "ensure". According to Merriam-Webster, the word "ensure" means "to make sure, certain, or safe : GUARANTEE". ICANN is a public-benefit corporation, thus that guarantee is presumably a guarantee made to the public.
And according to ICANN's "Memorandum of Understanding" with the United States Department of Commerce as confirmed by the latest (25th) amendment ICANN's role is to:
... design, develop, and test the mechanisms, methods, and procedures to carry out ...
a. Establishment of policy for and direction of the allocation of IP number blocks;
b. Oversight of the operation of the authoritative root server system;
There is nothing particularly ambiguous or equivocal about this language.
More details at: http://www.circleid.com/article/387_0_1_0_C/
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