The Seoul ICANN meeting is over and my reaction to it is complex. On the one hand, the meeting felt like a fresh start: it was a showcase for the optimistic, likeable and accessible new President, Rod Beckstrom; it marked the end of the Commerce Department JPA; and it put into place a new domain name policy making structure with a revitalized and somewhat more empowered civil society segment (the NCSG).

On the other hand, ICANN's continuing inability to define an ongoing process for the routine addition of new top level domain names, and the multiplication of new obstacles in their attempt to do so, hung over the meeting like a thick cloud of gray Seoul smog. It produced a deadening feeling that we have been on the same stupid treadmill for 10 years, a cycle in which a seemingly endless array of hopeful applicants repeatedly push for access and are repeatedly delayed by a lethal combination of protectionism, politics, and technical FUD.

Let there be no mistake about it: this is a serious problem that calls into question the very basis of ICANN. It's easy to get lost in the details, but take away all the extraneous matter and here is the problem: ICANN administers the root of the domain name system and it still doesn't know how to deal with the most important question a root administrator must answer, namely on what basis should new top level domain names be added, how many should be added, and how shall we decide who gets them?

Can you imagine a radio spectrum authority that was unable to decide, after more than a decade, the basic principles and procedures under which commercial and noncommercial users were licensed to use radio frequencies? What would be said about the Regional Internet Address Registries if they were not able to agree on policies and procedures for handing out IP addresses for a decade?
I don't care whether you think there should be lots of new TLDs or only a few; I don't care whether you like specific applications or policy approaches that are out there. The basic point is that, after 10 years, there ought to be a defined policy and procedure for adding new TLDs. There ought to be a clear path that lets anyone who thinks they want to operate a new top level domain registry know what is permitted and what is not, and how to go about applying for one with a decision expected in a reasonably bounded time frame. There is nothing exceptional about the domain name space technology or economics that makes these problems unresolvable. If they cannot be resolved, it tells us that there is something fundamentally awry with ICANN's institutional structure.

Nature abhors a vacuum; so as long as ICANN can't provide a clear, predictable and rule-based method for adding TLDs, what rushes in to fill that vacuum is an arbitrary series of improvised “special additions” that reflect the worst sort of political lobbying and favoritism. TLDs are dispensed as rewards or payoffs to political power groups. E.g., the European Union gets .eu not because it is a “country code” as they dishonestly claimed, but because they wanted one, they were perceived as powerful and the US and ICANN wanted to buy European support for ICANN. Now, the national monopoly country code registries get to enter the IDN space before anyone else because ICANN wants their political support. In the meantime, hundreds if not thousands of legitimate potential innovators are deferred endlessly, their investors' money burned, their ideas and dreams stranded.

This is a scandal. When will it end? History's verdict on ICANN hinges on the answer to that question.

3 thoughts on “Fresh start, or another week on the treadmill?

  1. It is shocking how clueless the comments are coming in from the ICANN meeting.
    The spin machine really did a number on the International participants.
    They have even been lead to believe this is all a result of THE Big Bad USA
    releasing the grip on ICANN. What a crock.

  2. You seem to be making some assumptions about the domain name system.
    One assumption you are making is that human intervention is needed to decide. Do humans decide
    #hashtags for Twitter ?
    Another assumption you seem to make is that
    domains should be monetized. That may be the
    biggest mistake ever made in Internet history.
    The same can be said for IP Address Space.
    When you have the true cost of a $6 domain
    name being delivered for 50 cents, that is a
    mark-up that attracts many business people.
    ICANN of course keeps those evil people out
    while it enjoys the revenue stream to do as it
    pleases.
    End domain monetization and you end ICANN.

  3. As people have said, “ICANN is the Internet's Vietnam” – Some people clearly THINK they need
    to destroy the Villages to SAVE the people.
    While that is going on, the Communist Fat Cats
    are enjoying their party well away from the
    conflicts.
    You have the same tired Socialist lifers preaching
    the evils of business and capitalism as they step
    forward to fill their plates with sushi and sip the
    wine.
    The images from Seoul tell a very different story
    than the spin one sees from the Hot Rod.
    One has to wonder what Kieren's book deal will
    be and how soon it will emerge.
    Many others could probably write books but the
    subject matter is so disgusting, it is hard to
    focus. Ten years of artificial scarcity, spin and
    backroom deals all while claiming to be the
    white knights of the Internet.

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