The Chief Executive Officer of the Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), Mr.
Fade Chehade has cautioned activists in the domain name industry who may be agitating for a fragmented Internet, reports ITRealms.
Speaking recently at the just ended World Economic Forum
(WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, made this known while chatting with HuffPost, pointing out that the essence of the Internet is that its oneness and openness remain intact.
He warned that once the development of the Internet crumbles
to that level, it could amount to re-inventing the wheel, because the processes
would need another kind of path to be followed, which defeats the purpose of
the founding fathers of the current Internet.
"If we cannot find a way to govern the Internet in an
equal footing, in an open transparent way this year, we might descend into a
fragmented version of the Internet," Chehadé declared.
He, however, sounded a note of warning on the implication,
asserting, "The moment we fragment the Internet it is possible there will be tariffs between borders, there will be
rules ... it will not be the internet as we know it."
ITRealms recalls
that in more technical terms, ICANN coordinates the Internet Assigned Numbers
Authority (IANA) functions, which are key technical services critical to the
continued operations of the Internet's underlying address book, the Domain Name
System (DNS).
The IANA functions include the coordination of the
assignment of technical protocol parameters including the management of the Address
and Routing Parameter Area (ARPA) Top-Level Domain; and the administration of certain
responsibilities associated with Internet DNS root zone management such as
generic (gTLD) and country code Top-Level Domains (ccTLD).
In
addition, ICANN via IANA allocates the Internet numbering resources; and other
services as well as performs the IANA functions under a United States (US) government
contract.
Remmy Nweke
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D
Pix: Fade Chehade, ICANN CEO
No comments:
Post a Comment