The
ICANN Bylaws provide for three Supporting Organizations
(SO) to assist in reviewing and developing
recommendations on Internet policy and structure in
their specialized areas. (See Bylaws,
Article VI.) These bodies are intended to
promote the
development of Internet policy and encourage
"international and diverse participation" in the
technical management of the Internet.
Each Supporting Organization names
three (3) Directors to the ICANN Board,
. for
a total of nine SO seats. SO Directors serve
three-year terms, staggered from one to three years
initially. No SO directors have been elected to the Board
yet.
Says the ICANN
website, "The Supporting Organizations will be the
primary source of policy recommendations for matters
lying within their specialized charters and will serve as
advisory bodies to the Board according to the procedures
set forth in the ICANN Bylaws."
Participation in the Supporting
Organizations will be open to any individual or
organization that meets the "reasonable minimum
qualifications" proposed by the SO and ratified by the
ICANN Board. Each SO will adopt its own
participation structures "appropriate for effective
functioning."
Each SO should "establish equitable
participation dues or other assessments" to cover all the
costs associated with organizing and sustaining the work
of the SO within the ICANN structure. The ideas is for
each SOP to be self-supporting.
(Source: http://www.icann.org/sonew.htm)
Analysis:
Supporting
Organizations are expected to create themselves and cover
all of their own costs, just for the opportunity of
making recommendations to a board that's under no certain
obligation to follow what the SO advices. More
significantly, the Board does not need to obtain SO
consent for its actions.
The three
Supporting Organizations lack genuine power. They can
debate and wrangle among themselves all they want, but
when push comes to shove, no matter how effectively any
SO might argue its case, the ICANN Board has the last
word. Resistance is useless.
Despite the open
consensus process favored among SO constituencies, the
process actually undermines democracy by lending
legitimacy to the dubious authority of ICANN itself, a
fool's gamble in any gambit. The passions spent
discussing the issues before the SOs distract us from
this lack of democracy.
.
Protocol
Protocol
Supporting Organization (PSO)
Works on the Internet Protocol (IP)
technical standards enabling computers to exchange
information and manage communications over the
Internet.
Analysis:
More
technical than political, but much is at stake. Without
global
agreements to stay within the protocol parameters, the
entire
network
can unravel, communications becoming unreliable. Taking
responsibility for the seriousness of this task, the PSO
is confronting massive work as the Internet goes
broadband. Building a consensus regarding IP standards is
not easy, and the board likely will accept all
recommendations from this SO, but the board isn't obliged
to do so.
.
Address
Address
Supporting Organization (ASO)
Concentrates on the system of IP
addresses (such as 123.456.789) that uniquely identify
each of the Internet's networked computers.
Analysis:
Again, the work of this SO is more technical than
political, however, the ASO is influential because the
assignment of IP numbers remains the foundation for the
entire domain name system, and goofs become very costly
when critical communications are misrouted. One major
challenge facing the ASO is expanding the IP address
space as multitudes in developing nations begin logging
onto the network. The
Board
likely will accept recommendations via the ASO, but the
ICANN board isn't obligated. Their rules for following
advice seem quite loose.
.Domain
Focuses on the system of names used
to identify numerical locations and resources. The
domain name system translates easy-to-remember names
(like "icann.org") into IP numbers assigned to specific
computers. Once constituted, Domain Names SO will be
composed of a Names
Council and General Assembly, each with
Constituency
Groups representing both
competing and cooperating DNS interests.
Analysis:
Politics up
the Wazoo.
[SEE
THE DNSO ANALYSIS IN THE NEXT
SECTION]
Understanding
Network
Democracy
