I have no problem with authority over critical infrastructure, but there has to be accountability. When I was running the Internic, I was accountable to everyone; investors, my seniors and pretty much anyone who had a domain name and could get through to me. The people involved in this mess by and large seem to have an unhealthily low score on the six-degrees-of-Kevin-Bacon game. There's an old adage about only giving power to those who don't want it. By that standard, many of the ICANN participants should be acting like the cymbal monkey that got the stuffing kicked out of him by the Eveready bunny.

If we're going to have a world government, then I want a revolution first. Preferably with some historic event like throwing all the T-1s into Boston harbor. These people are enacting policy, cutting deals with large technology companies and signing things that look suspiciously like treaties with governments and quasi government groups (some of dubious legitimacy).

I'd be a lot more comfortable with some very visible insights into what's going on in ICANN and some good precedent-setting limit making for their "powers". I think that I'd also be happier with some more diverse participation by actual practitioners and a stronger representation by Asian organizations and companies.

I went to school with one of the students killed at Kent State, worked for an military/intelligence agency in my youth and watched as the last administration passed wind while leaving the white house. I never felt paranoia before. I do now.

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In follow-up conversation David elaborated, "I think that this is about building an interesting power base that no one knows about. Unlike the ITU and other quasi-regulatory agencies, this one actually can turn things *off*... It doesn't take a huge leap of faith to imagine some people overlaying their view of content suitability and definition on top of others by using an obscure internet protocol. Remember, this is the On/Off switch for much of the internet. Within 5 years, this will also have control over part of the wireless networks and even realworld functions like power grids and telephony because of TCP/IP switched control channels."

J