As of October 1, the contract between the U.S. Federal Government and ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) has expired. That means the U.S. no longer has oversight control of the Internet’s address book.
ICANN is a nonprofit organization founded in 1998 to keep the Internet “secure, stable and interoperable,” according to its official website. Historically, ICANN’s main function was controlling the Doman Name System (DNS), which translates domain names, such as www.tacitllc.com into numerical IP addresses.
Using names rather than numbers for IP addresses was a simple matter of convenience. It’s a whole lot easier to remember a word than a long string of numbers. But somebody had to keep a list of what names went with what numbers. That task fell to one computer guy – a researcher named Jon Postel (also called the “god of the Internet”) who worked at the Information Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California.
As the Internet grew and Postel’s clipboard of names and IP addresses became a tad cumbersome, Postel and his colleagues created the DNS. Right around the same time, Postel was given the official designation of IANA, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, which sounded better than saying we had a guy who did that. Postel remained largely responsible for coordinating international Internet addresses until the formation of ICANN.
Sexually transmitted people who change their sex partner time to time and order generic viagra also reduce the dosages or the medicines as a precautionary measure against possible outcome of ED. Though advice is usually beneficial, additionally it is thought to stimulate customers during athletic coaching and sexual operation. commander cialis dentech.co If the person is intending to take Eriacta tablets against impotence, he must assure his health is good enough purchase levitra see for more for intercourse or not as most smokers suffer from cardiac problems. It is a condition in which a man is unable to get or maintain a satisfactory erection. viagra buying online
While no one owns the Internet, it was a creation, more or less, of the U.S. military, spearheaded by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), and the U.S. government has always maintained a degree of oversight. But that oversight was never intended to be permanent. From the beginning, ICANN’s independence was a planned event. According to the Commerce Department’s June 10, 1998 Statement of Policy, U.S. Government “is committed to a transition that will allow the private sector to take leadership for DNS management.”
This is not to say that ICANN is answerable to no one. Oversight will now fall to a “stakeholder community” consisting of international representatives from business, academia, technology, and government. And this has some folks more than a little worried because, they say, a global oversight panel would include totalitarian regimes determined to end Internet freedom.
Whether the U.S. relinquishment of ICANN oversight is a good thing or is, as some detractors have said, akin to President Carter giving away the Panama Canal, remains to be seen.