[At-Large] The SSAC has published SAC123 and SAC122

[Evan Leibovitch]

On Mon, Dec 25, 2023 at 12:35 AM Barry Shein via At-Large <
at-large at atlarge-lists.icann.org> wrote:

I'd also point out that the global voice phone network, postal systems,
> package delivery, various forms of travel, at least, also had a "one
> world" goal.
>

Sure, and we actually got there. To sort out standards and interoperability
between the countries of the world, we used these archaic things called
"treaties", managed by purpose-built intergovernmental organizations, that
have to date worked out pretty well over the decades. We've had ITU for
phones since 1865, UPU for mail since 1874, and ICAO for air travel since
1947. Treaties were messy to make and occasionally get abused but have
worked out relatively well. Traditionally in these operations, governments
and the public interest drive decision-making, while business interests
serve in an advisory role, usually through industry associations. As a
result, major decisions made by such bodies usually have force of law among
treaty signatories.

But the Internet world thought it knew better; it consciously and
deliberately chose a different path. It bypassed the messiness of
treaty-making and let industry make decisions while governments and the
public interest were relegated to dispensable advisory roles.

Generally this has worked, if only by accident and fortune. In the case of
purely technical bodies such as IETF, W3C and ICANN's *SACs, decisions and
standards have been generally accepted on technical merit; yet they still
don't have the power of treaties behind them. Any sovereign jurisdiction
can trivially choose to opt out, jeopardizing its own interoperability with
the rest of the world but otherwise not breaking international law.

Decisions involving politics, money or other non-technical factors have a
tougher path. Institutions must make visible and ongoing efforts to sustain
legitimacy, and these decisions often need to be promoted through marketing
campaigns or other forms of collective begging. Two perfect example
subjects of such begging are IPv6 and Internationalised Domain Names. And
without force of treaty, dealing with obvious abuses (such as the continued
presence of .su) have no means of enforcement.

(IMO, ICANN actually did come close to "apocalyptic disaster" in 2020 --
whether it knew it or not at the time --  but was saved at the last minute
by the California Attorney General)

Every time ICANN or its pieces envision an existential threat, vested
interests always hold up ITU as a boogeyman just waiting to consume ICANN
were it to falter. At this time it would be difficult to demonstrate that
an ITU-ran domain namespace would have botched as many public interest
issues as ICANN has. Or maybe not the ITU, but another purpose-built
treaty-based IGO.


> And in the same period we began to understand the negative aspects of globalization
> like nuclear-tipped ICBMs and pollution (particularly the CO2 responsible
> for climate change) which also know no political boundaries tho don't
> require interoperability with their target other than the laws of physics.
>

Funny how even for those issues there are international treaties and
conventions and IGOs. The Internet stands alone as being the one phenomenon
of global public interest without treaties behind it (or even in the
works). The UN tasked the IGF with coming up with a usable path forward,
and it has failed pretty hard at that task.

Maybe the WSIS follow-ups can start afresh, so the world can set some
standards for the app- and island- and AI-centric future Internet that Karl
described. And maybe this reboot could at last put the public interest at
the forefront rather than an afterthought. Maybe, even, mention of the "T"
word to ensure that Internet openness is maintained by law rather than whim.

Happy holidays,

-- 
Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada
@evanleibovitch / @el56
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