this was just posted by paul vixie, and i believe it is the shortest and most to-the-point summary of the problem that i’ve seen.

the discussion was about alternate roots and people using alternate roots, causing chaos on the internet by hurting the stability and flow of the domains/dns system, and thus the internet.

some may say, they suck! others may say - who can blame them?

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(”christopher l. morrow”) writes:

>> so… why is it again that folks want to balkanize the internet like this?

the dreams fulfilled and/or still promised by the internet mostly involve
some kind of disintermediation, increases in freedom or autonomy, that kind
of thing.

in that context, centralized control over things like address assignments
and tld creation is like fingernails on a chalkboard. a lot of folks feel
that “if it has to be centrally controlled, then $me should be in charge”
or at best “if it has to be centrally controlled, then $me want a voice.”

this desire is more powerful than any appreciation or understanding of the
benefits of naming universality or address uniqueness. human nature,
especially when individuals interact with herds, is predictable but not
necessarily rational.

>> i’m confused by the reasoning behind this public-root (alternate root)
>> problem… it seems to me … that there is no way for it to work, ever.
>> so why keep trying to push it and break other things along the way?

i think it’s because of what margaret mead wrote:

“never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can
change the world. indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

the internet is supernational. control over it is held by the ruling
political party, and their backers, in one country. thus there’s plenty of
money and power ready to back the next hair-brained scheme to break the
lock, even if (as i expect) lack of naming universality would be worse
than lack of naming autonomy.
– paul vixie

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gadi evron,
ge@beyondsecurity.com.

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