ICANN might be the most important non-profit organization you’ve never heard of.  Based in nondescript office building just off Lincoln Boulevard in the Marina del Rey section of Los Angeles, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is charged with (among other things) mapping human-readable domain names to internet IP addresses   Although technically a sovereign organization, historically ICANN has been under the control of the Dept. of Commerce of the United States, the country that invented the plumbing for – and tacitly claims ownership of – the internet.

Until now.

As has been widely reported, the US has just relinquished its near-absolute control over ICANN, allowing the organization to move towards control by a multi-national group comprised of both US and non-US business and government interests.

It’s intriguing to compare US coverage of this development to coverage intended for consumption by audiences abroad: in a piece written for the UK-based Guardian today, ICANN head Rod Beckstrom announced to the international community that “The Internet Belongs To You”.  One can only imagine what kind of reaction such a pronouncement will undoubtedly provoke from the various and sundry Glenn Beck types back home  (stand by for more of the kind of  hyperbole in the US ‘anger media’ that Andreas has been posting about lately).

Meanwhile, perhaps hoping to quell just such reactions, Larry Strickland of the US Commerce Department assured the US media that “the pie actually became bigger” as a result of signing the agreement.

Why does all this matter?  As discussed in several previous digital missive posts, the mechanism that links domain names to IP addresses is absolutely essential to the operation of the internet, and at the same time, one of it’s weakest links (from a security standpoint, DNS could be considered ‘the soft white underbelly’ of the internet).  Clearly, we face an increasingly crucial need for a secure and robust Domain Name System – but if that wasn’t enough, ICANN happens to also be in the midst of considering opening up the Top Level Domain Name structure (.com, .org, .de, etc.) to the public for the creation of generic names (imagine typing ‘johndoe.facebook’ into your browser).  Regardless of whether or not ICANN remains controlled by the US Dept. of Commerce or becomes a truly international body, the disruptive potential of such a major change is clear (for more on Generic Top Level Domains, click here).

Two things come to mind:

• The decision to move from a closed proprietary management model (controlled by the US) to one involving representation from an international community could be seen as somewhat analogous to (and a reflection of) the demonstrated effectiveness of the ‘open source’ model of software development.

• Both the change in ICANN’s oversight and the potential move to allow Generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) represent historic moments in the development of the internet.  At times like these, it”s a good time to get some perspective – and we know of no more accurate, readable, and enjoyable history of the internet than that published by the Computer History Museum.   We suggest – no, we implore – the reader (even the non-geek reader) to take a quick look here.

Does the impending end of US hedgemony over the management of domain name assignment represent yet another wholesale sellout of the ‘American’ internet, something akin to the sale of Rockefeller Center to a Japanese firm during the 80′s?  Glenn Beck’s carefully considered (and sure-to-come) opinion notwithstanding, I think not.   For one thing, management of most (if not all) of the other underlying technical standards and protocols upon which the internet runs have already been under the successful stewardship of just such an independent international organization (the IETF) since the early 90′s.

On the other hand, the implementation of generic top level domain names represents a fundamental and historic modification of the structure of  internet, and should not be undertaken without the uptmost care and caution – regardless of who’s in charge.