| Containing the whole Science of Government |
This is a chapter from Charles Dickens' book Little Dorrit (1857) The chapter describes the Circumlocution Office. It may, and should, call to mind a certain existing institution of internet governance. |
| The National Science Foundation (NSF), the Internet's Domain Name System (DNS), and The Privacy Act of 1974 |
This is a collection of pages from 1998 describing the role of the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the domain name system.
There are some useful things in here, such as the Senate Report on the Privacy Act of 1974, a letter from NSF that effectively hands the keys and title papers of the domain name system to Network Solutions (subsequently Verisign), and demonstrates that parts of the US Gov't seem to have a hard time differentiating between the Privacy Act (5 USC 552a) and the Freedom of Information Act (5 USC 552). There are also copies of the original and early amendments to the Cooperative Agreement between NSF and Network Solutions (nee Verisign.) |
| Thoughts on the NTIA Green Paper |
This is a copy of the NTIA "Green" paper of January 30, 1998 with some of my comments interleaved. |
| Comments by Karl Auerbach on: Improvement of Technical Management of Internet Names and Addresses; Proposed Rule
Improvement of Technical Management of Internet Names and Addresses;Proposed Rule |
This is my commentary on the document from NTIA that led to the creation of ICANN. February 20, 1998 |
| Boston Working Group Submission to NTIA |
This is the Boston Working Group (BWG) submission to NTIA on NTIA's plan to form ICANN. September 29, 1998 |
| What I would say to the House Commerce Committee were I invited to testify |
July 17, 1999 |
| Suppose ICANN Had An At-Large Membership Drive |
Humor - Suppose ICANN hired a telemarketeer to try to get you to join. What might that be like? August 22, 1999 |
| Reconsideration Request |
Way back in 1999 ICANN began the great giveaway of the crown jewels of the internet to Network Solutions, nee Verisign.
That action was done in violation of ICANN's written procedures.
This document is my request for reconsideration of that matter.
It was, as was the course in those days, and remains the course today, rejected by ICANN on the most flimsy of grounds. I then filed a Request for Reconsideration (also found among these documents) which ICANN has left pending to this day.
November 17, 1999 |
| My Comments at the Tenth Conference On Computers, Freedom & Privacy
CFP 2000 |
A presentation I made at the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy (CFP) meeting in Montreal. I managed to squeeze in both California real-estate speak and Alfred Mahan. April 2000 |
| Request for Independent Review |
After ICANN rejected my Request for Reconsideration of ICANN great giveaway to Network Solutions (now Verisign) as being in violation of ICANN's procedures, I submitted this Request for Independent Review.
ICANN never bothered to form the Independent Review Panel and this request remains unaddressed, but still valid and active, to this day.
May 2, 2000 |
| My Comments at the Conference on The Internet and Governance
John F. Kennedy School of Government
Harvard University |
Here I declare ICANN to be "a rip-roaring success of the first magnitude"! Read this and learn why. May 30, 2000 |
| Protecting the Internet's Domain Name System |
The Domain Name System (DNS) is one of the few parts of the internet that can be considered a single point of failure.
This note discusses some measures that could be taken to protect DNS.
October 14, 2000 |
| Decision Diary |
During my term on the ICANN board of directors I kept a written, public diary of my decisions. This is that diary. It spans the entire duration of my term, November 2000 through July 2003. |
| Campaign Platform - Election for North American Director of ICANN |
This is my campaign platform for the year 2000 election for the North American seat on the ICANN board of directors. There is a fair amount of material here, much of it is still relevant today. November 10, 2000. |
| My Senate Testimony on ICANN of February 14, 2001 |
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| Internet Governance - By Whom? |
This is a note written not long after ICANN got started - and it reflects on how poor a start it was and how it established the pattern for the ICANN we have today. May 1, 1999 |
| On My Designation as a Henry C. Yuen Fellow:
Why Louis XIV Would Have Loved The Internet - My Short Talk at Caltech and Loyola Law School |
The title says it all. June 20, 2001 |
| My presentation on Internet Naming to the US National Research Council |
The Domain Name System is often touted as a kind of global, uniform name space for the internet. It is not. This note describes various ways in which DNS lacks those properties that people and bodies of internet governance assume that it has. (Powerpoint format), July 2001 |
| A Prescription To Promote The Progress of Science and Useful Arts - Reining-in Private Governmental Organizations (PGOs) |
As published in the January 2002 issue of Internet Law and Business (http://www.lawreporters.com) |
| A Plan To Reform ICANN: A Functional Approach |
This is one of several papers that describes a way to structure bodies of internet governance, such as ICANN, into tightly constrained units that are less likely to go astray or suffer from mission bloat. April 2002 |
| My testimony before the Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Space of the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. |
June 12, 2002 |
| My submission to the Communications subcommittee of the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation |
July 31, 2003 |
| Evaluation of ICANN |
As my last act as a director of ICANN and during the course of a public meeting I tendered this report to ICANN's Board of Directors. ICANN has never acknowledged this document; nor does it appear in any ICANN document collection or website. Adobe Acrobat format, 13 pages. June 2003 |
| Contracting the Internet: Does ICANN create a barrier to small business? |
This is a statement made before the Committee on Small Business,
US House of Representatives, regarding how ICANN creates barriers
that operate to harm small businesses and innovators. June 7, 2006.
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| A note to NTIA for their review of their "transition" to ICANN. |
My submission to "The Continued Transition of the Technical Coordination and Management of the Internet Domain Name and Addressing System
NTIA Docket No. 060519136-6136-01"
July 7, 2006, 17 pages |
Stakeholderism - The Wrong Road For Internet Governance  |
Submitted to the the Meeting of the UN Internet Governance Forum.
I consider this a fairly important paper. 5 pages, October 2006 |
| Structural Principles For Internet Governance |
Materials for the Meeting of the UN Internet Governance Forum.
6 pages, October 2006 |
| ICANN Mission Statement Generator |
Are you a prolix pleonast? Do mission statements amuse you?
If so you may want to let this tool generate your very own personal ICANN mission statements. |
| Fragmentation of the Internet |
This is a presentation that I gave at the American Bar Association (ABA) National Institute on "Computing and the Law: From Steps to Strides into the New Age". San Francisco, June 2007.
There are also my speaker's notes at
http://www.cavebear.com/archive/year-2007/fragmentation-of-the-internet-notes.pdf
My thesis is that the internet is subject to forces that encourage fragmentation. Some of this fragmentation is good in that it is the result of useful innovation or as an escape valve from overbearing regulation (e.g. ICANN). And sometimes that fragmentation is bad, as when it damages the ability of users to innovate and use the internet as they feel best serves their needs.
I close with a proposal that we use the End-to-End principle, as refined by my First Law of the Internet, as a way to separate the good from the bad. |
| My comments to NTIA's "mid-term review" of its ICANN "JPA" agreement. |
My comments on NTIA's "The Continued Transition of the Technical Coordination and Management of the Internet's Domain Name and Addressing System: Midterm Review of the Joint Project Agreement" |
Documents