On Mon, Jul 26, 2010 at 10:57:26AM +0200, David Conrad wrote: > Bill, > > On Jul 25, 2010, at 10:21 PM, bmann...@vacation.karoshi.com wrote: > > except ICANN has presumed for itself an operational role. > > ICANN, since its inception, has been the IANA functions _operator_. It > inherited the role IANA staff performed prior to ICANN's creation. As far as > I am aware, other than DNSSEC stuff (e.g., handling the root KSK), there has > not been a significant change in the operational role ICANN performs beyond > what has been requested by the community (if any).
and here we see how english is a poor language. yes, ICANN is the current IANA functions _operator_. The IANA _never_ ran/operated network infrastructure (root server operations) prior to ICANNs assumption of the role. This is the distinction. Perhaps w/o a difference. > > it has taken on root server operations for some years now > > Yes. I think the folks who run L can be pretty proud of their achievements. > Want to compare root server operations? :-) Yes they do a fine job. But root server operations is not in ICANNs charter or mission. Their stated role, when they took it over from USC was as a temporary steward, until they could find someone to take it on. Only later did they back away from that statement and claimed it for their own. > > and is trying to take over root zone editorial control. > > Actually, no, it isn't. The US Department of Commerce has been pretty clear > that they are happy with the current model in which ICANN receives and vets > root zone change requests, DoC NTIA authorizes those requests, and VeriSign > edits the root zone and publishes it. Despite some portions of the ICANN > community not being happy with this state of affairs, I'd be surprised if > this changed anytime soon and I'm not aware of anyone in ICANN actively > pursuing a change. You describe the current state of affairs very well. From a reasonably recent counterpoint, there were several models proposed for the recently augmented root zone mgmt task. One of the proposed (and rejected) models showed a much larger role for ICANN in the root zone generation process. Those of us who reviewed these models (in the NTIA NoI) saw this as a (perhaps reasonable) way to reduce the roles played by the other two actors. > Regards, > -drc > (no longer working for ICANN, but feeling a need to defend it against > baseless bashing) Regards, --bill (not baseless bashing, just pointing out some facts) >