RE: [dow1-2tf] mission creep

["Milton Mueller" <mueller@xxxxxxx>]

As definitions of ICANN's mission, websites don't matter. Articles of
Incorporation do. 
To put it more colorfully, citing the website is like trying to match a
full house with a pair of deuces.
--MM

>>> "Tim Ruiz" <tim@xxxxxxxxxxx> 11/24/04 02:27PM >>>
Milton,

>From ICANN's own website:

"As a private-public partnership, ICANN is dedicated to preserving the
operational stability of the Internet; to promoting competition; to
achieving broad representation of global Internet communities; and to
developing policy appropriate to its mission through bottom-up,
consensus-based processes."

This gets to the issue of defining stability and security as I said in
my
earlier response.

Tim



-----Original Message-----
From: owner-dow1-2tf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:owner-dow1-2tf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
On Behalf Of Milton Mueller
Sent: Wednesday, November 24, 2004 12:58 PM
To: tim@xxxxxxxxxxx; marc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
Cc: dow1-2tf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx; Jeff.Neuman@xxxxxxxxxx 
Subject: [dow1-2tf] mission creep



>>> Tim Ruiz <tim@xxxxxxxxxxx> 11/24/2004 8:51:55 AM >>>
 
>ICANN's mission involves the security and stability of the Internet. 

I thank Tim for bringing this up. It indicates a slight error in the
statement that needs to be corrected.

ICANN's mission is NOT the security and stability of "the Internet."
It
is to coordinate unique identifiers and to ensure stable and secure
operation of unique identifier systems. "Security and stable of unique
identifiers" is not "security and stability of 'the Internet' as a
whole; the latter is a vast undertaking that is way beyond the scope
of
ICANN, involving such things as the operation of ISPs and their
routing
practices, software installations by the end user, etc.

For that reason, I would propose the following change in wording on p.
2, step 3, part iii: replace "the Internet" at the end of the sentence
with "Internet's unique identifier systems." 

This should be noncontroversial because it simply makes the statement
conform to ICANN's actuall mission as defined in its bylaws. See below

=====

FYI, Here is the mission statement:

"The mission of The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers
("ICANN") is to coordinate, at the overall level, the global
Internet's
systems of unique identifiers, and in particular to ensure the stable
and secure operation of the Internet's unique identifier systems." 

Article 1:
"1. Coordinates the allocation and assignment of the three sets of
unique identifiers for the Internet, which are

a. Domain names (forming a system referred to as "DNS");

b. Internet protocol ("IP") addresses and autonomous system ("AS")
numbers; and

c. Protocol port and parameter numbers.

2. Coordinates the operation and evolution of the DNS root name server
system.

3. Coordinates policy development reasonably and appropriately related
to these technical functions."