The Wall Street Journal Discusses Threat to Global Interconnectivity

In Endangered Domain: In Threat to Internet's Clout, Some Are Starting Alternatives, today's Wall Street Journal examines the creation of rivals to the Internet as we know it.

I recommend reading the article in its entirety. It's a fascinating piece about the "what" and "why" of Internet politics and power.

According to the Journal, some concerns include:

• The slowness of ICANN to create non-Roman language domain names (China).
• Distrust of the Bush administration and its foreign policy; fear of the U.S. Government's ability to incapacitate the Internet communications of another country's military and government (Open Root Server Network or ORSN founder, Markus Grundmann).
• Desire for greater commercial freedom and innovation (UnifiedRoot's managing director, Eric Seeboldt).

Other concerns involve:

• ICANN's absence of inclusiveness (i.e., ICANN's and, by extension, the U.S. Department of Commerce's sole power to decide what domain names are used and by whom).
• Perceived undue influence by the U.S. government over new domain-name suffixes (e.g., the Commerce Department's ability to persuade ICANN to postpone approval of the .xxx suffix after it received letters of complaint from Christian groups).
• The use of English as the Internet's universal language (e.g., the perceived disenfranchisement of Chinese and Arab citizens).