AOP Notification

[Dave McClure]

Alan, thanks for your comments and input.  May a take a moment of your time to clarify an issue or two?

The initial ARIN proposal suggested that persons comment to the e-mail address provided, which we reported to our members.  When we found out that it was a listserv we immediately sent a clarification to our members.

We also believe that the formation of a non-profit to manage IP address registry is an excellent idea that AOP supports.  And have said so.  The issue is not the concept but its proposed implementation.

>>As soon as the community thinks that ARIN is not doing the right thing
and is beyond hope of being fixed, the community will form the AntiNIC.
ARIN knows this, and so presumably will do the right thing.  Everybody
also knows that the AntiNIC will not be successful unless *it* has the
support of community consensus.<<

You can form AntiNICs to your heart's content, but so what?  Control of North American IP addresses and fees for the same will still be under the control of ARIN, which will be controlled by select group of self-perpetuating Trustees.

Note that under the current proposal, the Board of Trustees will elect new trustees from among candidates proposed by an Advisory Council.  The Advisory Council will, itself, be selected by the Board of Trustees.  That's a closed loop that provides for no direct input from the members of ARIN.

Suppose this proposal is adopted within the next 10 weeks, as has been suggested, and the Trustees then elect to raise fees or otherwise act imprudently.  Not saying they will, but we need to address these issues in order to craft a good proposal.

Who would you complain to?  No one, since ARIN is accountable to no one but its own Board of Trustees.  How would you protest?  Refuse to pay the fees?  You'd only lose the ability to get IP addresses.  You would be faced with trying to build a new organization to fix the problems we've created.  And to do so in the face of an entrenched organization that already has been given the authority to do as it pleases -- by us.

This is an imperfect proposal that *is* getting public discussion, and
that will have the consensus of the industry (or it will not succeed).

This is an imperfect proposal that is being discussed on a single listserv of about 300 people.  That's better than none, but what is the mechanism to approve this proposal?  A vote by this listserv?  While there are many knowledgeable people of high integrity here, they hardly constitute a consensus.  And I have yet to see any proposal for a vote on this proposal by any of the standards bodies extant to the Internet.

Helping to clarify the proposal and remove any bugs would be useful.
Your conspiracy theories are not useful.

Conspiracy theories?  I don't think I've ever tried to place Ms. Hubbard on the grassy knoll in Dallas <G!>.

Fixing the bugs is exactly what we are trying to do.  Let's begin by figuring out how ARIN can be made accountable to the people it would seek to serve.  And by getting very specific information about what the actual costs are to maintain the registry today.  And to determine how to build consensus beyond this listserv.

Dave McClure