ARIN - Canada and Mexico

[Michael Dillon]

On Fri, 28 Feb 1997, Jim Fleming wrote:

> From what I can tell, Canada is not represented on the
> proposed ARIN Board of Trustees. Is there a reason ?

Lack of qualified Canadian candidates. 3 years ago Internet deployment and
operations in Canada were on a par with the USA. But while the rest of the
world forged ahead, most Canadians were satisfied with the status quo and
failed to keep up. The notable exception to this was that Canadian
entrepreneurs started up small local ISP's at a rate comparable to what
happened in the USA even though the government was actively discouraging
this by promoting and funding community freenets. There are other factors
at play here as well, but the end result is that few Canadians are aware
of the technical and operational issues associated with running a modern
Internet (modern defined as the way it is done this year). The most
notable exception to this state of affairs is a fellow named Sean Doran
who lives and works in the United States and had a lot to do with the
shape of todays global Internet during his time at Sprint. But I suspect
he has more interesting things to do than Internet administration.

> When IP addresses are exported ALONG WITH
> the registry duties then the U.S. loses the potential
> revenue that comes from being able to lease those
> IP addresses.

You make it sound as if these addresses are objects which can be exported
and leased. They are not. ARIN won't be leasing IP addresses and it won't
be exporting them and it won't be doing business with ISP's. ARIN is a
collaborative effort to give all interested parties a say in managing a
portion of a global public resource. ARIN will be a steward of this
resource which is why the Board of Trustees is is not called a board of
directors. Their job is not to direct but to hold the public trust and see
that the resource is properly and fairly administered.

Unfortunately your incoherent babbling has led yet another reporter astray
as can be seen in the article at c|net regarding the NSF OIG
investigation. 

Michael Dillon                   -               Internet & ISP Consulting
Memra Software Inc.              -                  Fax: +1-250-546-3049
http://www.memra.com             -               E-mail: michael at memra.com