ICANN annoints Vint Cerf's successor

ICANN icon moves on to intergalactic internet

By Burke Hansen in Marina del Rey • Get more from this author

Posted in Telecoms, 2nd November 2007 22:46 GMT

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ICANN 2007 Los Angeles The traditional ICANN board meeting that closes out the week-plus worth of meetings, public forums, and whatnot that constitute ICANN's thrice-yearly geek-fest brought in a new chairman today to replace departing internet legend Vint Cerf.

The selection of Peter Dengate Thrush to replace Cerf overshadowed other important board business covering the expansion of Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) to country code names, proposals to reform the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO), and the latest in the contentious debate about the Whois database.

Vint, who plans to devote himself to writing and developing the backbone for an interplanetary internet, casts a long shadow over ICANN. Indeed, there seemed to be unease in the ranks of our internet overlords about just where the organization goes from here. How are they to replace someone of Vint's stature?

I will become more powerful than even you can imagine

Leader of the Vinton alliance

Here at El Reg, however, we know better.

Once Vint becomes master of the interplanetary internet, the turf battles and petty personal disputes that dominate ICANN policy-making will be revealed for the minor smokescreens that they are. Vint is now behind the curtain as the "lifelong advisor" to the Government Affairs Committee (GAC).

The elevation of the Kiwi Mr. Dengate Thrush to the role of Chairman of the Board only cements ICANN's dominion over the international internet we have today, while freeing up Vint and his math-addled quislings to extend their cyber-tentacle reach across the solar system and beyond. It is only a matter of time.

As always, El Reg will be there to cover it.®

Burke Hansen, attorney at large, heads a San Francisco law office

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