It's the UN again, searching for a gig where it can apply it's vaunted "problem solving abilities" and haul down a little cash - Countries, companies debate U.N. control over Internet:
Some countries and activists argue that ICANN is too close to the United States and want the United Nations to take a greater role in regulating the Internet.If that's Izzy's idea of legitimacy, one can't help but wonder if his father mentioned his name to his mother after the ten minutes he spent with her.
"The United Nations would be a good platform for that, because it has legitimacy. The countries are all represented," said Izzeldin Mohamed Osman, a computer science professor from the Sudan University of Science and Technology.
This week, about 200 diplomats, activists and representatives of companies like Hewlett-Packard Co. and Sun Microsystems Inc. met at the United Nations to share ideas on whether the Internet should be governed and, if so, how.Why don't we make everyone's day and tell the grasping bureaucrats at the UN to pound sand?
"The world has a common interest in ensuring the security and dependability of this new medium," Annan said.
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The gathering grew from December's U.N. World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva, where the world's leaders failed to reach consensus on governing the Internet and punted the issue to a task force that is supposed to report to Annan in 2005.
