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The ICANN Has Grown Up and Is Looking to Leave Home

9/6/2016

Oh! You beautiful baby doll! Look at you now!

When I am stressed, I tend to think in song. ICANN thing has me stressed because 1/ I am difficult about changes. 2/ I am not really sure what to think about the change about to happen at the end of the month only that it is happening and that is certain because ICANN is the driving force of the change and the centrality of the change. 3/As nerdy and geeky as I am, I am understanding the more that I research how much about the very foundation my daily activities I know near zilch about, least of all where it is headed off to.

This song keeps playing in my head. "Oh! You must have been a beautiful baby! You must have been a beautiful child. You must have been a beautiful baby. Because, Baby! Look at you now!" My grandfather used to sing it to all of the grandchildren, especially the girls. When we were sad and upset this song put a smile on our faces. I can not find the smile now. I tend to feel like how we felt when we saw Papa's expression on his face after he finished the song. We would ask him why he looked sad and forlorn and he would say, "Because one day you will grow up and maybe even move away one day."

Not only is ICANN grown up now at 18 years old now, ICANN is ready to leave home, literally itching to leave home. To be fair and honest, it is natural for an eighteen years olds to want to spread their wings leaving home. Isn't that the goal of parents - helping their children find their wings, find their purpose and place in the world? ICANN tried to leave home before, like an overeager testy teen, thinking they are ready when in fact, either the time or they themselves was just not right or ripe. The wannabe wayward teen with super intelligence kept everyone who had anything to do with net neutrality and the internet at large on their toes and a hopin'! Congress managed to stop ICANN from leaving home too early each time before; however, there is nothing legally stopping ICANN from deciding on a new home elsewhere now and honestly, at age 18, ICANN is both ready and ripe according to their original purpose and those it has adopted or assigned itself along the way.

It would be convenient to blame this one on Obama -too overly convenient and an over simplification. Just like a new born baby is loved and adored on the day he or she is born, their leaving home to stand on their own in the world is already in the works from day one. The same is historically demonstrated in the documentation from Darpa as well as the other associated departments that served to the nurturing, growth and development of ICANN (just like any other good extended family). In fact, Obama signing the notification letter signifying to NTIA to allow their contract with ICANN to lapse thereby removing US government oversight of ICANN was just a token technicality acknowledging that ICANN was truly an entity of its own right.

Much like a father purchasing a car for his child or parents paying for the wedding of their daughter. The move did not happen before now, not just because congress ordered NTIA to renew the contract each year, but ICANN was not ready to fly away free. Now, ICANN is not only ready. ICANN is unstoppable. And from the recently held subcommittee hearing it is demonstrating itself a force to be reckoned with. ICANN's unstoppability and a force to be reckoned with has nothing to do with NTIA not renewing the contract or Obama signing letters and wavers releasing NTIA from renewing contracts with ICANN. ICANN's unstoppability and force comes from ICANN alone. More on that in a minutes but first thing's first...

Where Did ICANN Come From?

So in the last article, we explored just a bit of the Internet's history. Let's now explore the history of ICANN.

Right after the Cold War had begun, Russia launch Sputnik. The US was just a bit shocked, awed, amazed, and a tad bit jealous at Russia's attempts of conquering outer space which pretty much out shone the U.S. A.'s innovations of Tv and more stylish cars. So federal agencies such as NASA (National Aeronautics Space Administration), and DARPA /ARPA (the Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency) was born. Their purpose was to develop space age technologies, such as rockets, weapons, computers, etc.

From DARPA or ARPANET as the agency calls itself and prefers to be called, the ARPANET, funded by the National Science Foundation Network was one of the inventions which helped scientist and military leaders communicate with each other covertly. As the commercial significance of this new communications technology was recognized, it was shared with the corporate and civilian world of America then the rest of the world. Often confused with the World Wide Web which was created 25 years ago as a result of the scientists of CERN needing to communicate with each other, the Internet, itself, is somewhat older at 47 years old as of 2016. It is the internet which allows the world wide web interface, hypertex, peer to peer file sharing, e-mail (electronic mail) and other applications. As the spread of the internet grew, so did the need for oversight and management.

So to make clear, DARPA was born in 1958; ARPANET Oct 29, 1969, establishing its first computer to computer link (internet as we civilians call it); NTIA was born 1978; ARPANET adopted TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol) in 1983; January 1, 1983 (aka DNS -Domain Name System); The WWW aka WORLD WIDE WEB was born 1990 (conceived by one called Tim Berners-Lee for the Cern collider); ICANN was brought forth Sept 18, 1998 and incorporated (baptised) September 30, 1998.

So there is way more to this kiddos <hushed tones, come closer> We also have the Dark web which is a part of the DEEP WEB (yeah , no, despite popular belief they are not the same thing and cannot be used interchangeably. Dark Web is PART OF Deep Web not Deep Web itself. ) the onion router tor 1990 for military 2002 for public 2006

Great Space Coaster https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDX1rOeWgZA

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Oct. 1st Will the UN Have Your Internet Address

9/6/2016

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At midnight September 30th something amazing is going to happen, the United States of America is relinquishing its oversight of the DNS to the ICANN which is also looking for a new home. Is there a possibility that the UN will be the new home

for the internet as many are speculating? Or is there a possibility that another country may call itself home to the internet via ICANN? What do these changes mean to the average user of the world wide web and internet? Not much, but to businesses and those who are advocates/activists, the changes may have a greater effect.

"What is an IP address and a DNS?" You may ask. And "What is the significant result of the UN holding possession and oversight of the DNS?"

I am so very glad you asked!
IP is an abbreviation for Internet Protocol which are a set of rules as to how the internet is governed. When you register your computer and /or set up an internet account, you are connecting into the internet and therefore agreeing to the rules of conduct of activity and the facilitation of various actions through the use of the internet.

As part of the agreement you are given an address, a code that identifies your computer from the billions of computers and other tech devices accessing the web and allows you to communicate with other devices using the web. To find out more, please go to whatismyipaddress.com

Whose Your Daddy?

There are many men who helped conceive the internet going as far back as Sir Francis Bacon in his book "New Atlantis" which he inspired a great many inventions within his Utopia. Other contributing fathers of the internet who conceived or anticipated the existence of world wide information networks are Nikola Tesla "world wireless system" 1900s, Paul Otlet (1930) and Vannear Bush (1940), and in the 1960s with J.C.R. Licklider (yes, that is his real name) promoting the "Intergalactic Network."

ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network),originally funded by the US Department of Defense came into play in the late 1960s and by the 1970s world dignitaries were using the internet, including the queen of England. (2.) In the 1970s, Robert Khan and Vinton Cerf invented Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol the standard we use today which was adopted by ARPANET in 1983. Then in 1990, the World Wide Web was born thanks to Tim Berners-Lee which helped popularize the internet. (3.)

Aaron Swartz the founder of an information library which pre-dated Wikipedia by 5 years, co-designer of RSS feed, conceptulizer of online shopping and stream lined shipping, co-founder of Reddit and the first to bring the Silicon Valley to task about putting profits margins as priority over net neutrality, and dared to launch the campaign to stop the US government from censoring the internet and limiting users communication with each other. Because of Aaron making SOPA /PIPA known to the public, internet users rallied together to conduct online protests defeating the passing of SOPA/PIPA and therefore protecting and keeping the internet as a neutral, uncensored, free and safe communication system. As a result, Aaron, sentenced to 35 years in jail, ended up dead in a jail cell (allegedly suicided) as a result of the charges the US government made against him. (4.), (5.) He was only 29 years old.

The Rise of the Hackavists!

The history of the internet was destined to continue to be controversial. In 2003, Anonymous came into being, by 2012, the cyber-hackvist group would be named among one of the One Hundred Most Influential people by Time magazine. (6.) Chelsea Manning, formerly Bradley Manning, also facing 35 years and enduring long isolation/solitary confinement sessions of which he faces even a longer harsher series of tortures and more jail time for attempting suicide (7.) Chelsea finds herself in prison for leaking information to WikiLeaks, founded in 2006, co-founded by front man Australian born Julian Assange.(8.) Julian, also is a highly controversial character; he currently resides as a guest at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, due to allegations by the US that by receiving and releasing documents and the information therein, Wikileaks has caused the deaths of countless people and has committed treason by putting US operations in jeopardy. These allegations have been decided by the UN as unfounded. (9.) Still, the US has not relinquished the charges and therefore Mr. Assange is still residing in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. While there several actors from outside the embassy allegedly with ties to the CIA have tried to assassinate Mr. Assange. The latest attempt assassination attempt was just this last August of 2016 (10.) after Hillary Clinton's strategist calls on Tv "illegally kill the son of a bitch." (11.) Due to Mr. Assange's connection with Edward Snowden, who formerly worked for the CIA/NSA who came to realize that the US government's operation systems were spying on its own citizens which is supposed to be illegal but given a pass under the guise of "hunting" terrorists, Mr. Snowden, turned over his findings to Wikileaks and has since been living in assylum in Russia.

Sticky Wickets

Other instances of hacking have been China hacking into Sony Pictures computer systems. And as of late, the DNC has been hacked twice with the emails being sent to Wikileaks and finally released to the public. Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton has been investigated and questioned many times over her usage of the internet, devices and especially using a personalized server at her home instead of a secure server provided by the White House among other violations of protocol even as far as destroying Blackberry devices with a hammer and losing or misplacing phones and Blackberries.

Each one of these examples demonstrates the internet is a tricky world or cyberverse if you will to navigate and so are such crimes as catfishing, baiting, identity theft, on line predatory behavior, cyber stalking, cyber bullying, child pornography just to name a few more cyber crimes.

However, this is not what Obama chose to address using his most powerful man on earth executive orders powers. Instead, he chose to use his executive power to sign an agreement between the ICANN and the United States to end a contract that has currently as of now, which has lasted nearly twenty (20) years, yet now will end Sept 30, 2016, thereby giving over every one who is a member of the internet their IP and personal information to possibly the UN saying that if the UN agrees to accepting to house ICANN then our personal IPs and addresses and the internet itself will be safe.

Snopes is the authoritative last word! -NOT!!!

So if Obama is not actually giving the UN the internet as Snopes says (12) then what is the big deal?

Everyone's IP and personal information is held in a data base which is like a phone book for the internet. The "phone book" is called the DNS (Domain Name System). The DNS is controlled by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) which currently is a non profit entity controlled by NTIA (the US Commerce Department National Telecommunications and Information Administration). As of Oct 1, 2016, ICANN will be released from NTIA to be answerable to multiple stakeholders world wide such as countries, businesses and other entities within the tech world. Discussion is also being make that the UN oversee ICANN in order to keep ICANN and therefore the DNS centralized. We are assured by NTIA's director Lawrence Strickland that the nearly 4 billion users of the internet will be virtually unaffected. (13.) It is expected that the move of the DNS to ICANN, which for now is still a California based company, will gain the US some points as a globalist market team player. (14.)

Yet, the question is now of the transition that ICANN is seeking from becoming a non profit entity based in California still primarily under the US juristidiction to that of one that is multi-national. Currently there is a multinational advisory board called GAB (Government Advisory Board). They only have authority to advise. The location of ICANN offices determines many factors. And there in is the rub, it is not just a matter of ICANN now having oversite of DNS. It is where will ICANN be housed, that will determine the following:

Legal sanctions applicable to changes in the root zone (for instance, what happens if a country under US sanctions requests a change to the root zone file?)
Law applicable to resolution of contractual disputes with registries, registrars, etc.
Law applicable to labour disputes.
Law applicable to competition / antitrust law that applies to ICANN policies and regulations.
Law applicable to disputes regarding ICANN decisions, such as allocation of gTLDs, or non-renewal of a contract.
Law applicable to consumer protection concerns.
Law applicable to financial transparency of the organization.
Law applicable to corporate condition of the organization, including membership rights.
Law applicable to data protection-related policies & regulations.
Law applicable to trademark and other speech-related policies & regulations.
Law applicable to legal sanctions imposed by a country against another. (15.)

So while agencies and groups in the United States are telling Congress to sue the President, and countries around the world who approve of the transaction and are saying, "Finally! We have only been waiting for nearly 20 years!", What are we who maybe on the fence, perhaps leery or in full alert to do? One just may consider a decentralized database such as BitLanders.com or Simbiot.io which uses "block chain" technology. (16.)

Some of my activist friends are opting to remain as they are; some are frantically backing up all their articles and files in anticipation that what ever government entity that ICANN lands on or under will be disappearing large portions of the internet or even their own accounts; still others are turning to HAM (AM) radio and going back to the days of before the internet. The only problem with the later is that our global mail system, delivery and transportation systems are still on a digital/internet infrastructure.

No matter what you decide to do in order to protect your privacy, your rights and your data and meta data IF YOU ARE IN THE UNITED STATES CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE AND CONGRESSMAN AND LET YOUR VOICE GO ON RECORD. Yes, most likely this is a done deal and will go through, but we do not know that for certain. SO LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD. THERE IS STILL TIME TO STOP THIS.

To the president's office
Call the President
PHONE NUMBERS
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
TTY/TTD
Comments: 202-456-6213
Visitor's Office: 202-456-2121
www.whitehouse.gov

I am interested in hearing your thoughts, opinions and plans on this matter. Feel free to leave a comment below or message onceuponaneden@gmail.com

Love and Blessings to you and yours

Michelle Carmela

(1.) http://whatismyipaddress.com/ip-address
(2.) http://www.wired.com/2012/12/queen-and-the-internet/
(3.) http://www.history.com/news/ask-history/who-invented-the-internet
(4.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCwjDuoJK0E
(5.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz
(6.)http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2111975_2111976_2112122,00.html
(7.) http://www.democracynow.org/2016/8/3/chelsea_manning_faces_indefinite_solitary_confinement
(8.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rXPrfnU3G0
(9.) https://justice4assange.com/UN-Working-Group-on-Arbitrary.html
(10.) http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/08/22/questions-potential-asassination-attempt-attempted-break/
(11.) http://thefreethoughtproject.com/illegally-clinton-assange-assassinate/
(12.) http://www.snopes.com/2016/08/19/america-to-hand-off-internet/
(13.) http://www.techworm.net/2016/08/united-states-to-handover-dns-system-from-october-1-2016.html
(14.) http://www.techrepublic.com/article/us-will-hand-over-dns-supervision-to-icann-lessening-its-control-of-the-naming-system/
(15.) http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/jurisdiction-the-taboo-topic-at-icann
(16.) http://blockstrap.com/en/a-complete-beginners-guide-to-blockchain-technology/