communications bodies

Much of the criticism of ICANN reflects lack of awareness with international and national standards, pricing and other coordination bodies established over the past 150 years to deal with 'new media'. This page highlights some of those bodies. 

     international standards organisations

A perspective on ICANN as the "invisible government of the world" is provided by the history of international standards and traffic management bodies. 

There's an intelligent introduction in Constructing World Culture: International NonGovernmental Organizations Since 1875 (Stanford, Stanford Uni Press 99), a collection of essays edited by John Boli, and in Autonomous Policy-Making By International Organisations (London, Routledge 99) edited by Bob Reinalda. 

Originally founded in the 19th century, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) works to create uniformity in global telecom operations. Gerd Wallenstein's Setting Global Telecommunications Standards (Norwood, Artech 90) is one view of the process. The ITU In A Changing World (Boston, Artech 88) by George Codding & Anthony Rutkowski explores pre-web challenges.

The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) "is a non-profit making organization whose mission is to produce the telecommunications standards that will be used for decades to come throughout Europe and beyond"

Another perspective's offered by Standards Policy for Information Infrastructure (Cambridge, MIT Press 95) edited by Janet Abbate & Brian Kahin as part of the excellent Harvard Information Infrastructure Project.

     the ICC

Those fond of the 'railway' metaphor have pointed to the history of the US Interstate Commerce Commission, initially established to regulate railroad companies, as a model for thinking about ICANN.

As we noted earlier in this profile, the two standard studies are A History of the ICC: From Panacea to Palliative (New York, Norton 76) by Ari & Olive Hoogenboom and The Interstate Commerce Commission and the Railroad Industry: A History of Regulatory Policy (New York, Praeger 91) by Richard Stone.



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