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<a href="http://news.com.com/The+U.N.+thinks+about+tomorrows+cyberspace/2008-1028_3-5643972.html?tag=nefd.lede" eudora="autourl">
http://news.com.com/The+U.N.+thinks+about+tomorrows+cyberspace/2008-1028_3-5643972.html?tag=nefd.lede</a>
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But the ITU enjoys virtually no influence over the Internet. That remains
the province of specialized organizations such as the
<a href="http://dw.com.com/redir?destUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.icann.org%2F&siteId=3&oId=2008-1028-5643972&ontId=1023&lop=nl.ex">
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers</a>, or ICANN; the
<a href="http://dw.com.com/redir?destUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ietf.org%2F&siteId=3&oId=2008-1028-5643972&ontId=1023&lop=nl.ex">
Internet Engineering Task Force</a>; the
<a href="http://dw.com.com/redir?destUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F&siteId=3&oId=2008-1028-5643972&ontId=1023&lop=nl.ex">
World Wide Web Consortium</a>; and regional address registries. <br><br>
The
<a href="http://dw.com.com/redir?destUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.itu.int%2F&siteId=3&oId=2008-1028-5643972&ontId=1023&lop=nl.ex">
ITU</a>, a United Nations agency, would like to change that. "The
whole world is looking for a better solution for Internet governance,
unwilling to maintain the current situation," Houlin Zhao, director
of the ITU's Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, said last year.
Zhao, a former government official in China's Ministry of Posts and
Telecommunications, has been in his current job since 1999. <br><br>
Though Zhao is far too diplomatic to state it directly, the ITU's
increasing interest in the Internet could presage a power struggle
between ITU, ICANN, and perhaps even the U.S. government, which retains
some
<a href="http://news.com.com/ICANN+defensive+in+letter+to+Commerce/2100-1023_3-228238.html?tag=nl">
oversight authority over ICANN</a> and appears content with the current
structure. <br><br>
[etc - read the web site]<br><br>
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