Roots of Power

The Privatization of the Internet's Domain Name System

AND THE IMPLICATIONS FOR GLOBAL POLITICS

The Root is a hotly coveted but poorly understood component of the Internet’s domain name system (DNS), an ingeniously conceived, globally dispersed database that links up names like rootsofpower.com with underlying Internet addresses. As the indispensable linchpin of the DNS, the Root is the Internet’s most strategic point of control.

The Root was the focus of a bitter power struggle that broke out in the mid-1990s, soon after the dot-com boom transformed the once-arcane Internet into an up-and-coming engine of global commerce. Exploding demand for domain names made the DNS into the registry of deeds for cyberspace. Authority over the Root was the key to market access. The name registration business had become a lucrative cash cow, but just one company, Network Solutions Incorporated (NSI), was collecting nearly all the profits, by virtue of an exclusive contract with the US Government.

As moneymaking opportunities grew more enticing, the political stakes grew as well, prompting angry disputes over how to break NSI's dominance. The issue attracted hungry entrepreneurs, wild opportunists, and corporate big shots, as well as dreamy cybertopians, public interest advocates, and suspicious governments. Insiders called the fight the DNS War. Offering solutions became an industry in itself. Many of the proposals looked far beyond simple control of the Root, revealing ambitious designs for global Internet governance and grand visions for the future of human progress.

The struggle preoccupied some of the Internet's most celebrated figures, including Vint Cerf and Jon Postel. They had spent their careers working to advance the Internet, designing technical standards that became the bedrock of the system. They had also driven the effort to provide for administrative oversight of essential Internet resources, including the Root. Years of dedication and achievement had earned them tremendous respect as leaders of the engineering community. Their controversial moves during the DNS controversy served to undermine their standing, however, sparking harsh and enduring challenges to their authority, to their reputations, and to their vision of the Internet's guiding principles.

Craig Simon had a front row seat to the controversy. A wry, observant fly-on-the-wall who briefly joined the fray, he supplements first-hand impressions of the battling partisans with lively dialogues from electronic archives and interviews. Simon also delivers a fresh account of Internet history, uncovering new information about the labors of the men and women who fostered its growth.

After chronicling the follies of the DNS War and the disappointments of the outcome, Simon raises provocative questions about the sources of power on the Internet and within human society. How might pervasive computerization open the way to new forms of political authority and dispute resolution? How might a new body of self-appointed peers constitute a new order of gatekeepers? What principles would guide their control of as yet unforeseen border-breaking tools?

Just as the invention of printing technology led to the onset of the nation-state system, modernity's Gutenbergs know that technical innovations can subvert a prevailing social order, preparing the ground from which new jurisdictions emerge. Such processes may take many decades to play out, but we moderns have the benefit of hindsight. The DNS War foreshadowed debates that are likely to appear again, as further leaps in computing technology tempt a drastic reordering of public loyalties. If the resolution of the DNS controversy was like globalization's Peace of Augsburg, a planetary Peace of Westphalia remains a long way off. Still, for each disruptive advance that speeds the way to more, computer engineers must accept their responsibility as agenda-setting social architects.

Acronym Soup?

NWG, IAB, IETF, IANA, IETF, ISOC, SAIC, IAHC, IFWP, NSI, ICANN, DNS and of course... TLD

Anyone seeking an accessible and thorough book about the elite, clubby world of Internet standards-making and the sensational expansion of the domain name system would enjoy Roots of Power. The target audience for this rich but not-too-technical narrative would include educated readers interested in Internet history, current events, electronic commerce, public affairs, political science, and global trends. Perennial audiences would include students of international organization and social theory, singularitarians and other futurists, and also anyone within the ever-growing legion of diplomats, journalists, and civil society activists involved in oversight of the Root and other aspects of Internet administration..

Roots of Power will be a substantial contribution to the historical study of the Internet. Some of the material might be considered newsworthy. The book will resurface facts about the multi-billion dollar windfall reaped through purchase and sale of NSI by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), whose Board of Directors in the mid-1990s included notable personalities such Robert Gates. The book's closing essays will offer compelling insights about the definitions of interests, power, and freedom. By applying a concrete analytical framework that directly challenges the fashionable but facile dichotomies of hard and soft power, the book could gain increasing attention from policy makers, educators, and opinion leaders.

For more about Internet history, see:
• Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet (Hafner and Lyon: 1996)
• Ruling the Root: Internet Governance and the Taming of Cyberspace (Mueller: 2002)
• Who Controls the Internet: Illusions of a Borderless World (Goldsmith and Wu: 2006)