Once again, the people who decide how the Internet is supposed to function are not getting along. The Net is alight with e-flames, and people from all over the world are in Accra, Ghana, this week, arguing with the passion of parents at a Little League game. Sometimes, what these relatively anonymous Internet gurus worry about is impossibly geeky. Things like root servers, protocol parameters and port numbers are critical to making sure we see the right Web pages and get the right e-mail, and we're grateful for these people -- as long as they don't go into too much detail at parties. But as the Internet has insinuated itself more deeply into global commerce and daily life, more fundamental business and political questions have begun to boil: What are the rules for assigning and naming Web addresses, which enable us to find anything and everything? Who controls, and profits from, granting and registering these addresses? Should there be space reserved for purely public endeavors? And so on. ... Full article available at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24234-2002Mar13.html -- James W. Meritt CISSP, CISA Booz | Allen | Hamilton phone: (410) 684-6566