Every machine connected to the internet has to have a unique address consisting of four numbers separated by dots. It's called an IP (Internet Protocol) address.
The server that runs The Observer's site, for example, has the address 193.122.15.190. If you wanted to access the site, you could simply type those numbers in the 'address' box of your internet browser and the server would deliver the front page as cheerfully as if you had typed www.observer.co.uk.
In the early days of the net, people used the numerical form of addresses. While this may have been acceptable to geeks, it was hopeless for normal human beings, so the practice arose of assigning meaningful names to machines. But this required a translation system - a database which could look up www.observer.co.uk and translate it into 193.122.15.190. Thus was born the Domain Name System, or DNS.
The DNS is the heart of the internet. All over the network there are servers performing thousands or even millions of domain-name translations every second. The databases are constantly being updated as new domain names are created, and database entries for them ripple through the servers in the system.
At the top the DNS machine hierarchy is a small number of 'root servers', which are the authoritative repository of name-to-machine translations. If the internet can be said to have a centre, these high-level DNS servers are it. The person who controls them has their thumb on the windpipe of cyberspace.
For many years, that person was a computer scientist, Jon Postel, who was one of the architects of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (Arpanet), the bomb-proof network connecting US military bases. Postel oversaw a system whereby the US government, through contractors including the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority and a firm called Network Solutions Inc, co-ordinated the assignment of IP numbers and domain names.
This worked fine while the net was primarily a space for academic researchers, but when its commercialisation began in 1995, something more elaborate was required to cope with a future in which domain names would be as valuable as trademarks.
In June 1998, the US government announced its intention to end its role in IP numbers and DNS co-ordination, and proposed a new, non-profit corporation to take over these and related functions.
That body, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann), came into being in October 1998 and is now the outfit with its thumb on the windpipe.
Given that awesome power, it's important that Icann be an accountable, representative and transparent institution. Its constitution allows for any internet user to become a 'member at large' and to vote in elections for five seats on the Icann board - one for each major geographical region of the world. The elections are being held in October and the names of those nominated as candidates have just been posted on the Icann site.
It's a start, I suppose, but the omens for governance are not good. Of the 300 million internet users, only 211 wanted to be considered, or were recommended, as candidates for the Icann board.
In most parts of the world, the call for nominations was greeted with a resounding yawn. Among Europeans, only the Germans seem to appreciate the organisation's significance. Of the 17,000-odd 'member at large' registrations submitted worldwide, 24 per cent are from Germany - compared with only 4 per cent from the UK, and 2 per cent from France. The US accounts for 41 per cent of the membership.
The message for UK users is loud and clear: log on to www.icann.org register; and vote.
