Internet addresses: An online power struggle

Economist.com article (Subscription required.)

"IT IS not easy running the internet's address system. Since it was founded in 1998, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a self-regulatory body, has been under constant fire from critics on all sides. As it held a public board meeting last week in Argentina, it found itself grappling controversially with two new disputes........

"The two controversies call into question whether ICANN, as a private-sector body with only light governmental representation, is up to the task of managing the internet's domain name system and whether the United Nations (UN) should take over—which it wants to do. The UN has set up a working group, due to report this summer, on the role that nations ought to play in managing the internet."