[LINK] David steps down in favour of Goliath

[daryl@ecn.ab.ca]

Linkers:
   Another indication from the Great White North that governments can
exert influence over the 'Net.
   Note that the approval of the Canadian government was required for
this administrative change.
   Note also the evolution of a more complex form of management: from
volunteer hobby to full-time bureaucracy in the form of an Authority.
   In Canadian terms, it's like the transition in the air transport
industry from single-pilot bush planes to 300-seat air charters.
   That took 50 years. It seems that the age of individual heros of the
Web (like the selfless Demco) lasted about a dozen, less than that if you
start the count from when the Web went public.
   Mind you, in Britain they propose to send Web site owners to gaol if
 they develop Alzheimer's syndrome, so maybe this level of governmental
influence is picayune by comparison . . . 

Whatever,
Daryl Krupa
Living In Bush Sr.'s 'Kinder and Gentler America'

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Agency rules dot-ca domain

Southam Newspapers 
Vancouver

  A Canadian non-profit agency will pay the University of British Columbia
more than $4 million to take over the registration of all Web site
addresses that end in .ca -- Canada's designation on the Internet.
 The Ottawa-based Canadian Internet Registration Authority announced
Monday the agreement with UBC and the Canadian government will see it
become the new administrator of the .ca registry.
 Since 1988, almost 90,000 Web site addresses ending in .ca have been
registered by John Demco, computing facilities manager at UBC's computer
science department, who ran the system in his spare time as a volunteer.
 But the task has grown into a full-time job.
 "The number of domain applications is up significantly even since the
beginning of this year," Demco said. "In April, there were about 5,000
registrations approved."

_Vancouver Sun_