Is the Internet a Thing?

N o, I'm not trying to apply the term " Inter-net of Things " recursively, though it would be fun to give the root domain file an IP address and have it be reachable. I'm just using a current colloquial expression to ask what the Internet actually is, and who might own it. I'm asking these questions because of the announcement that ICANN will move out of US Department of Commerce authority (and I assume you know what that is as well). Reactions range from saying it's the end of days to asking, " So what? " The only thing everyone agrees on is that ICANN shouldn't be turned over to the ITU (www. itu.int), or indeed, any set of governments. But then who should govern the Internet? This presumes ICANN does. Who does, and what is there to own? A few of you know the answers already, but I'm writing for the rest of us. I assume that you know what an IP address and the DNS are, because you're reading this, but there's more to this than meets the eye, so you and I are going to travel together through the rabbit hole of asking what the Internet is. According to economists, " currency " is an abstract concept fulfilling three functions: medium of exchange, store of value, and unit of account. 1 Enough people will trust a " real " currency so that it can fulfill these functions. Is the currency real beyond the paper or base metal that serves as a marker for the idea? Not really, other than representing a real consensus — until something weird happens. The Internet is just such a consensus abstraction. It has many aspects, including timekeeping, but — like currency — three main functions make the Internet work, all provided by ICANN: tracking valid IP addresses, resolving names to those addresses, and administering protocols. The first function is the Internet's core function, and is carried out by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). Ok, is this a thing? The IANA used to be what Jon Postel did at ISI, before he died. In 1998, ICANN was created to perform this function, among others, under contract to the US Department of Commerce. The IANA is now a thing: a department of ICANN that performs this function. The IANA (function/thing) maintains registries for Internet protocols, some of which include things like MIME …