] George Michaelson wrote:
] 
] > Did you like the comments about the so-called TAX money?

] > it leaves open the question: what will it be spent on? I suggested
] > the ietf/iab
] > on the mou-list and got laughed down, but I'd say it again: why not
] > spend this
] > money on funding the core processes which keep the wheels turning
] > worldwide?
] 
] The money seems to be targeted at US Internet initiatives, despite the
] fact that > 50% of new registrants are domiciled outside the US.  See
] the last para of:
] 
] http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,21722,00.html?st.ne.ni.lh

My interpretation of http://www.internic.net/nsf/agreement/amendment4.html
saying
         b. the remaining 30% will be placed into an interest-bearing
            account which will be used for the preservation and
            enhancement of the "Intellectual Infrastructure" of the
            Internet in general conformance with approved Program Plans.

(especially given that the agreement is with the NSF) is that the fund
was intended to be targetted more towards research than operations.

I can see how you could call running costs of the ietf/iab part of
the "Intellectual Infrastructure" of the Internet, but it is not so
clear whether the new IANA is a piece of "Intellectual Infrastructure".

It does seem like a reasonably sensible thing to spend part of the fund
on -- avoiding the problem of "how do we fund the new IANA" (for now)
and reducing the problem of what to do with the fund.

But I guess in the end it will have more to do with politics than with
common sense.  Unfortunately it seems ad hoc groups of "engineers" are
better at the latter than the former.  :-(
__________________________________________________________________________
 David Keegel <djk&#167;cyber.com.au>  URL: http://www.cyber.com.au/users/djk/
Cybersource P/L: Unix Systems Administration and TCP/IP network management