] At a summit here this week, delegates from around the
] world gathered to take a preliminary step toward U.N.
] involvement in some of the areas that are bedeviling
] Internet users and governments alike, including spam,
] network security, privacy and the regulation of the
] technical underpinnings that control the sprawling global
] network.

What a mess. For better or worse, the system we're stuck with
is one that requires one entity to sit in an office and hand out
numbers. ICANN, V$, ARIN, etc, serve various pieces of that role
and we have an ad hoc situation that is not really serving anyone's
interests. I don't necessarily think that putting the UN in charge
of it is the right solution but ICANN doesn't seem to be either...

United Nations ponders Net's future | CNET News.com