Here's an article from the National Post that shows just how far the WSIS has gotten from the real world. For example, in arguing that another entity should assume ICANN's functions, a technology reporter claims that "ICANN has no real right to hold the power it has been given over the day-to-day operations of the Net." What power? Don't get me wrong, what ICANN controls is important but it's not the sine qua non of the Internet's "day-to-day operations." Another quote from the story claims that ICANN controls "how e-mail is sent for the world's more than 550-million Internet users." Huh? Even worse is the claim that governments should have a bigger role over the resources under ICANN's management in order to combat "hate speech, child pornography and unwanted advertising, or spam." Underlying all this "blabber" is a fundamental misunderstanding of what ICANN is, what it has the power to do, and what governments would be able to do if they were to replace ICANN. Someone's feeding the delegates to the WSIS a bunch of hooey.

This is just domain names and IP addresses, folks. Speech, pr0n and spam can be regulated by other (and better) means, if that's what you're trying to get at. ICANN's the wrong vehicle for such ambitions.