Over the past 40 years, the Internet has evolved from a research project into a global communications grid, but it is still run by quirky processes created way back when it was a network of geeks.
Last week, Palo Alto businessman Rod Beckstrom assumed a critical but little-known role in the governance of cyberspace when he took a roughly $1 million-a-year job as president of ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.
Founded in 1998 as the Internet was blossoming in popularity, ICANN is a nonprofit corporation based in Marina Del Rey (Los Angeles County). With an annual budget of roughly $65 million – it gets about 18 cents of the fee paid to register most Internet domain names – ICANN oversees the critical name-and-address functions that direct traffic in cyberspace.
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