The Internet is at once global and local. The nature of internetworking means that the global Internet is built only of other networks. There is a small but key point of coordination on the Internet, called the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).
The U.S. Department of Commerce National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA) recently received a proposal to change the stewardship of IANA. This proposal is good for the Internet, the companies and organizations that depend on it and the people who use it. To understand why this is so, it is helpful to understand a bit about the coordination points, and why they have worked well so far.
Dispatches From The Front 