Clinton's Net advisor steps down

NEWS Ira Magaziner, ecommerce and Internet advisor to Bill Clinton, is set to retire at the end of the year according to the latest US reports. However, his resignation calls into question White House progress on handing over responsibility for domain names to a private organisation. The situation is made worse by the untimely death last month of Jon Postel. Michael Schneider, vice president of European Internet Service Providers Association, said: "We expected his resignation, however this is not a good time for it to happen. He has been the main person responsible for driving the domain name issue for a long time. I wish he could stay another six months." Schneider praised Magaziner for his contribution and when asked to describe his perfect replacement for him said: "A clone of Magaziner - as close to the US government, with the same involvement and knowledge of technical issues." Steve Miller, marketing director at NetNames, said: "My gut reaction is that a change of personality will not make much difference - this will still take months to sort out." Miller added that given the restraints, Magaziner had done a good job bringing some rules to an anarchic organisation.