So what would I like to see from the next administration's Internet infrastructure initiative? For starters, I'd like a group convened to discuss some of the technical and architectural challenges of the Internet. And no, that's not the Internet Engineering Task Force, which has done some great work but has pretty much passed its "use-by" date.

Thank the IETF participants for their decades of worthy service, and start fresh. Invite some of the folks who've correctly predicted some of the current issues, have operational experience, and have continued to do innovative research. I'm thinking of people like John Day, Mike O'Dell, Noel Chiappa and Tony Li. Task them with coming up with a next-generation architecture -- and having it implemented before 2011, which is when many of the current issues will reach the crisis point.

There's more, and I've said this before: Charter and fully fund a group to measure Internet traffic characteristics and capture real data -- something that currently doesn't exist. Make sure every content and service provider fully participates. Great choices to run the initiative include KC Claffy and Andrew Odlyzko.

And for the policy and economic issues, steer clear of the ideologues. Any time there's an obvious "right" answer, we're almost certainly in Mencken territory. So my recommendation to the incoming administration: Keep an open mind. Explore the nuances. And stay alert for answers that are neat, simple and wrong.