I'm currently writing a story for an industry magazine that touches on a number of the watershed events that bring DNS to where it is today. I was hoping that there might be someone (or some people) on this list that might be able to provide me with some color around a few specific events. My research indicates that in 1985, SRI was awarded their contract to manage DNS registrations and USC was awarded the contract to manage DDN-NIC this same year. In '91, SRI lost their DDN-NIC management contract in a DISA rebid to GSI. The question on this point is when did USC lose the DDN-NIC management contract to SRI? Or is the original USC reference erroneous? Further to this point, what was the dynamic behind the rebid? Was it a standard end-of-contract rebid or were there other political issues involved? Also, did DISA repatriate DDN-NIC when NSI was formally awarded the NSF/NREN contract in '93 or did it happen at another point in time? (The CA is very specific as to the scope of NSI's new responsibilities, but there is (obviously) no mention of who was performing the duties not covered by the CA). Finally, where was SRI through this process? I can't believe it was a lay-down. There seems to be an implication of DoD v. Academics behind this whole story. Is there a credible source that might indicate that even though SRI was heavily involved with various government agencies at various levels that the USG may have felt more comfortable with various US defense contractors and agencies that ultimately ended up with these various contracts? Or am I watching too many X-Files reruns...? Another big hole in these events was the decision to create ARIN. Amendment 6 to the NSI/NSF CA led to the creation of ARIN, but there are no real references as to why. Was it simply a case where NSI wanted to focus their operations on the more profitable registration venture? Text at ARIN and the FNC indicate otherwise, but there are simply no references available detailing the "...more than a year of discussions held among the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), Réseaux IP Européens (RIPE), Asia Pacific Network Information Center (APNIC), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Federal Networking Council (FNC) " Any and all help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance, -rwr Ross Wm. Rader Director, Innovation & Research Tucows Inc. t. 416.538.5492
