On Wed, Mar 31, 1999 at 12:22:38PM -0800, Greg Skinner wrote:
> Kent Crispin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> > (*) The MoU failed because the competing interests refused to be
> > balanced, and caused the USG to get involved. This remains true with
> > ICANN -- ICANN will only succeed because the USG has sufficient power
> > to force a resolution.
>
> Hmmm. What power does the USG have to prevent people from using
> alternative TLDs?
None whatsoever. What keeps people from using alternative TLDs
is economics. The primary value of a domain name on the
Internet is that it gives global visibility. Alt-TLDs are
invisible, so there is no practical value to have a domain name
in an alt-tld. Without alternative TLDs, there is no point in
having an alternative root.
The underlying force that has fueled the growth of THE Internet
is the promise of universal connectivity, at the human level. A
collateral feature/requirement of this universal connectivity is
the single space of unique names.
The desire for universal connectivity/visibility is what caused
the merger of all the other networks (bitnet, etc) that existed
in the early days of networking. The end result of this
progression is a single connected network, with a single global
addressing scheme, and a single global human-visable name space
sitting on top of the addressing scheme.
In addition to being an undeniable historical trend, this is
almost a theorem -- there can only be one globally connected
name space on the net -- if there were two or more, they
wouldn't be globally connected...
This principle guarantees that there will be one Root. The
principle still allows for the possibility that a sufficiently
strong force could invalidate the current Root, and fragment
the net. The result would be a quick convergence to a new
Root, almost certainly under government control.
But I don't see any force on the horizon anywhere near strong
enough to invalidate the current root. ISPs, and all the
businesses that have come to use the net, need a stable root to
prosper. That need completely overshadows the chicken-feed
pissing and moaning about ICANN that we hear on these lists.
It's interesting -- someone on one of these lists was talking
about how the techies have to come to grips with the fact that
the Internet is beyond their control. That is true, and that
is precisely why the "alternative root" proposals (which are
fundamentally a technical response to the situation) aren't
going to come to anything. The techies can go on and form
their alternative roots to their hearts content (and, as a
confirmed techie, I would be happy to play along). But the
real Internet, and the real Root, aren't going to be affected
-- business and government will see to that.
--
Kent Crispin "Do good, and you'll be
[EMAIL PROTECTED] lonesome." -- Mark Twain
