On Sat, 4 Nov 2000, Dave Crocker wrote:
> >Whatever can be done to provide diversity and resilience in the
> >management of the Internet should be done. Keeping .EU clear from
> >ICANN's entanglements was a small but real step in this direction.
>
> How does another ccTLD in any way "provide diversity" for gTLDs?
Several hundred million people live in Europe. .EU is likely to
become the TLD of choice in this continent. It will attract many
who would otherwise register names in .COM/NET/ORG; it's likely
that many millions will register names in .EU.
One option was that .EU would be chartered as a new-style ICANN
TLD; this would have given ICANN nominal control over what will
become a substantial part of the domain name system.
Fortunately the decision was to have .EU classified as a ccTLD.
> It had sounded as if you were concerned about that set of domains.
I do believe that EuroISPA's comment on the US government green
paper on the DNS suggested that the best thing to do with .COM,
.NET, and .ORG was to push them under .US.
In other words, no, I am not much concerned about the gTLDs.
> Your original note and latest response continue to ignore the hard work of
> providing and pursuing detailed plans to remedy the problems you cite.
Over the last several years I have spent a great deal of time and
done a lot of hard work in lobbying for sensible government policies
towards the Internet, both in the UK and in Brussels. In particular,
EuroISPA proposed the creation of .EU to the Commission several years
ago and has been active ever since in arguing for rational policies
in its management. We have tried very hard to avoid the sort of
senseless wrangling that has characterized the US-centric DNS wars.
Had .EU been classified as an ICANN gTLD, it would have been entangled
in those wars. .EU as a European ccTLD is free of ICANN and free of
the DNS wars. This is a Good Thing.
This is not to say that there will be no problems in the management
of .EU. Doubtless there will be problems; but they will be solved
by different people in a different way. That is, the management of
the DNS will be somewhat more diverse than it otherwise would have
been.
In my opinion, we don't need grand solutions of the type that you
seem to be arguing for. What we need are small, practical steps
towards greater diversity in the management of the Internet.
This is all becoming a bit repetitious, so with apologies, unless
you have something new to say, this will be my last word on this
subject. It was good to see you in Yokohama, Dave.
--
Jim Dixon VBCnet GB Ltd http://www.vbc.net
tel +44 117 929 1316 fax +44 117 927 2015
