[12310] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
About the creation of new 3-letter domain(s)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Paul Robinson)
Sun May 15 21:57:29 1994
Date: Sun, 15 May 1994 00:14:35 -0400 (EDT)
From: Paul Robinson <PAUL@tdr.com>
Reply-To: Paul Robinson <PAUL@tdr.com>
To: hostmaster@internic.net, hostmaster@nic.ddn.mil,
Paul Mockapetris <PVM@isi.edu>, Mark Pullen <pullen@darpa.mil>,
John Andrews <ja@ess.cs.ucl.ac.uk>, paul@tdr.com,
Everyone Else Lurking on Com-Priv <com-priv@psi.com>,
Namedroppers <namedroppers@rs.internic.net>,
"Tansin A. Darcos & Company" <0005066432@mcimail.com>
>From: Paul Robinson <PAUL@TDR.COM>
Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA
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This note is being sent to the following parties:
Hostmaster@internic.net (Contact party for ROOT and .ARPA domains
and all other 3-letter domains, and primary
nameserver for ROOT [is.internic.net])
hostmaster@nic.ddn.mil (Contact party for .MIL domain)
Paul Mockapetris <PVM@ISI.EDU> (Contact party for .INT domain)
Mark Pullen <pullen@darpa.mil> (Administrative contact for .NATO domain)
John Andrews <ja@ESS.CS.UCL.AC.UK> (Technical contact for .NATO domain)
I am writing to your organizations because I have made a suggestion that
I have gotten positive results about and I think is time to begin
formalizing the process.
I am the owner of the private domain "TDR.COM". I use the term "private
domain" to refer to a domain name where there is exactly one person using
an entire domain name. I am certain there are probably many others.
In older cases, someone would set up their own computer as a UUCP
destination. With the expansion of the DNS service more sites have been
able to take advantage of DNS locating and install themselves at a
"geograpical domain," e.g. if I used that I might have had something like
TDR.MO.MD.US which refers to Montgomery County in Maryland.
In older times that might have worked, but with people moving quite a bit
it causes problems. Now, once someone is assigned a domain name they are
entitled to keep it even if they move, so as a result it might be hard to
explain to someone why the Baker company in Research Triangle Park, NC,
might have a domain name like baker.miami.fl.us, or worse, if someone
named jones moved out of the U.S., why he claims to be in Mexico City or
Toronto when his E-Mail address says jones.chi.il.us, an obvious Chicago
site name. Or why someone claims koehln.pvt.fi refers to his office in
Terahaute, Indiana.
Also, "geographic" domain names are possibly "ugly" and are often long
enough that some may find people refer to them by IP number because that
reference is shorter than their DNS name.
But the problem is that currently those who want to obtain their own
domain name are left with two choices: either get a geographic domain
name, or get a domain name under the .COM domain.
There is currently no support on DNS for small sites and individuals
except as geographic sites. Well, of course, until extremely recently the
Internet (and the computer hardware to access it) was too expensive for an
individual to obtain their own site or site name. Now, someone can get
SLIP service for perhaps $40 a month. This private domain name of TDR.COM
costs me $75 a year.
In my case a .COM domain was okay since I can use it relative to my
business interests, but for the private party placing one or two computers
on the network, registering as a geographic domain may not be acceptable,
and registering as a .COM domain implies a for-profit company.
I am therefore recommending the creation of a new three-letter domain for
individuals (and perhaps small groups) to register their sites under.
Another problem being is that .COM is becoming heavy due to the number of
registrations. Allowing those who would otherwise saturate the .COM
domain with more small registrations might help reduce the load on servers.
I want to recommend the creation of the domain .PVT (for "Private"). This
would help reduce the load on .COM and allow moving people over to it when
they register as individuals. The exact name is not critical - .PRI or
.IND (for individual) are also examples (except I felt .IND wasn't good
because it might conflict with .INT).
I would like to hear comments on the matter in which this should be
proposed in order that this feature can be added. I think that, with the
Internet being expanded and access and capability of access becoming
cheaper, that the addition of some non-geographic identifier for
individuals (or possibly individuals and small groups or families) is
necessary to keep from loading up the .COM domain any further.
On the other hand, some subdividing of an existing domain could be used,
such as creating a "PVT.INT" domain and placing groups under that, except
that now it creates a long subdomain and perhaps overloads that one. It
would also change the character of the .INT domain from international
organizations and internet services into an identifier for individuals
and may be confusing.
On a side note, I have also considered that the future development of
on-request and ordered services provided over internet such as books,
advertising, placing orders, and other special services, might make it
better if organizations offering connectable services use a different
domain name, such as .SVC for dial-up IP-based services provided over the
Internet, as opposed to the .COM domain which simply refers to commercial
sites. It might help to reduce confusion.
---
Paul Robinson - Paul@TDR.COM
Voted "Largest Polluter of the (IETF) list" by Randy Bush <randy@psg.com>
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