[12362] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: About the creation of new 3-letter domain(s)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Dennis Fazio)
Mon May 16 20:48:49 1994
From: dfazio@mr.net (Dennis Fazio)
To: com-priv@psi.com
Date: Mon, 16 May 1994 14:42:13 -0500 (CDT)
In-Reply-To: <9405161734.AA0053@Studmuffin.Ganymede.Com> from "ds@ganymede.com" at May 16, 94 10:29:50 am
> Bruce Gingery wrote:
>
> validating during parsing. While the geographical domain naming is not a
> bad idea, your point about people moving, such that their ".fi" address is
> actually served in ".au", or perhaps more likely, a domain often moves - in
> fact - between ".ca" and ".us"
>
> I add:
>
> Where did the idea for geographical domains come from in the
> first place? Is there a compelling technical rationale for
> it or is (was) it just a sop to OSI-minded bureaucrats? It
> seems to me that geography is becoming less and less
> relevant in the electronic medium...
>
> David Scott
> Communications Ganymede Inc.
> ds@Ganymede.Com
>
The US domain is one of many 2-letter top-level domains used internationally.
It has been in existance for a long time and has nothing to do with OSI
bureaucrats. It is being used more now primarily because of the depletion of
the com/edu name space and the load on the root servers.
The US domain is divided into 50 or so subdomains described by the postal
code abbreviations for the states (MN, NY, CA, etc.). These are further
divided into localities (StPaul, SF, NY, Miami, etc.). What this does is
distribute the nameserver load among a wider set of servers. It also
distributes the load of domain registration to others. Subdomains are
delegated to other entities around the country to register municipal, K12,
library and other subdomains in the US domain.
Name space depletion is alleviated by this geographical scheme. E.g. there
are many Kennedy High Schools around the country, but there can only be one
"Kennedy.edu" domain. There can now be a Kennedy.Bloomington.K12.MN.US
and a Kennedy.Roseville.K12.MN.US and a Kennedy.SanJose.K12.CA.US.
I suppose there could then be many Pepsi domains (e.g. Pepsi.St.Paul.MN.US,
Pepsi.SF.CA.US, Pepsi.NY.NY.US), which, I suppose, may or may not compound
the trademark infringement problem depending on the lawyer-of-the-day's
opinion.
The creation of a .PVT domain doesn't solve anything, since it's still a flat
domain, and will quickly be depleted just like .COM. It only compounds
things by creating another top-level domain for the root servers to carry.
As far as moving is concerned, it's up to the domain assignee to determine
what the domain is. If Acme Corporation (Acme.Duluth.MN.US) moves to Miami
to escape the cold, it could be re-registered as Acme.Miami.FL.US, or it
could keep the Acme.Duluth.MN.US domain name, depending upon where it would
like its identity. This changing of domain name is no different than
changing all your phone numbers and stationary when you move. Companies do
this all the time now. Changing the domain name is no different and, in fact,
easier. Just a couple of entries in the nameservers, and you're permanently
set, with CNAME "forwarding" in place for as long as needed.
At the risk of firing off another philosphical debate, in my humble personal
opinion, though geography is becoming less and less relevant in the
electronic medium, I think that anything that ties an identity to a real
physical person in a real physical place should be encouraged. I have some
apprehension about the socialogical results of all of us disembodied
personalities in disembodied organizations communicating in ways that often
are less humane, civil or polite because of the lack of easy human association
with the correspondent(s). We need to be reminded often that we are
communicating with real human beings in real places somewhere -
not isolated message generators in cyberspace. Addresses with real name IDs
and real locatable domain names is another aid to this end.
--
Dennis Fazio, Minnesota Regional Network --|||-- Gabnet: (612) 342-2570
