February 10, 1997
What's in an Internet Domain Name?
By Bob O'Donnell
No one owns the Internet. That's one of the qualities about the 'net that most people
involved with it really love. That is, until an Internet-wide problem raises its ugly head
and no one's sure who should be responsible for solving it.
Such has been the case with domain names, those coveted, personalized Web addresses
that have become harder and harder to get. Last week, an organization called the International Ad Hoc Committee (IAHC) released its final recommendations for
resolving the problem (see "Internet
group forges plan to recast Domain Name System" for more).
Among the group's recommendations is the creation of seven top-level domain names:
.firm, .store, .web, .arts, .rec, .info, and .nom. The result would be Web addresses such
as www.companyname.firm or www.companyname.store; and site applicants can choose the
domain name or names they desire. In addition, the group has proposed the creation of
numerous competitive organizations that could register these domain names as well as a
separate organization and system for handling trademark disputes.
All in all, it seems like a well-thought-out solution that clearly addresses one of the
more critical issues the Web faces. Unfortunately, members of organizations not included
in the Ad Hoc Committee are already voicing their displeasure with the process used to
create the standard.
Some of this, no doubt, stems from recent history. Last summer there was an ill-fated
effort to resolve this problem that was met with an onslaught of complaints from Web
digerati who felt left out of the process. Several of the organizations participating in
that effort refused to give up, however, and they banded together with other 'net-related
organizations to create the IAHC. The group, which includes members from the Internet
Society, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, the Internet Architecture Board, the
Federal Networking Council, the International Telecommunication Union, the International
Trademark Association, and the World Intellectual Property Organization, created a draft
specification and opened it up to public comment in December of last year.
And public comments did influence the specification, according to the IAHC,
particularly in the troublesome area of trademarks. In an effort to avoid the kinds of
messy lawsuits that have continued to plague Network
Solutions Inc. (NSI), the organization that holds a worldwide monopoly on the
maintenance, tracking, and fee collection for domain names, the IAHC has proposed a number
of important changes. They include a 60-day "waiting" period for trademark
challenges, online arbitration, and the creation of a non-profit international
organization for handling disputes. By opening up the process to 28 different registrars,
the IAHC is also taking on the problems created by NSI's monopoly.
Still, many are expected to fight the proposal, which I think is a big mistake. While I
understand that proposed public policies should be debated in an open forum, I hope that
serious roadblocks aren't put in place that delay the adoption of these recommendations.
The Internet clearly needs a restructured naming system to keep it moving forward and
arguments that stem from a not-invented-here mindset will not help the process along.
Of course, to make this all happen for the rest of us will require lots of work on the
part of all the IS departments and Internet service providers who handle DNS servers. Once
the policies are in place and the work is done, however, the entire Web will benefit from
the additional address space these changes will provide. It just might be a little harder
to guess where you're going.
On an unrelated note, starting this week we're moving up our electronic publishing
schedule by two days, from Sunday at midnight PST to Friday at midnight PST. As a result,
you'll be able to read your favorite columnists, participate in new forums, and get a jump
on all the new stories in InfoWorld print as well as here on Electric before the business
week even starts. It's all part of our goal to give you the absolute latest information
you can get. Please let us know what you think.
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Copyright 1997, by InfoWorld Publishing Corp., a
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