[ncdnhc-discuss] Global - Decentralized Naming

[Jim Fleming]

http://www.icann-ncc.org/pipermail/discuss/2002-March/001559.html
[ncdnhc-discuss] What about 5 (or more) ICANNs? 
Dave Crocker dhc2 at dcrocker.net 
Tue, 05 Mar 2002 08:35:59 -0800 

At 11:31 AM 3/5/2002 -0500, James Love wrote:
>    I think you could decentralize the issues surrounding the unique list of
>names, as well.  You could agree that different regional bodies would
>allocate names, and negotiate between groups where issues of uniqueness
>present a problem.  Or is there some reason why this won't work?

Please present an example of such a scheme having worked on a global scale 
for a critical infrastructure resource.

------

That is easy.....

1. The U.S., Canada and Mexico have a list of commercial "words" and definitions
that are recommended to be used in all commercial contracts. These came to light
as part of NAFTA and have been refined over a period of time. Obviously, three
countries and governments did not need the small, closed, insular I* society to
select those words.

2. The USENET name space has grown in various directions, once the control freaks
were removed from the process.

3. Look at a map of the world some time. Do you think that some small, closed,
narrow-minded control freaks sat around in a central committee and selected all of
the names of the countries on that map ? Do you think that some IAHC "blue ribbon panel"
was organized to endow the world map with country names ? What about the State
names in the U.S. and the Provinces in Canada ?...are those global ?

4. Look at the TLDs that are emerging in the FREE MARKET. Some of those TLDs
are similar to DLDs - Dash-Level-Domains. What is the difference in building a name
space down from .com and from the "root" ? People seem to be very agile at selecting
their DLD names (DOT-BIZ.com) for example, when they are not able to get their
.BIZ TLD into the legacy root servers, because some small group of I* society insiders
think they have the right to game the system to make sure that only people who "play ball"
with them (pay them) are accepted...

5. Look at the IPv8 TLDs. No one person or small group selects them. The selection can
be totally done via software. Start with the DLDs from #4, add to that list the words from
#1 and mix in all of the words from the world map #3. Some simple DNS dig-based
software can then be used to locate the TLD server clusters. No roots are needed. When
two or more TLD server clusters are located it is likely a popular TLD, an industry-wide
trade association can be used to make recommendations to the public on whether to
register in both or whether one company is willing to consolidate with the other and seek
another TLD. Couple that with the fact that all of the testing can be done in the "toy" 32-bit
IPv4 DNS system BEFORE the market moves to the 128-bit Next Generation DNS.
You have a built-in sandbox for doing Proof-of-Concept testing before things become
more cast in cement.
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/domainname/130dftmail/unir.txt

ICANN has shown that they can not play fair in the Proof-of-Concept sandbox. This
should not be surprising. The IAHC demonstrated the same thing. When you have the
same people involved, it should not be surprising that you get the same result. The one
comfort is the knowledge that the world is just routing around the I* society and
continuing to demonstrate one more example of how a global naming system can be
developed without kissing the rings of the "right people".

For other examples...
http://www.New.Net
100+ million users
http://www.NameSlinger.com
1,000s of TLDs created in real-time
http://www.Name-Space.com
100s of TLDs

Eventually, the U.S. Government will see that some reasonable number of TLDs should
be entered in the legacy root servers that they control. It is interesting that the U.S. Government
did not need ICANN to handle .EDU and .US.

By the way....if you are not satisfied that rational humans are able to select a global naming system
and you prefer visuals, consider all of the flags around the world. Do their colors and styles collide ?
http://personal.jax.bellsouth.net/jax/l/c/lchaplin/unkarock/flag.htm

--
JF