Re: don heath's comments

[Alan Sullivan <sully@frontiernet.net>]

Paul A Vixie wrote:
> 
> Note that I am not yet on the iahc-discuss mailing list, so just this once
> if you want me to participate in the thread you should be sure and CC me.
> 
> > I just don't believe it's worth worrying about the so-called charter too
> > much.  The iahc will attempt to resolve much, with the help of all the good
> > people participating on this list, and perhaps many others as well.
> 
> I must disagree with this.  I know that Don doesn't plan to defend his
> comments but I want to make sure that the rest of those assembled hear
> this reaction even if Don does not.
> 
> The charter is why IAHC exists and fulfilling that charter is IAHC's task.
> IAHC is not an opportunity to gather more public comments and spend the
> next half year self-selecting a mission based on those comments: this
> discussion has been going on for at least two years and the reason IAHC now
> exists is to make specific progress toward specific goals -- and those
> goals are the ones expressed in the charter and in IANA's itld-admin draft.
> 
> > Also, any dates mentioned shouldn't be worried about too much.  They were
> > done to give a reasonable timeframe to what we were shooting for.  This
> > stuff has been debated for a long time (in Internet time) - it's time to
> > get moving and resolve some things.  That's why we formed the IAHC.
> 
> If by the above you mean "don't take the charter's dates seriously since
> they are obviously way too far in the future," I would be willing to agree.
> If however you mean "don't take the dates seriously since we have quite a
> lot of up-front work to do garnering public commentary and we will probably
> not make any visible progress on chartered work items within the time frames
> given," then we are going to have a serious problem.
> 
> We do not need another think tank or another debating society.  IAHC should
> get its work done and then consider early disbandment as a goal worth working
> toward.  The time for "what should we do?" is largely past -- it is now time
> for "how do we do it?" and "do it."

I support Paul here, there has been too much work already done by Postel
and others that I feel we are ignoring. Postel-draft is a very well
thought out proposal. I feel like IAHC discussion list has become the
great debate society and discussions are drifting... I thought the
charter was to move toward the goals previously outlined.

As to shared vs. exclusive iTLDs, the technical stuff is easy.
Distributed databases exist, they work. The hard stuff here is in
people space, not technical space. If iTLDs are shared what is to keep
one party from hoarding all the valuable names? We have not solved the
greed problem, and this is inviting it. 

Let's move forward. 
I would propose that we:

1) Adopt Postel-Draft.

2) Have the committee determine the technical requirements necessary to
run a registry - lots of good work done by Elz, Bush, Bradner, Patton,
Vixie, and Manning. In fact with a little work we could probably turn
RFC 2010 - Operational Criteria for Root Name Servers - into 
Operational Criteria for iTLD Name Servers.

3) Release a set of test tools that will be used to test the potential
registry DNS servers. Something like a spray test 
comes to mind among others. Each registry should have at least 2
geographically distinct DNS servers. - a 2 week period during which
potential applicants could get their systems ready for test. 

4) Have a period of 2 weeks during which all iTLD registry applicants
apply to run iTLD registries.

5) Test all applicants servers and accept the top 50 to be registries
(this is as objective as you can get).  3 weeks

6) Announce the 50 new registries. 1 day

7) Have a lottery or draft - like that which exists in professional
sports. Each of the 50 registries would get a number based upon a random
selection. Then each registry would choose 3 domain names - 1 domain
name at a time in serpentine sequence. 1-50 then 50-1 and finally 1-50. 

8)Each registry would then announce their domains and policies. 2 weeks.

9) The world is happier,the Internet continues its torrid growth, and an
a new industry continues to grow! 



-- 
Alan Sullivan
President
Top Domain Registry Inc.