Re: Specific goals

[Larry Masinter <masinter@parc.xerox.com>]

I would like to find some forum (whether IAHC or somewhere else) for
discussing the larger issues of naming in the Internet.

It is my belief that we could find and deploy a scalable solution for
naming in the Internet that would deal with:
  * trademark conflicts
  * internationalization: a desire to use other than ASCII
    in names
  * fuzzy match (detect misspellings and close spellings but not
    "search")
  * authority

and that these names would be useful for both electronic mail and for
URL/URN replacement.

I believe (although counterarguments would be welcome) that much of
the pressure for creating new .COM names is to support new kinds of
'cool' URLs and email addresses.

I think that the requirements for this naming system can take as a
starting point the URN and URL requirements documents but look at some
of the broader issues.

I believe that if there was an internet standard for a new kind of
name service that offered the features listed above, it would not be
difficult to get web browser software and mail address book
applications to support this naming system.

This would mean that the browser "Open Location" dialog box would NOT
immediately go to DNS but to some other directory lookup (not search)
system. A similar kind of facility could be used for email
applications.

Larry Masinter
http://www.parc.xerox.com/masinter