Re: TLD Inter-Fact

[Michael Dillon <michael@memra.com>]

On Thu, 28 Nov 1996, Simon Higgs wrote:

> At 1:31 PM -0800 11/28/96, Michael Dillon wrote:
> 
> > .POP  - population groups distinct in language and or culture
> >         This includes broad groups like La Francophonie and the
> >         Commonwealth nations (commonwealth.pop, francophonie.pop)
> >         as well as narrow groups like the Okanagan aboriginal
> >         nation in Canada okanagan.pop or the Ga of Ghana ga.pop
> >
> 
> What's wrong with okanagan.ca? What you are doing is, by definition,
> under the ISO codes.

The ISO code .CA is for Canada. The Okanagan people are not Canadians and
although their territory is entirely surrounded by Canada they are not
actually in Canada. We have a system of reservations very much like the
homelands of South Africa in which the hundred or so aboriginal nations
live. Because they are not regular Canadian citizens they are exempt from
many Canadian laws such as income taxes. Some aboriginal peoples even have
the right to travel freely across the Canada/US border because this right
was given to them under treaty prior to the American Revolution.

Now it just so happens that the valley in which I live is called the
Okanagan valley with Lake Okanagan running down the middle. So a lot of
non-aboriginal peoples use the name "Okanagan" and Okanagan
University College has the domain okanagan.bc.ca. In order to register an
SLD under .ca your organization must have a physical presence in more than
one province. In fact, OUC only qualifies for okanagan.bc.ca because it
has campuses in more than one city in the valley. If it had only been in
Kelowna it would have had no choice but okanagan.kelowna.bc.ca.

Another reason why .CA is a bad choice is that some aboriginal nations
such as the Hau-de-no-sau-nee, also known as the Iroquois or the Six
Nations Confederacy, have territories which straddle the Canada/US
border. You may recall a few years back there was a rebellion at Oka
near Montreal by members of an Iroquois War Society. The Canada/US border
cuts right through Mohawk territory. Similarily, there are Innuit in both
Canada and the USA and Greenland and Russia.

ISO country codes do not form a classification system that can deal with
this diversity. I don't believe that any single classification system can
adequately represent the diversity of the peoples of the earth, their
ideas, their culture, and their commerce. The only workable solution that
I can see is to allow for multiple overlapping systems of classification
in order to reduce the possibility of friction. And handing over 100% of
new iTLD's to the commercial world is not proper. The Internet does 
not exist solely for commerce. It is a network for people to communicate
about anything they wish and the nature of that communication is as
diverse as the people themselves.

> What's the difference between rom.mus.cat and rom.icom.org (Royal
> Ontario Museum), or louvre.mus.cat and louvre.icom.org. They're both
> 3LD. To solve this problem overall, you must make the 2LD the
> delegation. louvre.icom or louvre.mus are infinitely preferable.

The problem is that SLD's in .ORG are not reserved for every group
which needs them. ICOM happens to have secured an SLD here but there will
be other international groupings that cannot secure the desired .ORG
domain. The intent of .CAT is that it will be like a directory service.
http://www.mus.cat will lead to all museums, http://www.forest.cat will
lead to all forestry associations and http://www.cat will get you a
directory to help you if you can't figure out that the SLD for museums is
mus.cat.

> > .MARCA - this would be delegated to a group which would operate with
> >          a policy that delegates domains based on existing registered
> >          trademarks. The .MARCA TLD would be subdivided and/or
> >          managed so that it can be used as a directory of international
> >          trademarks.

> We specifically do NOT want trademarks handled by a monopoly registry.
> Sharing this amongst government trademark database bodies is one
> solution (I'll let you work the logistics out ;), or it has to be
> shared or distributed, where there will be little control over direct
> mapping.

This is the reason for .MARCA. It can be subdivided into domains to be
controlled by whatever group makes sense. .UK.MARCA could be under the
monopoly control of the UK trademarking body while .CHEM.MARCA can be
controlled by a committee of the INTA on which all international chemical
related organizations can have a voice. INTA can handle the delegation
of SLD's according to some reasonable policy and can operate a server
at http://www.marca to run a search engine and explain everything there is
to know about trademarks in every language currently used on earth. It
will be *THE* definitive source.

This is like planning a city and saying that we will put the Ministry of
Communications building over there. If you go to the MoC building you will
either find what you need *OR* they will be able to refer you to the other
places where the real information is kept such as the Broadcast Centre
building or the local daily newspaper building.


Michael Dillon                   -               ISP & Internet Consulting
Memra Software Inc.              -                  Fax: +1-604-546-3049
http://www.memra.com             -               E-mail: michael@memra.com