IGTECH's proposal: a gTLD for individual users

[Gilles LERAT <glerat@worldnet.fr>]

IGTECH is a small engineering company, and I (Gilles Lerat) have been following
the discussions in this mailing list since its creation, on behalf of this
company. 

In October, IGTECH wrote an application proposing to manage
( as suggested in Jon Postel's draft) 3 new iTLDs.
These iTLDs were respectively:
	.HOME dedicated to individual users.
	.TECH for companies dealing with technology 
	.FRA for french speaking domains.

The application was not sent (to stay in accordance with the draft).

With the creation of the IAHC, and the release of their first draft in
December 19, 1996, things have radically evolved. 
IGTECH's application is no longuer suited to the policies of this draft.
We would still like however to give the details of this application for one
of these iTLDs (or gTLDs, if you want) for the following two reasons:

	* The IAHC has not officially expressed any rules (or comments) for a gTLD
specifically 
designed for individual users.
	* Many people in this mailing lists have expressed such concerns.
Michael Dillon has first expressed for using 3rd level domains (instead of
SLDs) for registration.
Lastly, Warren Seltzer has developped the idea of a gTLD for people.


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The following is an excerpt of an application that had been prepared in
October 1996:

IGTECH strongly believes that in the years to come, there will be a demand for 
registration of individual domain names (in fact, this situation has already 
begun with family names being registered in the .COM top level domain).

To address this need, IGTECH (and CERTIX) have designed the .HOME architecture.
 
The .HOME naming scheme provides a scalable way to offer individuals a
personalized 
(provider independant) address, one they do not need to administer. 
At the present time, most individuals register under a provider’s domain name 
(or under their company’s name). 
They mainly get a Web address of the form: www.provider.net/~login, 
(or www.company.com/~login), and an e-mail address of the form:
login@provider.net 
(or login@company.com). 

Once they have started advertising their address among friends, relatives,
and on their 
visiting cards, they become dependent upon their provider. 
Besides, many links are becoming obsolete on the Web because some people
have just moved 
their existing pages to another provider or company. 
The creation of a new gTLD dedicated to individuals would be the one of the
ways to give search mechanisms more efficiency. 

The .HOME top level domain is designed for individuals. Companies are not
expected to register in it, although there will probably not be penalties
for using the .HOME space as an advertising space. 

People will register a fourth and third top level domain corresponding to
their first name and their family name, or corresponding to whatever alias
they choose at their own will. 
A complete URL under the .HOME iTLD is subdivided as is:

FIRST_NAME . FAMILY_NAME . CATEGORY . HOME

The e-mail address of Joe Smith, will be something of the form:
Joe@Smith.category.home.
His Web space will be: http://joe.smith.category.home.

 HOME: this represents the root of the .HOME top level domain space.

 CATEGORY: the category acts as a « buffer » between the domain space
assignated to individual users, and the .HOME iTLD. 
As a result of this buffering, the system is scalable, i.e. multiple
registries of the .HOME domain can easily be deployed all around the world,
and maintained independantly. 

Proposals for the creation of new CATEGORIES should be submitted by the
individuals themselves. 
It is very likely that a category corresponding to a common name in the
English language 
(or in any other language) will be accepted. 
If this is not the case, the creation of the category is subject to approval
by the registries themselves.
In particular, newly created categories should not refer to strongly
established trademarks: 
any user will not be allowed to register under the .IBM trademark without
strong reasons. 
However, should this situation happen, this will not be an issue: the .HOME
iTLD refers to individuals and has nothing to do with businesses or trademarks. 

This policy implies that if a user has a strong reason for registering his
name under a category called subway, (for example) then it should be allowed
to do so, even though Subway is the name of a restaurant franchise.
The term « strong reason » is a subjective one. The local registry should
judge in last resort.

At the present time, the only suggested category is a randomly generated
three digits number from 001 to 999.
Numbers will be allocated so that distinct users with the same name first
name and family name will be able to register. 
User Steve Jackson in England will be able to register under
Steve.Jackson.XXX.home. 
User Steve Jackson in United States will get the chance to register under
Steve.Jackson.YYY.home. 
One of the multiple advantages of the random number is that it gives a fair
chance to all
users regardless of whether they arrived first or not.

In the following, we will assume the CATEGORY to be a RANDOM NUMBER.
Users will be remembered via their handle ( the RANDOM NUMBER), in about the
same way 
as their NIC handle. 

FAMILY_NAME: this will get allocated by IGTECH (and all registries that are
in charge of the naming process). Individual users will not get control of it. 
Instead, they will declare their intention to register a specific FIRST_NAME
name under a 
specific FAMILY_NAME.
If this name does not already exist, it will be created, and administered
for the user.

FIRST_NAME: this is a fourth level domain, subject to registration by
individual users.

Users will be asked to deliver a proof of their identity to register their
domain name 
and family name ( a valid ID card or driver’s license should be enough in
many areas). 
It will be possible for a slightly higher price (not more than $10/year
higher) to register
under a FAMILY_NAME that does not correspond to the user’s family name. 

In fact, individual users will be given the choice:
1. They may be registering under their name, in which case they can pay
normal price 
just by sending a proof of their identity along with their registration request.
If they want to avoid the burden of sending their identity proof, they can
register at higher price.
2. They may be registering under another name than their’s ( for example
registering for an alias) at premium price. 

In order to fight domain name speculation, no single user or entity will be
allowed to register more than 10 times under different domain names. 

Also to prevent from such abuses as (for example) revisionism or racism,
IGTECH reserves the right to refuse a specific request (FIRST_NAME, or
FAMILY_NAME) regardless of the otherwise valid aspects of the request. 
Likewise, in application of the general policies for all 3 iTLDs, IGTECH
reserves the right to suspend a domain name for obvious malicious use of
that name.

When registering a fourth and third level domain name, customers will have
to fill in a form. 
This form will ask the customer registering, to state that he (or she) will
not make use of that name in an insulting way to any persons that name (or
alias) might refer to.
This form will also ask about the nature of the domain, its geographical
scope, and all 
details that the customer wants everybody to know about. 
Lastly, the form will ask the name of the CATEGORY, under which the user
would want to 
register, as well as the reasons for this name.

The result of all forms for all FIRST_NAMEs and all RANDOM_NUMBERs under a
given FAMILY_NAME will be gathered in a specific Web site called
www.FAMILY_NAME.home 
( www is very unlikely to be a real first name in any language of the world, 
and should the situation occur, the person will be registerd under
www.family_name.category.home).

This way, when typing www.jackson.home, users will be assured that they can
get all the 
information for all registered FIRST_NAMEs whose FAMILY_NAME is Jackson 
(regardless of the RANDOM_NUMBER).
If an Internet user wants to know about his friend Andrew Jackson, he will
make a query to the Web site called www.jackson.home (we can expect that
tools will be created to automate the querying process), and he will get to
know that there are two registered Andrew Jackson over the world, one being
number 321 who just happens to be his friend ( 
The description about Andrew.jackson.321.home will let him know who this
person really is).
It should be noted that the architecture deployed for www.jackson.home calls
for a scalable management as well. This ensures that no company will act as
a monopolistic directory service.

Eventually, people will just have to remember the handle from these home
pages (or e-mail 
addresses or ay other services) they are referring to. 
If I don’t know about Steve Jackson (American) handle, I just have to look
at www.jackson.home. 
There, I will find information about other sites such as
jesse.jackson.xxx.home, as well as related sites like mickael.jackson5.zzz.home.
If I am such a fan of Mel Gibson that I want to write a page about him, and
Mel.Gibson.089.home as been registered by the Mel Gibson scottish fan club,
I can still get another number. There will still be space for Mel Gibson
himself.

The .HOME domain is a space for individuals, and as such it should not
contain any trademarks.
We are not suggesting that an individual cannot register a trademark, but in
most cases, 
active use of a trademark requires the creation of a company, which is not
compatible with registration within the .HOME domain.


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One last word about the two other proposed iTLDs:
.TECH was designed to compete with the .COM registry, operating in nearly
the same conditions (registrations under a first come first served basis).
At that time, we felt that the creation of "thematic iTLDs " would help people
find out what they want in an easier way (even though the DNS itself is not a
directory service).

.FRA was suggested after some French companies started complaining about the
French NIC policy which was judged to be too rigid.

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We welcome your comments, feedback on the .HOME policy for individual users.
If they are personal critics, mail them to me instead of the mailing-list.
I think we all feel the same: 
			the (constructive inputs)/(noise) has sometimes become very low
and it's getting harder to read all the mails.


Best regards,

For IGTECH,

Gilles LERAT








IGTECH
75, rue de l'Ourcq
F-75019 PARIS, FRANCE
Phone: 01 40 34 43 57
Fax: 01 40 37 90 89