RE: Can NSI add new roots? (Was: Emergent Press Conference)

[Jim Fleming <JimFleming@doorstep.unety.net>]

Chuck Gomes[SMTP:cgomes@internic.net] wrote:
@I don't know if I would conclude that much from my note, but it is clear
@that the Cooperative Agreement incorporates by reference items from both
@the solicitation and NSI's proposal.
@
@Chuck
@

Chuck,

The Cooperative Agreement should incorporate all of the various
documents, from ALL of the parties that were supposed to be
cooperating. As clearly noted in those documents (see [1] below)
NSI (RS) was supposed to cooperate with AT&T (DS) and "provide
the information from these assignments" to be made available to
the entire Internet community. Has NSI "cooperated" in that manner.....?

============= See Below under RS ========
.``... [provide the information from these assignments] to the directory
and database services provider to be made available to the entire
Internet community.''
=======================================

Also, out of curiousity, why have you recently started to
appear in the Domain Name List discussions ? NSI has been
absent from almost all public debates on these matters.
What has changed in the past month ?

Jim Fleming


=============================================

As a refresher on the "Cooperative"....NSI was supposed
to cooperate with AT&T and General Atomics. It was a classic
"three-legged-stool" arrangement. That did not happen and
General Atomics was "defunded". This left a "two-legged" stool.
Now it appears that there will soon be a "one-legged" stool
although the AT&T contract lasts longer than NSI's contract.
By all rights, AT&T should inherit the InterNIC more than NSI.
AT&T also has the trademark on the name "InterNIC".

	NSF
		IS - General Atomics
		DS - AT&T
		RS - Network Solutions, Inc.

Anyone that has studied the IS, DS, RS structure and the
Cooperative Agreements will know that the RS role was
not nearly as large as NSI has now made it and the other
two companies (General Atomics and AT&T) were supposed
to be more involved. The NSF removed funding from GA and
gave more funding to NSI essentially shifting the balance
of power to NSI. As clearly spelled out below, "GA had agreed
to coordinate activities among the InterNIC partners.". The
IS role was absorbed when GA, NSI and AT&T failed to
"cooperate" and the NSF was unable to manage what some
described back then as a large project, even though it was
not that large.

=========

[1] @@@@@ http://www.rs.internic.net/nsf/review/section2.html

2.3 Capsule Summary of Awardees' Agreed-Upon Services

In brief, the awardees under review agreed to provide
the following services in their negotiated cooperative agreements: 

.American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) Company provides the DS portion of the award.
.General Atomics (GA) provides the IS portion of the award.
.Network Solutions, Inc. (NSI) provides the RS portion of the award. 

Together, these three awardees adopted the name ``InterNIC''.
Below we provide excerpts from a press release issued jointly
by the InterNIC awardees in January 1993, primarily to provide
the reader a brief sense of the InterNIC's goals. A complete list
of goals is listed in the original proposal, available from the NSF.
In the remainder of this report we assume the reader has read the
proposal and hence is familiar with the services the InterNIC was
responsible for offering, and the motivations for these services. 

AT&T agreed to: 

.``... develop and maintain a Directory of Directories, 
including lists of FTP (File Transfer Protocol) sites, lists of various
types of servers available on the Internet, lists of white and yellow
page directories, library catalogs and data archives.''
.``... provide white and yellow pages type Directory Services. Access
to these services will initially be provided through several currently
popular in-use interface methods while migrating to the use of X.500 technology...''
.``... [provide] database services, [including] the establishment of
Database Services to extend and supplement the resources of the
NSFNET, such as databases of contributed materials of common
interest to the user community.''
.``... offer database design, management, and maintenance to
institutions and groups for inclusion in the Internet.'' 

GA agreed to: 

.``...provide Information Services acting as the Network Information
Center (NIC) of first and last resort and the NIC of NICs.''
.``... include a full-service Reference Desk, a database of comprehensive
networking materials called the Info Source, training classes and
documentation, and coordination services among all appropriate groups
in the community.''
.``... [implement] several new approaches to distributing services
[including] NICLink, a user-friendly hypermedia interface offering
access to the Info Source and all the information it contains...
and the Info Scout, an individual who will scout out new resources and
innovative uses of the network for inclusion in the Info Source.'' 

In addition, although it was not included in the press release,
GA had agreed to coordinate activities among the InterNIC partners. 

NSI agreed to: 

.``... provide registration services as the IP registrar.''
.``issue IP numbers worldwide using delegated registries under the
guidance of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority.''
.``register domain names, and track points of contact.''
.``... [provide the information from these assignments] to the directory
and database services provider to be made available to the entire
Internet community.''
.``periodically release the top level zone files to be used
by all root Domain Name servers.'' 

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Jim Fleming
Unir Corporation
IBC, Tortola, BVI