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

[Chuck Gomes <cgomes@internic.net>]

NSF, NSI and AT&T continue to cooperate as a team.

Chuck

Jim Fleming wrote:
> 
> 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.''
> 
> @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
> 
> Jim Fleming
> Unir Corporation
> IBC, Tortola, BVI