Domain Rant.

Thu Mar 20 14:47:37 UTC 1997

On Wed, 19 Mar 1997, Sanjay Dani wrote:

> Inferencing the US govt. is out of the loop is a logical leap
> of faith. Tell me who owns the "." and why wouldn't the Feds
> of some denomination step in to "stabilize" the namespace.

Because "stepping in" often leads to more destabilization. Why didn't the
Feds of some denomination step in to stabilize Albania? Right now the
Internet industry, which includes the research institutions, is doing just
fine by itself. If it ain't broke why would governments want to fix it? In
the USA there is one person who has learned that lesson very well. Compare
Ira Magaziner's position on the Internet to his position on health care.

> In other words, why would they risk such a valuable resource,
> built in the past with US taxpayer money, walk away to a
> potentially non-US private enterprise or a consortium.

Because it has already happened several years ago and the end result was
an incredibly energetic new industry in which U.S. companies and U.S.
research institutions are playing a key role. Tight central control was
tried in the ex-SU and it didn't work.

Michael Dillon                   -               Internet & ISP Consulting
Memra Software Inc.              -                  Fax: +1-250-546-3049
http://www.memra.com             -               E-mail: michael at memra.com