[IP] Signposts in Cyberspace -- An NRC Report on the DNS and Internet Navigation
Begin forwarded message:
From: RLevien@xxxxxxx
Date: July 7, 2005 5:02:26 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Signposts in Cyberspace -- An NRC Report on the DNS and
Internet Navigation
Dave,
In light of the recent decision by the United States government to
"maintain its historic role in authorizing changes or modifications
to the authoritative root zone file" and ICANN's recent decisions to
add more gTLDs (including .xxx), and to renew VeriSign as the .net
registry, IPers may be interested in the just-published report of the
National Research Council's Computer Science and Telecommunications
Board -- Signposts in Cyberspace: The Domain Name System and Internet
Navigation.- which is available as a free PDF at http://books.nap.edu/
catalog/11258.html, where a printed version can also be ordered.
"Signposts in Cyberspace" is a comprehensive policy-oriented
examination of the Domain Name System in the broader context of
Internet navigation. It is addressed to policy communities in the
United States, other nations, and international agencies, whose
decisions will affect the DNS' future. The report contains a careful
description of the development, current state, and future prospects
of the technical system of the DNS and a complementary description of
the development, current state, and policy issues of the framework of
autonomous institutions that operate, administer, and set policy for it.
The policy topics that are addressed are: governance of the DNS,
management of the DNS, oversight and operation of the root name
servers, regulation of generic top-level domains (gTLDs), oversight
of country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs), resolution of conflicts
over domain names, and provision and protection of Whois data. Each
of these issues is examined together with the principal alternatives
that have been proposed to address it. The committee's conclusions
and recommendations about each issue are presented. They represent
the consensus of fifteen highly diverse committee members -- informed
by the comments of 25 reviewers.
The descriptions in Chapters 2 and 3 of the evolution and current
state of DNS governance and in Chapter 5 of the related policy topics
provide a solid background for the consideration of the US
government's policy statement. The descriptions in the same chapters
of gTLD selection should serve a similar role for consideration of
ICANN's gTLD decisions.
For example, on the subject of DNS governance, the report describes
the evolution of the stewardship role of the Department of Commerce
and identifies and evaluates the alternative institutions that could
assume that role -- an international agency, an internationally
treaty organization, or a non-governmental organization, such as
ICANN. It concludes that of the options, the transfer to ICANN of
the stewardship role was the most realistic one currently on the
table, but that before making such a transfer, Commerce should seek
means to protect ICANN from undue political and commercial pressures
and to provide some form of oversight of its performance. As we have
just seen, Commerce has opted not to make the transfer at all -- at
least for now.
Chapter 4 on technology prospects for the DNS covers security and
stability, as well as the internationalization of domain names, the
linkage of the telephone addressing and DNS systems, and VeriSign's
SiteFinder service.
The broader context of Internet Navigation is addressed in Chapters
6, 7, and 8, which describe the evolution, current state, selected
technology prospects, and policy issues concerning Internet
navigational aids and services.
In addition to its target audience of policy makers, this report
should help those concerned with Internet technology to appreciate
the complex institutional framework within which the DNS operates and
those concerned with its institutions to understand better the
elegant architecture and operation of its technical system. It could
also serve as a source book for courses in technology,
telecommunications, and Internet policy.
Roger Levien,
Chairman of the NRC Committee on Internet Navigation and the Domain
Name System
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