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Netizens-Digest Volume 1 Number 235
Netizens-Digest Tuesday, December 29 1998 Volume 01 : Number 235
Netizens Association Discussion List Digest
In this issue:
[netz] Re: Representation in Cyberspace: Membership Study
[netz] Net Statistics from Bob Young in the UK
[netz] Why NSF decided to let NSI charge for domain name registrations
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Date: Sat, 26 Dec 1998 17:00:37 -0500
From: Mark Lindeman <mtl4@columbia.edu>
Subject: [netz] Re: Representation in Cyberspace: Membership Study
In partial response to Jamal, just so we're clear, I didn't actually
"cal[l] the direct approach (ie. participation) 'wrongheaded.'" I said,
"The idea of bringing a representative community together may well be
wrongheaded." In the first part of this, I was paraphrasing the Berkman
Center release that Kerry and Ronda were reacting to. But I think Jamal
basically read my gut feeling rightly. I'm not endorsing any particular
representative model, and I'm not disparaging direct participation. But it
seems to me that when institutional critics appeal to direct participation,
it sometimes serves to distract them from grappling with the real problems
of designing good decision-making institutions. The greatest participation
of the greatest number may be a design criterion (to weigh against others),
but it isn't a design!
Mark Lindeman
MTL4@columbia.edu
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1998 14:27:10 -0500 (EST)
From: Jay Hauben <jay@dorsai.org>
Subject: [netz] Net Statistics from Bob Young in the UK
Hi,
I saw this on the Universap Access - Canada list UA-C@CCEN.UCCB.NS.CA:
From: Jenna Seehafer <seehafer@csus.edu>- Forwarded message -
***********************************************
Some Interesting Internet Statistics
compiled by
Bob Young
The art of estimating how many are online throughout the world is an
inexact one at best. Surveys abound, using all sorts of measurement
parameters. However, from observing many of the published surveys over
the
last two years, here is an 'educated guess' as to how many are online
worldwide as of December 1998. And the number is 151 million.*
Net connected:
World Total 151 million
Africa 0.92 million
Asia/Pacific 25.57 million
Europe 32.38 million
Middle East 0.78 million
Canada & USA 87 million
South America 4.5 million
Expect a fourfold increase of online population by 2005
There are about 1.5 million web sites, consisting of over 320 million
pages
The net will eclipse newspapers as primary source of news by 2002
Amazon.com is the top shopping site
one in three Europeans homes online by 2003
about a million Russians are online
7 million online in the UK - growth higher than France or Germany
40% of UK net users log in at home
one in five uk people used net in 1998
one in three UK children have used the net
43% of British schools online
26% of adult Canadians online (6.3 million access it on a weekly basis)
39% of Canadians have used the net - up from 27% a year earlier
23% of Americans homes online by end of 1998
12% of Americans accessed the Starr Report
18% of Australian households online
1.2 million Chinese now online
9.4 Chinese will be online by 2002
12.1 million online in Japan
Internet Used in a Minority of US Classrooms:
44% of US college courses use email
Oct. 14 1998: While 85 percent of US public schools have
Internet access, only 14 percent say that teachers use the
Web as a teaching resource, according to a study by Market
Data Retrieval.
_________________________
* from the files of NUA
http://www.nua.ie/surveys/
http://www.nua.ie/surveys/how_many_online/index.html
__________________________________________
In making a personal reply, please put in Subject line: Message for Bob
Young
robert@rmy1.demon.co.uk or r.m.young@sheffield.ac.uk
Professor of Psychotherapy and Psychoanalytic Studies
Studies, University of Sheffield. http://www.shef.ac.uk/~psysc/
'One must imagine Sisyphus happy.' - Camus
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1998 16:42:36 -0800 (PST)
From: Greg Skinner <gds@best.com>
Subject: [netz] Why NSF decided to let NSI charge for domain name registrations
This comes from the domain-policy list. The full archive is at
ftp://internic.net/archives/domain-policy/
Date: Fri, 15 Sep 1995 10:33:31 -0400 (GMT-0400)
Received: (tomn@localhost) by rs.internic.net (8.6.11/InterNIC-RS) id KAA04496 for domain-policy@internic.net; Fri, 15 Sep 1995 10:33:31 -0400
From: Tom Newell <tomn>
Message-Id: <199509151433.KAA04496@rs.internic.net>
Subject: Information from InterNIC
To: domain-policy@internic.net
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24alpha4]
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Length: 17949
##### This message has been cross-posted to com-priv, inet-access, #####
##### and domain-policy. #####
In response to many of the questions directed at comments@internic.net, I
offer the following expanded version of Questions and Answers. I apologize
for the less than personal response to many of the queries but assumed some
response from a human was better than an automated response from a
machine (or no response at all). I will continue to answer directly, the
existing queue of messages.
An "html" version of this document will be posted later today. Look for it
at the URL:
http://rs.internic.net/announcements/index.html
- --Tom
- ----------
Tom Newell tomn@internic.net
NIC Liaison InterNIC Registration Services
###################### Document Follows ############################
1. Q. Why are you going to charge Internet users?
A. It's time for the Internet to move from taxpayer subsidies to user fees.
Until now, the National Science Foundation has subsidized the cost of domain
name registrations through a cooperative agreement with Network Solutions, Inc.
The Internet has had explosive growth -- there are now seven times more
requests for domain names than a year ago. The cost exceeds NSF's ability to
provide funding from taxpayers' money; therefore, fees will be imposed on all
users of the five top-level domains for which Network Solutions is responsible
(.com, .org., .net., .edu., and .gov).
The fees will apply ONLY to second-level domain name holders in the domain
for which Network Solutions serves as the registrar. The fees do not apply
to individual Internet users who get their network access from their
employeer or who purchase individual accounts from an Internet providers
such as CompuServe, Prodigy and America Online.
1.5 Q. Who put the National Science Foundation in charge of the Internet?
A. In 1991 the federal networking agencies asked the National Science
Foundation to assume responsibility for supporting the non-military Internet
registration services. In 1993, the NSF competitively awarded a cooperative
agreement to Network Solutions, Inc. The award solicitation and resulting
agreement considered the possibility that ultimately, Internet domain name
registration would move from subsidy to fee-for-service.
2. Q. How is this going to work?
A. Current domain name registrants will owe a $50 annual renewal fee on the
anniversary date of their registration. The registrant will be notified by
e-mail 60, 30 and 15 days before this fee is due.
New domain name registrants will pay $100 to register the first time, which
will cover a two-year period. Before the anniversary date of the second
year, they will receive the same renewal notifications that we've just
discussed.
3. Q. Why aren't you giving adequate advance notice?
A. The concept of user fees is not new. How and when to charge for domain
name registration has been discussed in the Internet community for more than
a year. Network Solutions has worked closely with the National Science
Foundation to determine the requirements and processes necessary to make
the transition to user fees. We believe the process is as fair as possible
for two reasons: first, existing domain name registrants will not be billed
until their anniversary date; second, Network Solutions will allow an initial
three-month grace period. The current NSF-NSI cooperative agreement extends
until 1998, which allows the Internet community to consider funding
alternatives.
4. Q. What do the domain name users think about this?
A. Many domain name applicants/holders previously have indicated they're
willing to pay a fee for better service, and there are many who understand
the need to make the Internet self-supporting. There are some who feel that
existing domain name users should be exempt from any fee and that fees should
only be charged to new domain name registrants. However, that would make
new registrants pay for maintaining the 110,000 domain names that already exist.
We don't think that's either fair or sustainable over the long run.
5. Q. What exactly is a domain name?
A. A domain name is a unique identifier which designates a specific computer
on the Internet. Organizations choose a domain name and then register that
name with the registrar who enters the name into the global domain name
system. Then any Internet user can use the domain name to communicate with
that organization over the Internet.
5.5 Q. Since the Domain Name Service links the names with the numbers user
for routing, wouldn't it be simpler to base the fees on the numbers?
A. Large blocks of number have been assigned to Internet service providers
and others for future use. These numbers reflect potential for future use
but not actual current use. It wold be difficult to base an equitable
funding solution on numbers since the names more accurately reflect actual
Internet use.
6. Q. What about the average Internet user?
A. While it is difficult to describe the "typical" Internet user, generally
speaking, they fall into three categories: there are large organizations and
corporations, which have a single, or relatively few, domain names. For those
users, the costs are insignificant. There are those who have Internet access
through on-line services such as America Online, Prodigy and Compuserve.
These services each have a single domain name for all the end users. That
means America Online will pay a single $50 fee annually, regardless of how
many subscribers the service has. The third group are small businesses and
individuals who have their own domain name. The fee amounts to less than $5
per month which is less than the cost of a single movie ticket.
7. Q. What is Network Solutions and why does this company get to charge for
the Internet?
A. Since March 1993, the National Science Foundation has funded the
administration of non-military Internet domain name registrations in the U.S.
through a cooperative agreement with Network Solutions. This agreement was
awarded after a free and open competition conducted by the National Science
Foundation in 1992. This agreement extends through 1998. The original
solicitation and the cooperative agreement considered the ultimate shift to
user fees for Internet registration. Obviously, the Internet is evolving,
and the next three years will give the NSF and the Internet community the
opportunity to consider financing alternatives.
7.5 Q. When NSF originally competed for the services now provided by NSI,
the NSF was paying..... The situation now has changed and there is a profit
to be made. Why not re-open the competition?
A The original competition solicitation that resulted in the Network
Solutions award considered that the move would be made to fee-for-service and
cost recovery from end-users. Network Solutions won that award competitively
and has performed very well. Since there has been no change in the scope of
the effort and the imposition of fee-for-service was included in the original
solicitation, no additional competition is necessary.
7.6 Q. Is there an NSF precedent for this?
A. There is precedent for the dramatic growth seen under this award in
almost all of the awards associated with the (earlier) NSFNET. There is
no precedent, however, for continued support by NSF for an activity now
primarily involving organizations and individuals outside the research
and education community. This is why user fees became necessary.
8. Q. How much profit is this going to generate beyond what's reinvested
in the Internet? What's your margin?
A. We don't know what our costs will be, since the growth in registrations
is so great, and this activity has never been privatized before. As a
tax-paying, for-profit corporation, we certainly hope that we have accurately
estimated our cost of performance, and that the fees will be sufficient to
cover those costs and provide us with a reasonable profit.
9. Q Exactly how will the fees be spent? What's the formula?
A. All fees received will be considered "program income" under he NSF General
Conditions of the cooperative agreement and must be shown as revenues and their
disposition accounted for. Seventy percent of the fees collected will be
retained by Network Solutions to cover operating costs and will be audited by
NSF. The remaining thirty percent will be spent, with guidance from an
advisory committee drawn from the Internet community, into the intellectual
infrastructure of the Internet and will be publicly accounted for.
9.5 Q. What is this "intellectual infrastructure?"
A. Conceptually, it's the framework which allows the hardware (circuits and
routers) of the Internet to operate. We haven't, as yet, identified all the
pieces. Some of the more obvious ones include the IANA (Internet Autonomous
Numbering Authority, which oversees the name and numbering schemes for the
Internet); an RFC (Request for Comments, the communally developed operational
policy documents for the Internet) Secretariat and the root domain servers.
These all need continued and enhanced financial support as the federal agencies
which have been providing their funding are confronted with a new commercial
Internet environment which continues to require these functions. Community
input is being sought to help identify other essential elements.
It could take six to nine months to establish the committee, have the
committee identify infrastructure requirements, establish priorities, and
implement the recommended actions.
10. Q. How fast will you be able to process domain names?
A. With regard to improvements, our first priority is to speed up domain name
registration time from five weeks to two days.
11. Q. How long will we have to wait for these improvements? When will the
domain name backlog be caught up?
We hope the domain name backlog will be eliminated by the end of October.
12. Q. What about .edu, .gov and .mil?
Consistent with its charter to support the higher education community, NSF
will continue to pay the fees associated with registration in the education
(.edu) domain. NSF will also pay, on an interim basis, the fees for the
government (.gov) until the federal agencies determine how the government
will pay for these domains in the future. The education and government
domain names, however, represent only 2.5 percent of the total domain names.
The military (.mil) registrants are supported by a separate registration
service for which the Department of Defense pays.
13. Q. Will this affect foreign registries? Are they already a revenue stream?
If not, why not?
A. The Internet is a global enterprise. Most "foreign" organizations are
registered under their two-letter "country code" (e.g., .HK for Hong Kong or
.FR for France). Authority for registration under these domains has been
delegated to foreign registration authorities closer to their respective areas.
14. Q. How many domain names are there? How many Internet users overall?
A. There are more than 110,000 domain names in the five top level domains
(.com, .edu, .net, .org., .gov) administered by NSI. It is impossible to
reliably estimate the total number of Internet users. There are over 84,500
registered networks, with more than 61,000 of these connected to the Internet.
These 61,000 networks comprise about 6.5 million computers, which may equal
up to 30 million or more users.
15. Q. What happens if someone's domain name registration lapses? How quickly
can that domain name be reissued? What happens if the original registrant
wants it back? What if there are extenuating circumstances? What happens
if someone's check bounces? What happens if somebody uses a false or stolen
credit card? Will you issue refunds for any reason?
A Each domain name registrant will receive three electronic notices that
their renewal is due on their anniversary date. If no payment is received by
the anniversary date, the domain name will be removed from the Internet
immediately. If no payment is received within 60 days, the name becomes
available on a first-come, first-served basis. In cases where there is a
problem such as a bad check or credit card, the name will be removed
immediately and held for 60 days before being available for reassignment.
Refunds will not be available.
16. Will NSI accept electronic payments?
A. NSI cannot accept electronic payments initially because of security
concerns. We are carefully considering it as one of the payment options, and
plan a phased introduction of electronic payments as part of the future
improvements.
17. Does this mean you will have to keep track of paper mail addresses?
A. Network Solutions can only provide electronic notices that the fee is due.
18. What happens after the agreement with NSF runs out?
A. NSF is encouraging discussions within the Internet community to answer
this longer-term question. We believe that organizations such as the IAB and
the ISOC and commercial providers as well as the more traditional Internet
research and education community must be involved in determining the answer.
19. Are any more fees anticipated? Do we have any guarantees that you won't
keep hiking fees? What guarantees are there that the money will really go
for Internet improvements?
A. No, we believe that the $50 amount should be adequate to cover reasonably
foreseeable contingencies. Any new fees or increase must be approved by NSF.
The priorities and funding for improvements will be determined by an advisory
committee, reviewed by the NSF, audited and publicly accounted for.
20. In terms of cutting registration time, does this simply mean hiring a few
more clerks? How much can that cost? Will your books be audited, and will you
disclose exactly what the revenues and expenses are?
A. While Network Solutions will need additional staff to complete
registrations, we are also investing in automating the process. The National
Science Foundation, while not providing the funding, will continue to provide
oversight NSF will approve an advisory committee from the Internet community to
review the fees and recommend appropriate expenditures.
All fees received will be considered program income under the NSF General
Conditions of the cooperative agreement and must be shown as revenues and
their disposition for related activities accounted for. Seventy percent of
the fees received will be retained by Network Solutions as consideration
for its services and will be audited by the NSF. The remaining 30 percent
will be spent, under guidance from the advisory committee, to support the
intellectual structure of the Internet and will be publicly accounted for.
21. Don't you really want the money to build a legal defense fund?
A. Until now, legal costs have been recoverable under the terms of the
cooperative agreement. Because legal costs are a reality of doing business
today, NSI has to factor reasonable legal expenses into its cost of doing
business.
22. How did you come up with $50?
A. We believe that the $50 fee is adequate to cover reasonably foreseeable
contingencies.
23. Q. What if someone can't afford the fee?
A. The fee amounts to less than $5 a month. We think this is a fair charge to
cover the cost of domain name services and represents a trivial cost compared
to the access and equipment expenses associated with maintaining an active
Internet presence.
24. Q. What other plans does NSI have to make money from its Internet monopoly?
What other surprises are in store?
A. Under the terms of our agreement, no changes of increases in fee can be
imposed without prior NSF approval. We believe that the $50 fee is adequate
to cover any reasonably foreseeable contingencies. For this reason, based on
present knowledge, we expect no additional fees.
25. Q. What has been the reaction so far? What do you think it will be?
A. It's premature to speculate, but in talking with long-term Internet users,
we find strong support for the user-fee concept because it will put the
Internet on a self-sustaining basis and fund improvements that tax revenues
could not support. The IEEE workshop in November 1994 and the InterNIC Review
Panel, which met in the fall of 1994, both endorsed the concept of user fees.
Gordon Cook, publisher of the Cook Report on the Internet, recently stated that
charging a small uniform fee should help preserve the independence of the IETF
(Internet Engineering Task Force).
26. Q. What happens to NSI if you don't follow through on improving the
registration process and whatever other unspecified improvements you've
promised?
A. NSI's Internet activities will be in part determined by input from the
Internet community. NSI will establish an electronic mail box for suggestions
and constructive criticism. Because the National Science Foundation and the
advisory panel will oversee NSI activities, we do not anticipate that
performance will be an issue. We fully expect NSI's performance will equal or
exceed the performance which was the subject of an InterNIC Review Panel
commendation in 1994.
27. Q. Do you think this will slow down the rate of Internet domain name
requests?
A. No, we don't believe this modest fee will have any impact at all. In
fact, we expect the number of Internet registrations to continue to climb
rapidly.
28. Q. Won't providers just pass this cost along to the little guy who uses
the Internet?
A. Considering that providers such as America Online, Prodigy, Compuserve, MCI
Sprint, Harvard, MIT, IBM, GE, etc. have a single domain name for all end
users, amortizing the $50 annual registration fee over the number of end users
should have a minuscule effect.
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End of Netizens-Digest V1 #235
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