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Netizens-Digest Volume 1 Number 236
Netizens-Digest Friday, January 1 1999 Volume 01 : Number 236
Netizens Association Discussion List Digest
In this issue:
[netz] NSF audit of NSI
[netz] A vision for the future for the Internet circa 1970 :-)
[netz] Euro Net Users: Aux Barricades!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1998 16:44:35 -0800 (PST)
From: Greg Skinner <gds@best.com>
Subject: [netz] NSF audit of NSI
This also comes from the domain-policy archives, at
ftp://internic.net/archives/domain-policy/
Date: Tue, 19 Sep 1995 22:24:50 -0700
Received: from zephyr.isi.edu (zephyr.isi.edu [128.9.160.160]) by ops.internic.net (8.6.12/InterNIC-RS) with SMTP id BAA09588; Wed, 20 Sep 1995 01:19:10 -0400
Received: by zephyr.isi.edu (5.65c/5.61+local-17)
id <AA07879>; Tue, 19 Sep 1995 22:24:50 -0700
From: postel@ISI.EDU (Jon Postel)
Message-Id: <199509200524.AA07879@zephyr.isi.edu>
To: hal9001@panix.com
Subject: re: The ONU should manage the namespace
Cc: rs-talk@internic.net, domain-policy@internic.net, iana@ISI.EDU
Status: RO
- ----- Begin Included Message -----
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 1995 23:12:18 -0400 (EDT)
Sender: ietf-request@IETF.CNRI.Reston.VA.US
From: Gordon Cook <gcook@tigger.jvnc.net>
Reply-To: cook@cookreport.com
To: com-priv@psi.com, ietf@CNRI.Reston.VA.US, inet-access@earth.com
Subject: the findings of NSF revue panel on NSI's handling of domain names and other tasks
Here is the portion of the NSF revue panel for the Internic. this dates
from last winter. Lest you be tempted to say that this review panel is
just callled together to rubber stamp the good work of what NSF has
funded bear in mind that this very panel found general atomics
effectively in default on its portion of the internic agreement and
defunded it.
the URL where the complete text maybe found is:
gopher://ds.internic.net:70/00/nsf/cise/dncri/infrastructure/report.txt
6.2 Evaluation and Recommendations
The panel congratulates Network Solutions Inc. (NSI) for their
excellent work on providing registration services to the Internet
community. The RS portion of the InterNIC project has responded
well to the demands of the rapid growth of the Internet. NSI has
directly facilitated Internet growth by effective allocation and
administration of Internet names and addresses.
NSI has responded to the exponential growth of the Internet by
applying new approaches in the performance of their RS duties.
In their role of overall administration of the IP name and
address spaces, NSI has been responsible for the delegation of
28
management of the IPv4 address space and country-based name
spaces (e.g., .FR, .UK, .JP, etc.). During NSI's tenure in
operating RS functions, the Internet has shifted from centralized
management of these functions to a distributed model of
management and administration. This transition has gone very
well, thanks in part to NSI and in part to the organizations that
have stepped up to build this Internet infrastructure.
The WHOIS database of network administrators has gotten to the
point that a single centralized flat database is inappropriate.
NSI has developed RWHOIS as a simple protocol to facilitate
building a distributed database in place of the original WHOIS.
It appears that the network operations community is picking up
RWHOIS until a more general solution to Internet white pages
becomes available.
The panel observes that NSI will not be able to keep up with the
overall load generated by the continued exponential growth of the
Internet. NSI is encouraged to look for additional avenues for
applying technology to solving some of their growth problems.
Many of the tasks NSI performs currently have work steps that
require human processing. The panel believes that NSI should
continue to press to make these steps more dependent on computer
processes if at all possible. The panel also recommends that the
NSF support those efforts, and also be prepared to allocate more
resources to NSI to help them meet their increasing work load.
It is clear from the materials presented by NSI that a primary
culprit in the RS work load is the .COM domain. The current
management of .COM is not scalable since .COM is a flat domain
name space, and thus the load of administering .COM falls solely
on NSI. At present, the management of .COM is paid for by the
NSF, and hence increasing demand for .COM registrations will
require increasing support from the NSF. The panel recommends
that NSI begin charging for .COM domain name registrations, and
later charge for name registrations in all domains. Over the
long run, the panel recommends that NSI charge for all IP
registration services.
During panel discussions a consensus emerged on a possible
charging model that requests an initial fee for registering a
name, and a recurring annual fee for subsequent administration of
the name space, to cover costs due to updating entries, ensuring
uniqueness of names in the name space, operation of root name
servers, etc. It was noted that the charge for initial
registration and recurring fees did not logically have to be the
same amount. However, charging the same amount would allow NSI
to state that everyone, including those who already have Internet
29
domain names, will have to pay the same amount within the initial
12 months and this might prevent a last minute, ``get them while
they are free'' rush on domain names. NSI should consult with
the NSF in the development of such a policy. The NSF needs to
plan mechanisms for defraying the costs for institutions, such as
U.S. R&E sites that would fall under the .EDU domain, that may
not be able to bear the new charges directly. In the ideal
scenario, any new plans should be in the direction of a fee to
the end user of a name, and thus would facilitate the NSF's
getting out of the name registration business.
During the review, NSI discussed their encounters with the legal
issues that have arisen in their management of the .COM domain.
It appears that companies are considering pressing their trade
and service mark claims into registration of similar names in the
.COM domain. The panel was disturbed to hear that the NSF and/or
the U.S. government does not provide a legal umbrella under which
NSI can manage the Internet domain name space. The panel
encourages the NSF to support NSI on legal and policy-related
issues that stem from management of the domain name space, and
also recommends that NSI and the NSF work to place the operation
of the domain name system into a framework that provides suitable
legal protection of the registration function. NSI should work
in a leadership role in the development of such a policy.
The panel recognizes NSI's success in fostering the
internationalization of the RS functions to date. Many of the
policy directions the panel is recommending, such as fee for
service for name registration and an operational legal framework,
will require an international framework if these policies are to
be successful. NSI is encouraged to work within the Internet
community to foster the development of the necessary
international frameworks.
The panel would also like to congratulate Jon Postel and ISI on
their work in developing the administration of the .US domain as
a subaward under the RS InterNIC award. In particular, ISI has
developed informational materials on the .US domain that will
help the future deployment of zones within the .US domain. The
panel encourages ISI to continue to work on scaling the .US
domain so that the U.S. Internet community does not have to
revisit the problems exemplified by the current morass in the
.COM domain.
********************************************************************
Gordon Cook, Editor & Publisher Subscript.: Individ-ascii $85
The COOK Report on Internet Non Profit. $150
431 Greenway Ave, Ewing, NJ 08618 Small Corp & Gov't $200
(609) 882-2572 Corporate $350
Internet: cook@cookreport.com Corporate. Site Lic $650
http://www.netaxs.com/~cook <- Subscription Info & COOK Report Index
********************************************************************
- ----- End Included Message -----
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1998 16:01:02 -0500 (EST)
From: Ronda Hauben <ronda@panix.com>
Subject: [netz] A vision for the future for the Internet circa 1970 :-)
Some thoughts for the new year that I welcome comments on.
I have been reading a book of the conference proceedings of AFIPS in
1970 about the Information Utility and Social Choice.
The conference had a keynote by J.C.R. Licklider and talks by a
number of other people including Harold Sackman, Irving S. Beglesdorf,
Harold Borko, etc.
I have been impressed to see the fact that there seems to have
been a vision of how there would develop a network of networks
either for increasing democratic participation by citizens in their
societies and for increasing communication and interaction or for
hoarding knowledge and toward creating totalitarian
control.
And that it would have to be administered in the same way that
the development of the network had been created, i.e. through
the experimental processes guided by computer science methodology
and by a social vision and practice.
For example J.C.R. Licklider recognized that there there
would be a point reached where there was a switch that could
go in either a social direction whereby the developing network
would be directed toward fostering human-to-human communication
and toward people being encouraged to interact with computers
and information, or a downward direction where the network
would encourage people to be passive and to just be the passive
recipients of data from the developing network.
Harold Borko urged that as "as scientists and as human beings
we have the responsibility for guiding the products of our science
in socially desirable directions." And he urged that the computer
utility that was being developed be an instrument for sharing
scientific achievements and improved democratic participation,
rather than for hoarding knowledge or toward creating totalitarian
control.
H. Sackman proposed that "no one has faced up to the problem of
social information on a regulated public utility." He maintained
that manufacturers and the industry didn't have any guidance
as to "what the public wants nor what the public needs." And
that "if immediate profits are the supreme end of all social
planning because no other serious contenders arise, then the
information utility could end up as the most barren wasteland
of them all."
Instead he proposed that computers were revolutionizing science,
particularly the method and findings of science.
He proposed "That suggested resolution looks toward an
evolving universalization of science, nourished by global
information utilities within a framework of increasing
international cooperation."
He urged that the public interest be kept in mind as there
be an effort to figure out how to provide the kind of
scientific oversight to the developing computer information
utility. He proposed utilizing scientific design and test
methodologies to do this, much as the work in developing
computer technology utilized these scientific processes.
These are just short notes about three of the talks at this
interesting conference that took place in 1970, just as
the research on the ARPANET was in its earliest days.
And yet there was a vision that a network of networks would
develop and that there would be a need to apply the same
kind of scientific methodology that was used to create
the network to its development and toward having it serve
people's needs and interests.
There seemed a commitment to expanding communication among
people and interactive participation of people rather than
to creating passive processes that would mimic the worst
of the old world.
I wondered if anyone has an idea of what has happened to
this vision and this commitment?
The recent events in the U.S. to privatize various aspects
of the Internet show no understanding of this social vision
or of the commitment to applying scientific processes to
the development of the future computer utility, which we today
call the Internet.
Has this vision gotten lost?
I was surprised to find it expressed so strongly in the presentations
of several of the participants in this 1970 conference.
Is there a way to bring this vision and the methodology back into
the heart of the development of the network of networks?
If so, perhaps there is a way that can be found for the plans
by the U.S. govt to change the management structure of the essential
functions of the Internet to reflect something that is scientific,
based on increasing communication, and in spreading the Internet,
rather than the legalistic, secretive and exclusive view of turning
the Internet into a commercenet that currently is governing the
way that the ICANN folks and those who seem to be designing its
structure are functioning.
We are entering a new year, and a year that is the prelude to
welcoming in of a new millenium. It is important that we take the
future seriously and try to figure out how to make it one we
choose rather than one that is given to us by those who have
no vision and no concern the advantages that increased
communication among those around the world will bring to all
aspects of society.
Comments, disagreements, and any other variety of response welcome
to help to properly celebrate the coming of a new year
on the Internet :-)
Ronda
ronda@panix.com
P.S. The book is "The Information Utility and Social Choice",
papers prepared for a conference sponsored jointly by
The University of Chicago, Encyclopedia Britannica and
The American Federation of Information Processing Societies.
It is edited by H. Sackman and Norman Nie.
Netizens: On the History and Impact
of Usenet and the Internet
http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/netbook
also in print edition ISBN 0-8186-7706-6
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 01 Jan 1999 13:24:02
From: John Walker <jwalker@networx.on.ca>
Subject: [netz] Euro Net Users: Aux Barricades!
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Euro Net Users: Aux Barricades!
by Heather McCabe
12:00 p.m. 29.Dec.98.PST
http://www.wired.com/news/news/business/story/17067.html
PARIS -- European Internet users, fed up with exorbitant local phone
rates, have launched a widespread civil unrest movement against
their telephone companies. Their complaints are legitimate, at least
when they compare themselves to Americans. Some Europeans pay as much
as three times what an American pays for a minute of local calling.
Not only are fewer people online in Europe than in the United
States, but electronic commerce has been slow to take off,
frustrating the efforts of indigenous would-be Amazon.coms.
Spain was the first country to organize an online "strike," which
was held in September. Webmasters replaced their sites with a logo
explaining their cause, and surfers abstained for 24 hours.
Telefónica, seeing its earnings for the day drop, proposed lower
rates.
Italy followed suit in October with a different sort of call to
action. Instead of abstaining from the Net, users connected en masse
to Telecom Italia's Web site, spiking traffic at the company's
servers. The protest tactic worked. Telecom Italia promised to offer
a discount for frequent callers.
The uprisings have now spread to virtually every European country.
Internet users in Germany, Great Britain, Switzerland, the Czech
Republic, and Poland all have hosted similar boycotts, hoping to see
the results on their next phone bills.
"We're entering the information age," said Bob Metcalfe, inventor of
Ethernet and founder of 3Com. "A major factor of this age is
bandwidth. If countries leave bandwidth in the hands of monopolies,
they will lose out on the information age. They will be relegated to
the dust heap of history."
That was the conclusion of a report recently released by Ireland's
Advisory Committee on Telecommunications. The study, authored by
Irish and American experts, said that "flat rate" phone access would
place Ireland in a position to challenge the United States in
e-commerce.
France was the latest country in Europe to organize a strike to
demand lower local call fares and ultimately flat rate service. On 13
December, Internet users abstained from the Net to protest France
Télécom's tariffs -- approximately US$3 an hour during the day and
$1 an hour at night.
According to Worldnet, a French Internet service provider, the
strike had clear results. Their numbers show that at midday only 50
percent of their habitual users were online. Worldnet counts 50,000
clients.
"For a long time, our members have complained about France Télécom's
rates. They find it abnormal to pay on average double the 99 franc
(US$18) subscription for Worldnet every month just for local calls,"
said Sébastien Socchard, chief executive of Worldnet.
The strike also got the attention of the French government, which up
until now has been silent about France Télécom's virtual monopoly on
local calls. Laurent Fabius, president of the National Assembly,
last week voiced his wishes to see reduction of fees for connections
to the Internet.
France Télécom had little comment on the strike. The company is
considering extending the hours of its 50 percent discount rate for
Net users to 7 p.m. instead of 10 p.m., a spokesman said.
But this is a drop in the bucket compared to the wishes of the
Association of Malcontent Web Surfers, the muscle behind the French
strike. The organization would like to see reductions during the
day, lower costs at night, and eventually a blanket fee for unlimited
calling, similar to the US system.
"We've held talks with France Télécom and ART, the
telecommunications regulation authority, but they don't want to lower
the fares. We are planning to take our cause to the parliament," said
Serge Romans, spokesman for the group.
Apart from Spain and Italy, Europe's phone companies aren't giving
in easy. Deutsche Telekom AG also was nonplussed by the German strike
on 1 November.
"Afterward, we thought the strike was a flop. On the day of the
strike there was normal traffic," said spokesman Joerg Lammers.
Deutsche Telekom has no plans to lower its rates, which like France
run about $3 an hour during the day and $1 at night.
The group of young Net users who organized the strike, Dark Breed,
is demanding a special internet tariff of 1 deutschemark, or $1.70
per hour, and a ceiling of 100 DM for users who spend more than 100
hours online.
Thomas von Treichels, the leader of Dark Breed, said he pays 150 DM,
or about $90 a month, in local phone calls for access to the
Internet. "Compared to other users, this is low," he said. "There are
people who pay 400 to 500 DM every month."
Links:
http://www.gamespy.de/internetstreik/
http://www.illuminati.ch/main.html
http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/16331.html
http://www.altern.org/adim/accueil.htm
http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/15965.html
- --------------
Also in this issue:
- - New Year May Effect Medical Devices
WASHINGTON (AP) _ The government is warning hospitals, emergency
personnel and health care practitioners that the kind of computer
date bugs expected to produce problems on Jan. 1, 2000, could affect
two products a year early.
- - Not Much Free On The Internet
When you're discussing the Internet, it's not popular to maintain
that little or nothing is free. Nonetheless, it's true--especially in
the case of Web-based services. Although many companies don't charge
customers for such services, they must spend money to give these
services away. Thus, if such companies are to succeed, they have to
figure out how to recover the money spent.
- - The new year should bring a faster and busier Internet
Close your eyes for a moment and picture where the Internet will go
in 1999. Will there be faster access or traffic jams? More online
stores or security scares? Will a TV network buy your favorite Web
site or vice versa?
- - What's Coming in 1999?
On tap: Portal hysteria, Internet bottlenecks and really, really
cheap PCs.
- - Quotes We'd Like to See in 1999
You'll get them here first. On second thought, you won't get them at
all.
- - Crackers Set Sights on Iraq
A global group of 24 hackers and crackers spent Monday night
probing, mapping, and preparing to attack computer networks owned by
the government of Iraq.
- - Euro Net Users: Aux Barricades!
PARIS -- European Internet users, fed up with exorbitant local phone
rates, have launched a widespread civil unrest movement against
their telephone companies. Their complaints are legitimate, at least
when they compare themselves to Americans. Some Europeans pay as much
as three times what an American pays for a minute of local calling.
- - Survey puts Internet holiday shopping at $5 bln
WESTPORT, Conn., Dec. 28 (Reuters) - Holiday shopping on the
Internet nearly quadrupled this year to over $5 billion, a new survey
showed on Monday in an illustration of the explosive demand from
American consumers to buy products online.
- - Consumers to go 'tech' in 1999
PC-like products are set to take over the home in 1999.
- - New Lists and Journals
1) Coastal Engineering Journal
2) Crop Production (USDA)
3) Crop Production Manager
4) Cultural Entomology Digest
5) e-Business Advisor Magazine
6) Earth Negotiations Bulletin
7) Egg Products (USDA)
8) Grain Stocks (USDA)
9) Poultry Slaughter (USDA)
10) Rice Stocks (USDA)
11) Vegetables (USDA)
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End of Netizens-Digest V1 #236
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