Should There be More Than One Wide Web?

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This entry was posted on 1/22/2006 10:28 AM and is filed under Internet.

There are activiites in Europe, the Middle East and Far East that are likely to create Internet locations independent of what we know as the World Wide Web (WWW).  In addition, there is an effort in Europe to create a unique network of root servers independent of those supporting the WWW called the European Open Root Server Network (ORSN).

I have changed my gateway router's primary DNS setting to the ORSN server and have seen great improvement on my Internet performance.  One provider of WWW root servers (the F Group) has linked to ORSN.  A blog entry explains why (http://fm.vix.com/internet/governance/orsn-participation.html).

While I am concerned about the activities in the Middle and Far East, I understand and support the ORSN project.
 

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    • 1/22/2006 7:30 PM Anton Aylward wrote:
      IIR there was a previous attempt at an alternative name service ... out of Chicago if my memory serves correctly.

      The intransigence of ICANN over TLDs reflects poorly on it. Caving in to the Christian Right over ".xxx" is just plain STUPID. Categorization like this will help filtering and net-nanny systems!

      Other TLDs that have been rejected would have appealed to the commercial side - .PLC, .INC and the like. There are many others that make a great deal of sense but the process ICANN has does not permit their easy emergence. In fact the scheme to "bid" for suffixes leads me to agree with Paul Vixie on the fear of a VC/BigMoney-driven result, which is
      every bit as horrific as a government driven one and only a little less frightening than total fragmentation or a UN 'paralysis by red tape'.

      Yes I know about AlterNic, eDNS and others. Some TLD were silly, some made sense. The trouble is that because these people were mavericks, their ideas were discarded whether they made sense or not.

      My opinion of these, now discontinued, TLDs:

      Good:
      o .med -- where it doesn't conflict with .com/.biz/.inc/.ltd/.plc
      o .noc -- network operations center
      o .xxx --
      o .fam -- For and about Family, but may conflict or alias with ...
      o .k12 -- For and about Kids
      o .npo -- Non-profit organizations
      o .per -- Personal Domain Name services
      o .bio -- but you better make it clear with its for
      o .lib -- libraries or pure information servers where not in conflict with .com/.biz/.inc/.ltd/.plc

      Bad:
      o .web -- Web-based sites (ie: web pages) The height of stupidity!
      o .job -- How is this different from companies that run placement services?
      o .porn -- stick to TLA except for countries
      o .glue -- root server administration
      o .indy -- independent news, not the music, not the racing cars
      o .geek -- anything geeky
      o .null -- miscellaneous non-commercial individual sites
      o .oss -- Open Source Software, which leads to .css ....
      o .parody -- parodies
      o .fur -- if we let this in the door then the rest of fandom follows
      o .corp -- see my other notes on .plc, .ltd, .inc etc
      o .per -- Personal Domain Name services
      o .gay -- and every other special interest groups
      o .pol -- Related to Poland and Polish organizations. What's wrong with country TLDs?
      o .etc -- I suppose that is anything you can't categorize
      o .men -- and .wom and .kid and .doc and .cat and .polarbear ...
      o .not -- Not what?
      o .shop --
      o .travel -- conflicts with ICANN-sanctioned TLD
      o .tech --
      o .kids -- and .kittens and .puppies and .piglets ...
      o .church --
      o .game --
      o .mp3 -- and .mp4 and .vid and .mov and .....
      o .club -- and .assoc
      o .law -- but only if its not a business in which case it should be .com or .plc or .inc or .ltd. Hey, what about .llb? And what about partnerships in general?
      o .family --
      o .sport --
      o .love
      o .thanks
      o .joy
      o .peace
      o .patience
      o .kind / .kindness
      o .gentle
      o .faith
      o .self
      o .zen -- since zen isn't a religion or church ...
      o .spirit
      o .wise  -- but nor .stupid
      o .truth -- but not .false

      Yes, all of those have been proposed or operated by alternate DNS services!

      Personally I think that the .EDU and .MIL need to be decoupled from the USA, but I don't suppose ICANN is interested there as well.

      I appreciate the "gaps" in culture and "language", but many of the forces trying to wrest control away form the USA have another agenda - they want to censor the net as a whole.  Some of the countries screaming about this are totalitarian dictatorships.  Others lack the singe ego of a dictator but none the less have repressive policy over freedom of
      communication and expression.

      In many ways the Internet is going in the opposite direction to the telephone system.  Theodore Vail pulled together all the small companies that were operating separate 'networks' that couldn't communicate with each other.


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