TLD Nominations

[Jim Fleming <JimFleming@doorstep.unety.net>]

One of the functions of the Root Name Server Confederation
community should be to provide input (advice?) to the various
government leaders and Internet leaders on the state of
development of various TLD registries and registrars. The U.S.
Government has recently announced that they will be allowing
5 (five) new TLDs to be added to the U.S. Government controlled
legacy Root Name Servers.

Because the Internet is a distributed organism, with a complex
collection of networks, services, companies and people, it seems
unlikely that any government agency will be able to fully evaluate
the state of new and aspiring Registries and Registrars without
some input from the Registry Industry.

As a service to the Registry Industry and the Internet community
in general, IPv8 supporters spend a fair amount of time and money
tracking and evaluating the emerging Registry Industry. One could
think of this as a D&B of the Registry Industry, or a "Who's Who".
In my opinion, this information might be helpful to the U.S. Government
in their quest to select the 5 TLD Registries that are ready to enter
the legacy Internet Root Name Servers.

People might be surprised to find that the list is quite short. If the
U.S. Government opened the legacy root tomorrow, there would not
likely be a mad rush of applicants that come any where near the
requirements for a serious Registry operation. Not even CORE, with
its million dollar backing and 80+ registrars has shown any operational
testing or competancy in the non-legacy Root Name Servers where
TLDs can be tested before introduction to the U.S. Government
controlled legacy Root Name Servers.

If this were the Olympics, I suppose that people would now be
watching as the 7 "runners" below all get ready to run the 100 meter
dash. In my opinion, these are the only contestants that are
ready and only 5 will make it to the final heat.

	.WEB - Chris Ambler - cambler@iodesign.com - USA
	.CORP (or .BIZ) - Karl Denninger - karl@mcs.net - USA
	.ARTS - Marc Hurst - mhurst@fastlane.ca - Canada
	.AURSC - Adam Todd - at@ah.net - Australia
	.XXX - Eugene Kashpureff - ekashp@httpd.com - USA
	.??? (CORE Selected) - ??? - Switzerland
	.PER - Jay Fenello - jay@iperdome.com - USA

If other people feel that other countries or companies have
a TLD registry ready to enter the U.S. Government's legacy Root
Name Servers, in my opinion those companies should begin
to showcase their plans and capabilities. Just as with the
Olympics, you can not expect to be allowed on the track if
you have not had the years of training and commitment to the
event.

I predict that people will see how smoothly the new TLDs are
added and there will be more bake-offs that determine who is
worthy to be nominated and entered into the U.S. Government
controlled legacy Root Name Servers. As a community we all
have a responsibility to help develop the talented people and
companies and to get them on the track to success so that
they can compete and not be supressed from showing their
talents.


Jim Fleming
Unir Corporation
IBC, Tortola, BVI