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- Donald
Telege is Senior Vice
President and Director of
Network Solutions Inc. His
remarks were forwarded by
Susan Clark at
NSI.
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- Donald
Telage, Ph.D.
- Senior
Vice President
and Director
- Network
Solutions, Inc.
- Herndon,
Virginia
- mailto:dont@netsol.com
- c/o
Susan Clark:
- mailto:susanc@netsol.com
- (c)
1998 by Karl
Auerbach.
- Used
with permission.
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Network
Solutions, Inc. (NSI) manages the
essential infrastructure of the Internet
Domain Name System (DNS) in an agreement
with the National Science Foundation
(NSF).
NSI's duties
include: 1) management of Root Server
System (RSS) and the "A" root server, 2)
the addition of all new top level domains
(TLDs) on the Internet worldwide, 3) the
registration and management of all second
level domains (SLDs) in five TLDs ( .COM,
.NET, .ORG and .EDU), 4) the allocation
and management of all Internet Protocol
(IP) numbers in North and South America
and parts of Africa, and 5) provides a
rich information and education program for
both novice and experienced Internet
users.
All these
activities are funded by $35 from the
NSF
$50 annual user registration fee. The
remaining $15 is placed into a separate
fund to be used by the NSF in improving
the "intellectual infrastructure of the
Internet." NSI has performed this role
through
various competitively awarded US
government agreements since 1988.
Exponential
commercial growth began in early 1995
where the number of SLD name registrations
has grown from a few hundred per month to
about 125,000 per month. Commercial users
now dominate the Internet
and their needs are tremendously different
from the original Research and Education
(R&E) users. The
R&E community developed a method of
"governance" based on "rough consensus."
It did not have legitimate legal authority
for decision-making, but relied on the
"fathers of the Internet" to interpret
what is good for
the users.
With the
tremendous financial investments made by
the business community, and the natural
conflicts that arise in such situations,
there is reluctance by this new class of
users to accept the historical method of
governance. The Internet is in the process
of evolving its infrastructure, its
business models and its legal structures
to forms that are more stable and can
withstand the onslaught of litigation that
has hit the net in the last 30 months.
This litigation has ranged from disputes
over
trademark verses domain names to antitrust
suits involving NSI and the NSF.
The Internet is
currently a wild-west environment,
and there are numerous bitterly disputed
proposals for change. Unfortunately, no
proposal has the support of
a consensus of the stakeholders. NSI
believes that the best hope for consensus
and success rests with a US Government
(USG) sponsored process, working in
conjunction with a large group of major
commercial sector stakeholders. This
approach calls for a transition period
wherein a relatively small international
public advisory group, legitimized by the
USG, develops and implements proposals for
a secure infrastructure, more competitive
business models, and new legal solutions
for the Internet. There is no easy way to
avoid this maturing process. The Internet,
like all living and growing things, must
experience and survive its own painful
adolescence.
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