[chapter-delegates] Explanation of the Domain Name System and the bodies that will affect its future

[Gene Gaines]

The press has put out considerable misinformation about the
recent U.S. Department of Commerce decision relating to DNS
and the authoritative root zone file.

I am aware that this list includes many experts, but I thought
those of us who are not experts about Internet naming and
addressing may be interested in this quite extensive document,
392 page new report.

Download the complete report free as a pdf, or view it as an
ebook online at:  http://books.nap.edu/catalog/11258.html



Courtesy of Dave Farber's IP list, a description of the rerport:

From: RLevien at aol.com
Date: July 7, 2005 5:02:26 PM EDT
To: dave at farber.net
Subject: Signposts in Cyberspace -- An NRC Report on the DNS and  
Internet Navigation

In light of the recent decision by the United States government to
"maintain its historic role in authorizing changes or modifications  
to the authoritative root zone file" and ICANN's recent decisions to  
add more gTLDs (including .xxx), and to renew VeriSign as the .net  
registry, IPers may be interested in the just-published report of the  
National Research Council's Computer Science and Telecommunications  
Board -- Signposts in Cyberspace: The Domain Name System and Internet  
Navigation.- which is available as a free PDF at http://books.nap.edu/ 
catalog/11258.html, where a printed version can also be ordered.

"Signposts in Cyberspace" is a comprehensive policy-oriented  
examination of the Domain Name System in the broader context of  
Internet navigation. It is addressed to policy communities in the  
United States, other nations, and international agencies, whose  
decisions will affect the DNS' future. The report contains a careful  
description of the development, current state, and future prospects  
of the technical system of the DNS and a complementary description of  
the development, current state, and policy issues of the framework of  
autonomous institutions that operate, administer, and set policy for it.

The policy topics that are addressed are:  governance of the DNS,  
management of the DNS, oversight and operation of the root name  
servers, regulation of generic top-level domains (gTLDs), oversight  
of country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs), resolution of conflicts  
over domain names, and provision and protection of Whois data. Each  
of these issues is examined together with the principal alternatives  
that have been proposed to address it. The committee's conclusions  
and recommendations about each issue are presented. They represent  
the consensus of fifteen highly diverse committee members -- informed  
by the comments of 25 reviewers.

The descriptions in Chapters 2 and 3 of the evolution and current  
state of DNS governance and in Chapter 5 of the related policy topics  
provide a solid background for the consideration of the US  
government's policy statement. The descriptions in the same chapters  
of gTLD selection should serve a similar role for consideration of  
ICANN's gTLD decisions.

For example, on the subject of DNS governance, the report describes  
the evolution of the stewardship role of the Department of Commerce  
and identifies and evaluates the alternative institutions that could  
assume that role -- an international agency, an internationally  
treaty organization, or a non-governmental organization, such as  
ICANN. It concludes that of the  options, the transfer to ICANN of  
the stewardship role was the most realistic one currently on the  
table, but that before making such a transfer, Commerce should seek  
means to protect ICANN from undue political and commercial pressures  
and to provide some form of oversight of its performance. As we have  
just seen, Commerce has opted not to make the transfer at all -- at  
least for now.

Chapter 4 on technology prospects for the DNS covers security and  
stability, as well as the internationalization of domain names, the  
linkage of the telephone addressing and DNS systems, and VeriSign's  
SiteFinder service.

The broader context of Internet Navigation is addressed in Chapters  
6, 7, and 8, which describe the evolution, current state, selected  
technology prospects, and policy issues concerning Internet  
navigational aids and services.

In addition to its target audience of policy makers, this report  
should help those concerned with Internet technology to appreciate  
the complex institutional framework within which the DNS operates and  
those concerned with its institutions to understand better the  
elegant architecture and operation of its technical system.  It could  
also serve as a source book for courses in technology,  
telecommunications, and Internet policy.

Roger Levien,
Chairman of the NRC Committee on Internet Navigation and the Domain  
Name System