[ih] Dot Com etc

Wed Jan 20 11:59:52 PST 2010

The namedroppers list still exists (used for DNS policy issues).

However no one seems to have an archive earlier than 1990 (MARC.INFO).

I got my partial copies of the archives some years ago while working on
some paper and squirreled it away as I'd discovered that mailing list archives
from the 1980s were vanishing (issues of copyright and such).

I did some digging in my private archive of MSG-PEOPLE (and you owe me --
the level of flames to content on that list... not to mention postings of
example sendmail.cfs... :-)) and there's one side mention of the
discussion on Namedroppers.  Jon sends a note to Robert Morris (then an
undergrad at Harvard) and cc'ed to MSG-PEOPLE about issues of sizing
top-level domains but tells folks to reply to namedroopers.

The next DNS related note is Jon's note of 13 Dec 84  pointing out that
there's a plan in place for the new top level domains.

Once upon a time I remember seeing a cluster of emails about naming policy
from 1984 -- as I recall Karen Sollins played a key role and I'll bet
Ken Harrenstein did too (at the meeting where we finalized various secondary
issues and accidentally ended up reopening the list of TLDs Ken was by far
the most vigorous advocate) -- but my memory could be flawed.

Thanks!

Craig

> <html><body><span style=3D"font-family:Verdana; color:#000000; font-size:10=
> pt;"><div>Thanks. It's a big help. It might just be one of those little mys=
> teries. How does one get to namedroppers?</div><div><br></div>
> <blockquote id=3D"replyBlockquote" webmail=3D"1" style=3D"border-left: 2px =
> solid blue; margin-left: 8px; padding-left: 8px; font-size: 10pt; color: bl=
> ack; font-family: verdana;">
> <div   >
> -------- Original Message --------<br>
> Subject: Re: [ih] Dot Com etc<br>
> From: Craig Partridge <craig at aland.bbn.com><br>
> Date: Wed, January 20, 2010 12:27 pm<br>
> To: bboliek at catalpacreek.com<br>
> Cc: internet-history at postel.org<br>
> <br>
> > Does anyone know why .com; .edu and .gov were chosen? I know it seems<=
> br>
> > simple, but why .com instead of something like .biz?<br>
> <br>
> I don't know but it happened between April 1984 and October 1984.<br>
> <br>
> In April 1984 Postel and Reynolds distributed a draft of what became RFC 92=
> 0.<br>
> In that draft they used Grapevine-like naming, so ERNIE.CS.CAL.UC for a<br>
> site in the University of California system.<br>
> <br>
> In October 1984, when RFC 920 came out it specified GOV, EDU, COM, MIL and<=
> br>
> ORG.  NET came later (Dick Edmiston's and my doing).<br>
> <br>
> I wish I had copies of the email discussions between April '84 and October =
> '84<br>
> but I don't.  My guess is that the discussion was in NAMEDROPPERS but I<br>
> only have a very limited archive of old NAMEDROPPERS email.<br>
> <br>
> Thanks!<br>
> <br>
> Craig<br>
> 
> </div>
> </blockquote></span></body></html>
********************
Craig Partridge
Chief Scientist, BBN Technologies
E-mail: craig at aland.bbn.com or craig at bbn.com
Phone: +1 517 324 3425