nettime: Questions on Name.Space by the Economist.Mag.

[mf@mediafilter.org (MediaFilter)]

The exchange below is between Azeem Azhar of the Economist magazine
and Paul Garrin of Name.Space.



>>>Paul,
>>>
>>>I'm writing a piece on allocating domnain names. Do you have a phone number
>>>I can reach you on?
>>>
>>>
>>>Azeem
>>>
>>>Azeem Azhar                             vx: +44 171 830 7133
>>>The Economist                   fx: +44 171 681 1358
>>>25 St James Street              e-mail: aja@economist.com
>>>London SW1A 1HG                 http://www.economist.com
>>>
>>>January: I'm in London. Sadly.
>>>Current projects: DNS cache contamination, optical networks,
>>>chat, Apple.
>>>State of my fridge: Milk
>>>State of silver puffa: Not on
>>>Apologies: If this reply came late, we had some DNS problems which delayed
>>>my e-mail

____Paul Garrin Replies:

>At 09:53 09/01/97 -0500, you wrote:
>>Hello Azeem,
>>
>>My schedule is quite full in the coming week and I may not
>>have time to connect with you by telephone.
>>
>>Email is probably your best bet.
>>Please send me a list of your questions.
>>
>>
>>Paul Garrin
>>name.space.inc.
>>info@pgpmedia.com


___Azeem Azhar replies:

>Fine.
>
>Number of issues:
>
>1. Given that various Internet consensus making bodies have agreed that new
>TLDs are necessary, why do you think its important to simply set up new
>TLDs on an ad hoc basis? Why not wait until the IAHC (or whoever) has come
>up for some kind of plan to implement them?

Name.space is a private company developing software and services
in an emerging market.  The development and implementation of an
expanded dns service on the internet is a project which started over
1 year ago as a private effort by competent individuals now known
collectively as Name.Space, Inc.  If you have a critique on private
companies curbing their ideas for development until a self-appointed
bureaucracy with no authority or mandate decides which direction the
market should develop, I would be very interested to hear it.


>
>2. Since both you and other alternate NICs have taken some identical new
>TLDs (like .sex), which of these will win out? How do customers who
>register under .SEX benefit if there are two conflicting .SEX authoratitive
>nameservers?
>

It is obvious that your knowledge of this topic is limited if you don't
know about shared top level domains.  Please read the name.space policy
regarding names which is published on the name.space website.
Name.space is currently developing software to support shared top level
domains.
Name.space will not at this time disclose any proprietary company
information on how this is being accomplished.
Name.space does have a right to its intellectual property and in protecting
its integrity until it is released into the marketplace.  I think you
would agree.

Given that even the IAHC has recognized that the toplevel namespace
is a public resource to be shared by independent and even competing
registries, the issue you are investigating here is a non-issue.
Further, name.space has set out from the beginning to develop and
and implement a system allowing for a decentralized shared toplevel
database, before there _was_ an IAHC.


>3. Do you need to work with a big six backbone provider to get your TLDs
>working? If so, with whom are you working?
>

Name.space has servers located in several countries on all major
backbones insuring total route redundancy and fault tolerance.  The
name.space network infrastructure is far from complete as it is expanding
over the next quarter with several new server sites on all major
interchanges.  Presently, any computer which checks the name.space
database can resolve all domains including the "traditional" ones from
anywhere on the planet connected to the internet.

>4. Are you at all worried that you will damage the way DNS works (e.g via
>cache contamination) for other Internet users? Or are you persuaded that
>the namespace efforts won't impinge on anyone's use on the Internet?
>

Name.space domain name servers comply with all the industry standard
dns protocols.

Cache contamination?  Please define what you think you are talking about
when you say "cache contamination".

Name.space already has thousands of users and over 500 second level
names registered.  There have been no reported problems associated with
the name.space service which by all reports is working perfectly.  In
fact, every day hundreds of individuals switch their computers over to
the name.space network.

Only when development is in the hands of private enterprise responding to
demands and changes in the marketplace, can true development and innovation
occur.  Remember what happend to the "other" command economy?
Don't repeat history.

Sincerely,

Paul Garrin
name.space.inc.
info@pgpmedia.com



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