WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 — The group assuming technical management
of the Internet, which will likely select new suffixes for the world’s Web addresses
at a meeting later this week, has essentially narrowed its choices to about 13 possibilities,
eschewing suffixes such as “kids” and “xxx.”Suffixes, called “domains,” that won
preliminary approval by advisers include “web” and “biz” for e-commerce sites; “san,”
“nom,” “xing,” “name” and “per” for personal Web addresses; and “coop,” “union,”
“museum,” “air” and “health” for specialty Web sites such as those run by labor unions,
airlines or business cooperatives.
Only one proposed domain — “geo” by SRI International
of Menlo Park, Calif. — won praise as both “interesting and innovative” by the Internet
Corp. for Assigned Names & Numbers’ advisers. These unusual “geo” addresses, according
to SRI’s technical proposal, would be reserved for information that represents geographic
places, objects or processes. For example, the address “20e30n.geo” would represent
20 degrees east and 30 degrees north on a global map. SRI claims that its address
plan “will become the latitude and longitude of the Internet’s virtual world.”
The
published recommendations by the staff at the Icann didn’t suggest which new domains
will be chosen by the group’s 19 board members nor did they suggest even how many
might be added. But the recommendations, published Friday, offer insights into the
organization’s process for significantly expanding the Internet’s pool of addresses
for the first time in more than one decade. The addresses would start appearing online
early next year.
“This is probably the most visible and important decision that
Icann will make,” says Alan B. Davidson of the Center for Democracy and Technology.
“This is a change of the landscape to the Internet. Icann is adding new lanes to
the information superhighway.”
At least as interesting as the domains that won
preliminary approval were those that didn’t, including creation of a “kids” Web domain
with content only appropriate for children. “Who is a kid? What content is appropriate?
And who decides?” Icann advisers asked. “Given the international reach of the Internet,
the complexity of these definitional issues is compounded by many diverse cultures
and a variety of community and individual views on the answers.”
Icann advisers
also sought to shoot down efforts to create “tel” addresses, which supporters claimed
would link a telephone number — such as “202-555-1212.tel” — to a particular Web
site. “It seems unlikely that telephone numbers would be broadly viewed as easy-to-remember
identifiers,” they wrote. They also rejected a plan by the Association Monesgasque
des Banques of Monaco to create “fin” addresses for banks, saying the association
was not persuasive arguing that it represented the world’s financial industry.
And
Icann advisers rejected “xxx” addresses for adult Web sites. Although supporters
contend that designation would make it easier to block access to those sites for
children, Icann said there was no mechanism to force adult sites to migrate from
popular “com” Web addresses to “xxx.”
Icann, based in Marina Del Ray, Calif., is
widely expected to choose new domains at its board meeting Thursday in Los Angeles,
although formal selection could be put off until next year. Board members could choose
domains their advisers rejected, though experts considered that unlikely.