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Username: sstallings
Date/Time: Tue, November 14, 2000 at 1:44 PM GMT (Tue, November 14, 2000 at 9:44 AM EDT)
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Subject: MSNBC: Internet’s technical manager Icann narrows field of address suffixes

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        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.

     

--
Sean Stallings
sean@jokeserver.com
http://www.jokeserver.com/
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