WASHINGTON -- THE U.S. government is funding a study to examine the impact of new technologies and policies on the DNS as part of a long-term effort to ensure that searching on the Internet not only remains feasible but also improves.

   ADVERTISEMENT
  

SPONSOR

20% increase in software audits by 2005. Are you compliant ? Blazent Intelligence Software.

Sponsored by Blazent

SPONSOR

White Paper: BMC Software Solutions Address General IT Control Requirements

Sponsored by BMC Software

RELATED LINKS
»  Tom Siebel plans to sell a portion of his company shares
»  Microsoft offers governments sharing tools
»  Silicon Valley looks to Europe for brighter outlook
»  Business RSS feed 


IDG ENTERPRISE NETWORK
• More Business to Business News...  (ComputerWorld)
• Cunning Trojan spams mobiles  (TechWorld)
• Novell wakes up little SuSE desktop  (TechWorld)

TOP STORIES
•Cisco boosts Q1 net income, revenue
•Antivirus subscription prices climb
•Sun is upgrading enterprise development tool suite
• Top News RSS feed 

GOVERNMENT IT & POLICY
•Verizon to Buy NextWave Licenses
•FBI Pursuing More Cyber-Crime Cases
•Time Warner Plans for Settlement

TOP SITE REFERRALS
 
20% of 300 companies surveyed report networks hacked
(carlos leal's weblog)
 
Management shakeup at Novell
(Tech Careers)
 

SIGN UP FOR THE MAGAZINE
FREE EMAIL NEWSLETTERS
IT SOLUTION SEARCH
A committee of the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB) formally launched the study this week in Washington at its first meeting. The study was mandated by Congress about three years ago during a period of heightened concern over protection of copyrights in the DNS. The CSTB is a unit of the National Research Council, which belongs to the umbrella of organizations represented by the National Academies.

Although the committee is still working on a clear and concise description of the study, Alan Inouye, study director and staff program officer at the National Academies, said it would look at many concerns regarding the technical infrastructure of the Internet, particularly its scalability as the number of users and sites grows. The focus is not to resolve immediate problems, but to anticipate issues that are as much as 10 years out, Inouye said.

Another issue the study will look at is the number of TLDs (top-level domains) that can be added without adversely affecting the technical operations of the Internet. This is an issue that has resulted in criticism of the process used by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to select new generic TLDs. There currently is not a lot of objective information on this issue available, Inouye said.

The study also aims to assess the effect certain trends will have on Internet name assignment, addressing, and searching. These trends include the growth in embedded computing devices and the introduction of permanent personal and object identifiers.

In addition, the study will identify emerging technologies that can affect Internet searching. Some approaches that will be considered are the addition of generic TLDs; new name assignment, addressing, and indexing schemes; and new directory structures for locating information or sites of interest. The study will also consider improved user interfaces for accessing information on the Internet.

The study is being funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the National Science Foundation. The National Research Council, of which the CSTB is a part, is an objective organization, according to Shari Steele, executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The council's report on U.S. encryption policy a few years ago was critical of what the government was doing, she said.

"Having an outside government group ... take a look at what is happening in the DNS space is a great thing," Steele said. "Government influence at the National Research Council is not real heavy."

But the founder of one autonomous domain name provider that has been critical of the management of the DNS said he does not expect the study to cover anything his organization considers important.

Robin Bandy, founder of OpenNIC, which is one of at least 15 DNS' currently operating on the Internet, said there was nothing technically standing in the way of many more TLD names existing on the Internet.

"It's been proved that the software can handle millions of domain names. The question is how many can people handle," said Bandy, who noted that his organization has been described by media observers as an "anti-commercial collective."

Bandy said he is happy that the U.S. government is looking at these issues, but that it would be even better if the study encompassed all the issues OpenNIC cared about. He acknowledged, however, that the committee probably would not pay much attention to his marginal community, which manages less than 100 Web sites with TLDs such as .null and .geek. Among the things OpenNIC advocates is the idea that trademarks are largely irrelevant outside of country TLDs because trademark laws are different all over the world.

The study is due to be completed in the third quarter of next year. The report will go to Congress, the Department of Commerce, and ICANN, whose job is to oversee the DNS.

The chairman of the 16-member committee is Roger Levien, founder of Strategy & Innovation Consulting. The committee will hold its next meeting at the University of California at Berkeley July 11 through July 13. The focus of the meeting will be the technical aspects of the Internet, and Silicon Valley experts will be invited to share their opinions. The committee also welcomes public comment on the study.