Internet Groups Build Unity, Lay Down Swords

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July 03, 1998 (8:00 AM EDT)

Internet Groups Build Unity, Lay Down Swords

By Mary Mosquera,

RESTON, Va. -- Internet groups concluded the U.S. leg of their constitutional convention Thursday agreeing to form an interim group to decide how to select an international board to govern domain names.

"We know the clock is ticking, and we need to get something going," said Dave Weitzel, representing Mitretek Systems, a nonprofit high-tech consulting group serving the public sector and based in McLean, Va.

Ira Magaziner, senior adviser to President Clinton for technology policy development, opened the Global Incorporation Alliance Workshop international forum on the white paper here Wednesday with roughly 200 representatives of companies, organizations, and individuals who wish to participate in forming a governing body for the Internet domain-name system.

Released Jan. 30, the original plan from the Clinton administration, called the green paper, was drafted to outline how the domain-name system would be managed. The revised plan, called the white paper, was issued after a comment period by Magaziner on June 5.

The final plan calls for the formation of a 15-member board that would oversee the domain-name system. Most thorny issues -- such as expanding the existing names and handling trademark disputes -- are to be left to the board and others designated to oversee the domain-name system.

Meetings will take place worldwide over the next two months, with one set for Geneva on July 24 and 25, and another in Singapore on Aug. 11 and 12.

"We got more done in these two days than in the last two years in discussions over the Internet," said Christopher Ambler, founder of Image Online Design and based in San Luis Obispo, Calif.

Gatherings of the forum around the world will build on recommendations from the U.S. conference, Ambler said. "Regional meetings should not put their conclusions on paper, but continue to discuss them online," he said, adding that all the recommendations should be pulled together at a final meeting. "There should be a finish line, and we should try to hit it," he said.

"We are beginning to build a real trust and dependence on each other," said conference chair Tamar Frankel, professor at Boston University School of Law. "The cultures of the Internet -- the corporate and service provider cultures -- are slowly merging," she said.

John Wood, head of United Kingdom naming company Prince plc, said Internet stakeholders needed to "melt down our swords and build plowshares" to build an organization. Working groups agreed that there should be an interim board that would decide the process to select the nonprofit international governing board. This interim board would not propose new top-level domain names. How much power and how to select the interim group was not decided, but those discussions will continue online and in regional meetings.

Participants said experts in nonprofit law were needed to help set up legally correct institutions. When the organization is formed, it will handle trademark concerns, perhaps forming a dispute resolution council.

A domain name council that would also function under the governing group was proposed, which would handle domain name interactions, such as setting minimum requirements and investigating privacy issues.

Agreement came in more technical issues. Root zone and domain name data should be authenticated and security for portability of domain names to ensure competition will be set by the board.