European Domain Debate Finds Some Consensus

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July 27, 1998 (12:45 PM EDT)

By Andrew Craig,

The debate over the future of Internet-address management made significant progress at last weekend's meetings in Geneva, but some key issues remain unresolved.

In particular, attendees agreed on the role of the new nonprofit corporation that will assume control of the domain-name management process in September, said members of the Internet community on Monday.

But attendees said they couldn't reach consensus on which Internet industry sectors should be represented on the corporation's 15-member board.

Internet-community members gathered in Geneva for the Global Incorporation Alliance Workshop's international forum on the white paper, the second of three meetings to find consensus on the issues raised in the U.S. government's proposals for the future of domain-name management, released in June.

The Geneva meeting was more productive than the first of the three-stage meetings in Reston, Va. last month, said Jim Dixon, president of the European ISP Association. The third meeting will be held in Singapore, on Aug. 12 and 13.

"There was a lot more consensus in Geneva than in Reston, and we will find a lot more in Singapore," said Dixon.

The meetings gave all sides of the debate a chance to air their views, said Keith Gymer, a legal adviser to British Telecom in London. "There was a genuine effort to identify areas where there was commonality," said Gymer.

Opening the meetings was President Clinton's technology policy adviser Ira Magaziner, who said to attendees that they need to find consensus on the future of domain-name management by Sept. 30. If the private sector can't reach agreement by this deadline, the government may resume its role as manager of the system, said Magaziner.

But the private sector still wants to decide the process for itself, according to Gymer. "I would prefer to see resolution, if possible, by September. As long as the debate progresses, I would like to hope that Mr. Magaziner won't intervene, even if we don't hit the September deadline," said Gymer.

According to the U.S. government's plans, a new nonprofit corporation would take over control of domain-name management on Oct. 1. Broad consensus was reached on the role of the new corporation, but attendees failed to agree on how the board of the new corporation should be assembled.

The U.S. government's proposals in June said no one interest group should have more than one representative in the new corporation. But there are several groups that have slightly different opinions about the process, said Gymer. It will be difficult to find an acceptable way to represent everybody's views in the corporation, he said.

One major difference of opinion lies between those with a commercial interest in the Internet, and the long-time technical Internet users, according to Gymer. "There are still those who resent the commercial development of the Internet," he said.

Dixon said he agreed the issue of membership of the new organization was the "most sticky issue," but said he was confident that more progress will be made at the meeting in Singapore.