Domain Name Foes Find Common Ground

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March 31, 1998 (5:05 PM EST)

By Mary Mosquera,

The Clinton administration and one of its loudest critics came closer to agreeing on plans to increase the number of Internet domain names at a House Science committee hearing Tuesday.

Sitting side by side at the hearing, Ira Magaziner, the White House's chief technology advisor, and Jim Courter, spokesman for the Internet Council of Registrars (CORE), a non-profit group of international companies created to administer the registration of domain names, found some common ground in the debate over how many registrars, registries and domains should exist.

Last January, the administration published its plan, dubbed the Green Paper, for a private, nonprofit corporation to control the entire Internet domain name system. The corporation would have the power to appoint up to five new independent organizations, known as registries, to administer one domain each.

CORE, on the other hand, is pushing for one shared registry with multiple registrars and seven new domain names. Under that plan, all registrars would be authorized to sell any of the domain names.

But the two sides aren't as far apart as previously thought. Magaziner said he would consider the creation of more domain names, once a transition period to the new system is over. Likewise, "CORE is not wedded to just one registry," said Courter.

"If there really could be competition among registrars, we can do business tomorrow, " Courter said.

However, even if the administration and CORE agree, the government still has many other points of view to take into consideration, Magaziner said.

One view came from Robert Kahn, co-developer of the TCP/IP protocol and CEO of the Corporation for National Research Initiatives, who also testified. Kahn urged Magaziner and others to take more time "to consider the issues and structure the transition process," suggesting more interaction among the stakeholders.

"It's not the number of registrars or registries," he said. "It all hinges on if you can trust the technical plan that underpins the system."

Barbara Dooley, executive director of the Commercial Internet Exchange Association, an ISP trade association in Herndon, Va., also advised a slower approach. "There's been a lot of hot e-mail flying around from techies," she said. "But a lot of businesses don't have time for that kind of thing and they are not being heard from."

However, Magaziner pointed out, the U.S. government's contract with the sole provider that now exists, Network Solutions (NSI), expired on Tuesday, although it has been extended through September. "The timeline is driven by the end of the contract with NSI, so we must move with some dispatch," he said.

Magaziner said he plans to release a revised Green Paper in about a month. The public comment period ended March 23 after the administration received more than 650 suggestions.