Re: [ga] nTLD going gTLD

["William X. Walsh" <william@dso.net>]

John, 

My point was, as you well know, that the ccTLD's are not a direct extension of
the ISO-3166 list, and that fact that IANA elects to use the ISO-3166 confers
no national authority on the ccTLD, and that because a country may of requested
a code added to 3166, that does not mean that the country requested the country
code, or was the source of the country code being added.



On 05-Jan-2000 John Charles Broomfield wrote:
> 
> Hi William,
>       Would you mind informing us of an example or two of codes in
> ISO-3166 which have been entered not at the request of any given government
> and which are not affiliated with national governments?
> Yours, John Broomfield.
> 
>> Hello;
>> 
>> This excerpt (see below) about ISO-3166 codes on the DIN Website could lead
>> one to inappropriately believe that only national governments are the
>> source of the ISO-3166 list, which is the basis for the current ccTLD
>> two-letter domain names. In fact, the UN is itself the primary source of
>> the ISO-3166 list, not the DIN, and many of the codes in the UN list are
>> not affiliated with national governments, nor are they ever likely to be
>> affiliated with national governments. 
>> 
>> If you read the complete DIN Webpage that was cited at
>> (http://www.din.de/gremien/nas/nabd/iso3166ma/get_name.html), DIN says:
>> 
>> "How to get a country name into ISO 3166-1
>> 
>> There are two ways new entries can be added to the list of ISO 3166-1: 
>> 
>> A) A new entry is shown in the United Nations lists of country names.
>> 
>> These lists given in the UN Bulletin "Country Names" and in the code list
>> of the "Standard Country or Area Codes for Statistical Use" are
>> authoritative inputs for ISO 3166-1. By using UN lists of country names the
>> ISO 3166/MA stays as politically neutral as possible. 
>>       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>> 
>> B) Country names can be entered in ISO 3166-1 on request"
>> 
>> It is the unusual circumstance that an ISO-3166 code is made "On Request"
>> to which item III (below) is referenced. In fact, the UN - not any national
>> government - primarily determines membership on the ISO-3166 list. And the
>> UN itself says this list does not designate "national status" or national
>> recognition by the UN:
>> 
>> "a/ The designations employed and the presentation of country or area names
>> in this list do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the
>> part of the Secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status
>> of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or
>> concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The user of any
>> particular dataset should consult the dataset documentation to determine
>> the exact coverage of statistics for the country or area entities in the
>> dataset. Various datasets may or may not include coverage of outlying and
>> overseas areas, depending on the type of data and source." (see
>> http://www.un.org/Depts/unsd/methods/m49alpha.htm and other UN statistical
>> pages with similar disclaimers)
>> 
>> Bill Semich
>> .NU Domain
>> 
>> At 12:28 AM 1/5/00 +0100, Elisabeth Porteneuve wrote:
>> <major snip>
>> 
>> >On the other hand we read "How to get a country name into ISO 3166-1"
>> >    http://www.din.de/gremien/nas/nabd/iso3166ma/get_name.html: 
>> >
>> >    III. A request for the inclusion of a country name (or the name of 
>> >         a dependent area) in ISO 3166-1 must originate from the national 
>> >         government of the country or from the national standards body 
>> >         of that country. The ISO 3166/MA rejects any request which is 
>> >         not accompanied by a written statement from the national goverment
>> >         explicitly agreeing to and supporting the request. 
>> >
>> >The problem arises when the ISO3166 code, which request originates from
>> >the national government (and as such is a national patrimony), is not
>> >"in service of the Country and people of such country to which it belongs".
>> >
>> >Elisabeth Porteneuve
>> 
>> 
>> Bill Semich
>> President and Founder
>> .NU Domain Ltd
>> http://whats.nu
>> bill@mail.nic.nu
>> 

--
William X. Walsh <william@dso.net>
DSo Networks  http://dso.net/
Fax: 877-860-5412 or +1-559-851-9192