Re: [registrars] REALNAMES - stopping service 30th June.

["Edmon Chung" <edmon@neteka.com>]

Hi Ross,

Your words are heartfelt.

The DNS is about interoperability and there isnt really such thing as a
"proprietary solution" as a standard.  The community is working towards a
common goal today, albeit healthy disagreements sparking conversation and
evolution of the DNS.
Neteka as a company provides a transition strategy for registries that is
instrumental for a smooth migration towards a common multilingual namespace.
The start of the transition is regardless of the evolving standard and will
help to shape the standard, and our vision for the start is nothing elegant
but a brute force approach.  We understand as you do that customers are
impatient and do not wish to change their stuff to be able to utilize
multilingual domain names, therefore a registry has two choices when
implementing multilingual domain names:

1. only implement the standard and reject unconforming requests sent by
existing software
2. accept requests sent by existing software and prepare for the standard at
the same time

With 1, the result could be customer confusion and dissatisfaction, 2 is
what Neteka offers, NOT "proprietary" as in the case of RealNames where
resolution funnels through their "proprietary" system.  Because we know well
today that users will be using their existing software to try to access
multilingual names, we SHOULD be prepared to resolve these requests as they
come.  Providing a seamless transition for registries and end-users is what
Neteka is about, not forcing the world into any "proprietary system".

Hopefully our efforts will become appreciated by the industry as we continue
our genuine efforts in demonstrating the viability of multilingual domain
names and our solution.  Also, how brocolli tastes depends on how you cook
it.  If you eat it raw (as in 1) it tastes bitter and you might not like it,
but if you fry it well (as in 2) it tastes wonderful and much more
palatable, enjoyable.

Edmon



----- Original Message -----
From: "Ross Wm. Rader" <ross@tucows.com>
To: "'Registrar's Constituency'" <registrars@dnso.org>
Sent: Wednesday, May 15, 2002 8:42 AM
Subject: Re: [registrars] REALNAMES - stopping service 30th June.


> >
> > I disagree. Open standards are good if they are ever set. You know as
well
> > as I do that the IETF has been dicking around with the IDN issue for
> almost
> > 2 years now.
>
> Ketan,
>
> A bit more to this point...
>
> In 1981, the concept of "The Domain Name System" was put forth as a
workable
> way to address some very serious scale problems that the internet was
> facing. Mills, in RFC 799 outlined the basic concepts that would not only
> prevent a serious fragmentation of the internet, but also create a
> predictable, stable and open foundation for future growth.
>
> It wasn't until almost a full year later that RFC 819 was released. This
> document set forth the basic concepts that would need to be explored and
> started to put form to the ideas that Mills first introduced. DNS was
> starting to take shape.
>
> It took another full year for the seminal RFC's 881, 882 and 883 were
> released - the final versions of these documents, RFC 1034 and 1035 were
not
> produced until 1987 - six years after Dr. Mills got his great idea - and
> almost two full years after the DNS experiment started.
>
> By your logic, the IETF still has another 4 years to "dick around" and get
> things right before the community should start getting concerned.
>
> Some wisdom to hold you over in the meantime...
>
> "There is a problem in introducing internationalized domain names: a great
> deal of software has to be changed. Some groups would like to start using
> IDNs right away, and other groups don't want to see them or use them for a
> very long time. Communication patterns are very complex and as soon as
IDNs
> are allowed and used by a few groups they will start showing up almost
> everywhere. This argues that everyone should be prepared for them before
> they are used at all. However, we know that with people being people and
> with so many of people involved, the probability of everyone being ready
in
> any reasonable time period is nearly zero. The way out of this situation
is
> to set up a reasonable schedule for experimenting with IDNs and
authorizing
> their use. People that get ready on schedule should have no problems with
> these names."
>
> Jon Postel wrote this in 1983 - of course, he was talking about "domain
> style names" and not IDNs, but his advice holds true in this area as well.
> Of course, true to post-1991 Internet form, no one is listening.
>
> My challenge to the IDN community is:
>
> 1) focus on getting the standard into the ground. The proprietary systems
> are nice from an experimentation standpoint and might win one or two of
you
> some market share, but unless you all get together on this quickly, there
> won't be much to fight over. My customers and their customers are quickly
> losing patience.
> 2) once a standard is in the ground, determine what the schedule for
> experimention, authorization and release should be - my customers, and
> theirs, like predictability. Happy customers are profitable customers.
> 3) convince the rest of the community that this is a good idea and get the
> job done. Ahh...the double-edged sword of consensus. Get used to it, like
> brocolli, it is actually good for you.
>
> As I mentioned previously, I get the sense that registrars are quickly
> losing patience with anything but this type of a solution. If you want us
to
> keep buying your stuff, it might be a good idea to start listening.
Lastly,
> of course none of this is Neteka specific (only insofar as you've chosen
to
> involve them) - this only works if each of the IDN suppliers realizes the
> errors of their current ways and starts to work towards something truly
> lasting.
>
> -rwr
>
>
>
>
>
>
>