Robert

So far as the DNS is concerned I don't like people using the analogy of
white pages and yellow pages.  Many years ago I helped setup a file
registry system which involed registering names. We thought we could take
the easy way out and use the phone book as an arbiter. Upon further
investigation we found that while they were quite rigorous in deciding
where to put names earlier, by the 70's multiple entries were allowed (as
opposed to cross references) and applicant's could have other entries.  I
notice MelbIT has also proposed the phone book as a guide.  Why can't
people just consider the DNS in its own right.  The implementation of the
policies so far, as other have commented before this, has meant that even
if you know the name (exactly) you won't necessarily find the
other information needed to make contact since there are many public and
private companies with trading names and use either one or the other.

Warm regards
Gary

At 01:14 24/02/98 +1100, you wrote:
>    Date:        Tue, 24 Feb 1998 00:40:12 +1100 (EST)
>    From:        Deus Ex Machina <vicc&#167;cia.com.au>
>    Message-ID:  <199802231340.AAA20292&#167;cia.com.au>
>
>  | neither do I think implementing any new domains under .au prior to
>  | competition can be seen as anything but self serving
>
>I'm not sure what the relevance is - if more sub-domains of .AU are
>created before sharing is implemented, it is unlikely it would be MelbIT
>who is running them...   After competition works is another matter.
>
>  | the prefered option would be to have the .com.au zone file
>
>How the zone file will be built, etc, is one of the issues which is
>delaying the sharing - it needs to be fair (unbiased) that's for sure,
>almost certainly automated.   The more complex question isn't worrying
>about making sure one registry's updates aren't delayed or whatever so
>as to favour another, but how to deal with cases where two registries want
>to install conflicting information about the same domain name.
>
>  | nor can we have one registry enforcing its rules on another registry.
>
>No, but I don't think that says what you believe it says.   The rules
>of a registry relate to things like payments (howm when, how much, ...)
>and perhaps some related to the form to be completed.   I suspect the rules
>that you mean are the rules of the domain, and those, absolutely without
>question, must be applied equally by all registries.   It would make no sense
>for one registry to have qualification criteria (or whatever) that another
>did not.
>
>You don't believe that MelbIT really want many of the rules that exist for
>com.au do you?   They'd make far more money if they simply sold as many
>domains of any random name to anyone who asked - it does them no good at
>all to refuse requests.   The com.au rules were in place before MelbIT
>took over (though they have been slightly modified) and will remain more or
>less unchanged when there is competition.
>
>The rules are to protect the DNS itself, and to make sure it remains a
>relatively sane place in which to name organisations into the far future.
>
>Note also that the DNS provides the rough equivalent of the phone "white 
>pages".   That is, assuming you know the name (exactly) you can find the
>other information needed to make contact.   The DNS was absolutely not
>designed as a "yellow pages" type directory - it doesn't have anything like
>the right properties - ie: its intent is NOT to allow people to find things
>where they don't know exactly what they're looking for.
>
>kre
>
>
>