Paul,
Your points are all well taken, (yes our company's proposal has flaws and I am working with them to see what we can do) and since my voice is a new one to this group, I am afraid that I did not make my point as clear as I would have liked.
In my last paragraph I stated:
>This does not mean that we should jump into something with[out]
>looking at all the ramifications, but that we should work for a
>middle ground that will give as a workable solution as
>aggressively as possible.
What I was trying to say was that we should not rush into this and put something out next month that most likely have flaws, but I am hoping that we might be able to re-look at the schedule and see if there is any place we can reduce the time to create the standard with out causing any problems for end-users.
IMHO, it always seems that the amount of work needed to complete a task grows or contracts to fill the time allocated for that task. 8^)>
at 8:32 AM -0700 6/16/2000 Paul Hoffman wrote:
>This happens all the time. Sometimes it is helpful, but more often
>it is harmful to end users. Fortunately, many of the companies who
>are participating in this joint effort are showing corporate
>restraint by not deploying the first thing that pops into their
>head. It would be very bad if a company destroys the usability of
>the primary naming mechanism on the Internet just for a quick
>profit.
I hope this holds true. My concern is that I already see international Domain Name solutions being advertised on the net to governments and end-users. Even by some companies participating in this effort. I would hope that they are all as committed to the benefit of the end-user as you are.
Thank-you again for sharing your thoughts and concerns with me. I look forward to working with you and the others to achieving our goal truly international Domain Names.
Regards, Russ (rrolfe)
-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Hoffman / IMC [mailto:phoffman@imc.org]
Sent: Fri, June 16, 2000 8:32 AM
To: idn@ops.ietf.org
Subject: RE: [idn] final rev of charter
At 8:45 AM -0700 6/15/00, Russ Rolfe wrote:
>If we lived in a perfect world, I would agree with your statement,
>but we have to deal with the real world out there. When the
>internet was more an academic property, we could take our time and
>look at all the possibilities, but the Internet is now driven by
>business.
This kind of cynicism may be prevalent, but it is certainly not
shared by everyone here. Many of us are working hard on
internationalizing domain names to help *people*, not businesses. The
greatest benefit of a company, a non-profit organization, or a
government being able to put its actual name in its domain name is to
the Internet users who are more likely to get the online resources
they want. This is not about vanity or profits: it is about usability.
>People and businesses are asking for this now. There is a need to
>be filled now. This is an environment where one person's hesitation
>is another's opportunity. IMHO, if we are not more aggressive in
>coming up with a standard, someone else will implement something
>that will become the defacto standard, or many implementations will
>arise and then we will need to try to make them all work with each
>other.
This happens all the time. Sometimes it is helpful, but more often it
is harmful to end users. Fortunately, many of the companies who are
participating in this joint effort are showing corporate restraint by
not deploying the first thing that pops into their head. It would be
very bad if a company destroys the usability of the primary naming
mechanism on the Internet just for a quick profit.
>This does not mean that we should jump into something with looking
>at all the ramifications, but that we should work for a middle
>ground that will give as a workable solution as aggressively as
>possible.
So far, all of the solutions that have been proposed (including the
one from your company) have been shown to have flaws, some of them
disastrous. At this point, there are many proposals on the table, and
more are about to come out because of the change in the charter. We
need a balance of proposal writers and proposal checkers, and a
healthy and active discussion between the two groups. This doesn't
have to be slow, but rushing it will almost certainly cause problems
for end users (and businesses) that could be prevented by being
thorough.
--Paul Hoffman, Director
--Internet Mail Consortium