Sean,
The NSI Registry is responsible for the DNS service at
the top of the COM/ORG/NET zones and thus the
motivation for the RFP. Diversity will be sought
through diverse transit, geographical and topological
dispersion, etc. If you are implying diversity of
organization responsible for serving the zone, the NSI
Registry is 100% responsible for serving the zones and
is working through this process to put that in a formal
framework, a necessary business condition given our
contractual obligations. We are trying to do that openly
and with the involvement of this community. In terms of
the extent of the service performed by the hosting
organization, that depends upon the nature of the proposals
we receive - we are open-minded.
The roots are still roots but that is an RSSAC/ICANN issue.
--Tom