Wondering if some of the long-time list members
can shed some light on the question--why is the
.gov top level domain only for use by US
government agencies? Where do other world
powers put their government agency domains?
With the exception of the cctlds, shouldn't the
top-level gtlds be generically open to anyone
regardless of borders?
Would love to get any info about the history
of the decision to make it US-only.
Thanks!
Matt
Wondering if some of the long-time list members
can shed some light on the question--why is the
.gov top level domain only for use by US
government agencies? Where do other world
powers put their government agency domains?With the exception of the cctlds, shouldn't the
top-level gtlds be generically open to anyone
regardless of borders?
Do you have reason to believe that governments of other countries would
*want* to use the .gov TLD?
Steinar Haug, Nethelp consulting, sthaug@nethelp.no
Wondering if some of the long-time list members
can shed some light on the question--why is the
.gov top level domain only for use by US
government agencies? Where do other world
powers put their government agency domains?With the exception of the cctlds, shouldn't the
top-level gtlds be generically open to anyone
regardless of borders?Would love to get any info about the history
of the decision to make it US-only.
In part due to RFC1480. At one point, everything here in the US was
set to transition away from the US- and TLD-centric models. It is
now only a fuzzy memory, but at one point commercial entities could
not just register a random .NET or .ORG domain name ... which would
have resulted in a nicer-looking Internet domain system today.
But to make a long story short, and my memory's perhaps a bit rusty
now, but my recollection is that shorter URL's looked nicer and there
was significant money to be had running the registry, so there was
some heavy lobbying against retiring .GOV in favor of .FED.US (and
other .US locality domains).
... JG
Why is the Greek flag always flow at the Olympics as well as the
Olympic and host nation flags? Why is Britain the only country
allowed, under Universal Postal Union regulations to have no national
identification on its stamps used in international mail? Basically, if
you are first, you tend to get extra privileges. Same with .gov for
the US government.
Thanks,
Donald
But to make a long story short, and my memory's perhaps a bit rusty
now, but my recollection is that shorter URL's looked nicer and there
was significant money to be had running the registry, so there was
some heavy lobbying against retiring .GOV in favor of .FED.US (and
other .US locality domains).
[snip]
The same problem exists with .EDU capriciously adopting new criteria
that excludes any non-US-based institutions from being eligible. I
believe the major issue is that if a TLD is in the global namespace,
then it should NOT be allowed to restrict registrations based on
country; the internet is global and .GOV and .EDU are in Global
Namespace.
So then, why aren't .EDU and .GOV just allowed to continue to exist
but a community decision made to require whichever registry will be
contracted to manage .GOV to accept registrations from _all_
government entities regardless of nationality ?
In otherwords, rejection of the idea that a registry operating GTLD
namespace can be allowed to impose overly exclusive "eligibility
criteria"
Do as we say, not as we do
> But to make a long story short, and my memory's perhaps a bit rusty
> now, but my recollection is that shorter URL's looked nicer and there
> was significant money to be had running the registry, so there was
> some heavy lobbying against retiring .GOV in favor of .FED.US (and
> other .US locality domains).
[snip]The same problem exists with .EDU capriciously adopting new criteria
that excludes any non-US-based institutions from being eligible. I
believe the major issue is that if a TLD is in the global namespace,
then it should NOT be allowed to restrict registrations based on
country; the internet is global and .GOV and .EDU are in Global
Namespace.So then, why aren't .EDU and .GOV just allowed to continue to exist
but a community decision made to require whichever registry will be
contracted to manage .GOV to accept registrations from _all_
government entities regardless of nationality ?
Because the US has historically held control over the whole process.
Regardless of what it may seem like, it's not a community process.
In otherwords, rejection of the idea that a registry operating GTLD
namespace can be allowed to impose overly exclusive "eligibility
criteria"
In the specific case of ".gov", I'd say that there's some danger to
having multiple nations operating in that single 2LD space; .gov
should probably be retired and federal institutions migrated to
.fed.us. There's also namespace available for localities.
But given the choice between rationality and insanity, usually the
process seems to prefer insanity.
... JG
[snip]
So then, why aren't .EDU and .GOV just allowed to continue to
exist
but a community decision made to require whichever registry will
be
you can register .edu if you are a non-us institution as long as you are accredited by a US recognized organization
Mehmet
The same problem exists with .EDU capriciously adopting new criteria
that excludes any non-US-based institutions from being eligible. I
believe the major issue is that if a TLD is in the global namespace,
then it should NOT be allowed to restrict registrations based on
country; the internet is global and .GOV and .EDU are in Global
Namespace.
Gee, someone should alert NANOG management that the list has fallen
through a wormhole into 1996.
To answer the original question, many governments use a subdomain
of their ccTLD such as gc.ca or gov.uk. Or they just use a
name directly in the ccTLD such as bundesregierung.de.
R's,
John
Or, alternatively, inertia. I would be like renumbering, only worse,
because so many links would need to be found and updated.
You forgot .MIL , this one will be even more fun to change...
Note that .mil is also restricted to US DoD, and that although .com is not
restricted to US citizens and companies, it is under contract with US DoC.
The only legacy gTLDs that are not in US control of some sort are .net and
.org.
Rubens
Wondering if some of the long-time list members
can shed some light on the question--why is the
.gov top level domain only for use by US
government agencies?
RFC 1591.
Where do other world
powers put their government agency domains?
Under their ccTLDs.
Note that .mil is also restricted to US DoD,
Yes. See RFC 1591.
and that although .com is not
restricted to US citizens and companies, it is under contract with US DoC.
The only legacy gTLDs that are not in US control of some sort are .net and
.org.
No. NET is under essentially the same contractual agreement as .COM (specifically, Cooperative Agreement NCR-9218742). By the terms of Amendment 24 of that CA, ORG was removed from the CA when that registry moved to PIR (in 2002 I believe).
Regards,
-drc
"It is extremely unlikely that any other TLDs will be created."
My how times have changed.
-Jim P.
# Gee, someone should alert NANOG management that the list has fallen
# through a wormhole into 1996.
Bad idea. I'm betting we'd find half of gov web sites down due to not being
able to reboot and issues in old coldfusion and IIS and the like (and
needing to fix static links and testing etc). No, if it ain't broke don't
fix it.
incidentally, why does the .gov SOA list usadotgov.net in its SOA? The web
site for the domain looks like it's copied from drjanicepostal.com. Has
USGOV decided to open a new executive branch for podiatry?
Nick
The name of the game is you create it, you set your own rules. The United
States Gov't was involved w/ the Internet before people thought about it
being more than just a US gov't system.
As far as the SOA, someone probably copied and pasted another SOA not
really knowing what they were doing (or copied pasted, saved, modified,
forgot to hit save).