NSF makes the call...

[Jim Fleming]

Dr. Neal Lane
Director
National Science Foundation




Dear Dr. Lane:

As you probably know, the Internet has grown well beyond the
research and development prototypes the NSF helped fund.
The NSF should be proud of its acheivements and has a
continuing responsibility to help transition this valuable
resource to all of the people of the U.S. and the world.

Many commercial companies now depend on the Internet and
in many ways the national defense of our nation depends on
the Internet. Stability of the Internet is critical to its operations.
Any transitions should focus on maintaining that stability.

The NSF is now in a situation where it will be called upon to
make some key decisions about the future of the Internet.
I suggest that your agency make these decisions carefully,
yet with urgency, because the end of the NSF's cooperative
agreement with the InterNIC contractors is now in sight.

The attached proposal presents a simple step-by-step outline
that could be used as a base by the NSF to develop a more
complete plan. Several people have asked that I expand on
the plan and submit it to the NSF. Quite frankly, I hesitate to
do this because I would think such an expanded plan should
come from the collaborative Internet community.

In order for an expanded plan to come from the Internet
community, the NSF and the Internet community would have
to have a mechanism to jointly develop such a plan in an open
and collaborative forum. If the NSF is interested in hosting
such a forum or having a group host such a forum I have
a feeling you would find many ISPs who would step forward
to help your agency. The NSF just has to say the word
and it will be done.

If you are interested in pursuing the option of expanding
the following plan in the open forums of the Internet, you
can reach me via e-mail at the address below.

Thanks for your time,



Jim Fleming
Unir Corporation 


============================================

1. Keep the entire InterNIC prototype in place until September 1998
	when the U.S. Government's Cooperative Agreement
	ends with AT&T and NSI who are the remaining two
	companies that form what is called the InterNIC.
	Abandon the NSF plans to launch ARIN.

2. Encourage groups of cooperating commercial companies to
	clone the InterNIC under the watchful eye of their
	respective States and the Internet communities in
	those States, with the following Internet resources.
		1. 3 Top Level Domain Names
			1 Infrastructure Domain - (e.g. .NET, .NIC)
			1 Commercial Domain - (e.g. .COM, .CORP)
			1 FREE[1] Domain - (e.g. .ORG, IL.US)
		2. One /8 IP Address Space[2]

3. Encourage this cloning via forty-nine[3] $250,000 grants from the
	National Science Foundation which would come
	from the Internet Infrastructure fund which has over
	$15,000,000 for this type of purpose.

4. Allocate one grant to each state and direct the U.S. Senators
	to work with the Governor to select THREE companies[4]
	in each state to "outsource" a Cooperative Agreement
	similar to the ORIGINAL InterNIC plan to have IS, DS, and
	RS functions.
	As an example, the State of Virginia had...
		IS - General Atomics
		DS - AT&T
		RS - Network Solutions, Inc.
	an IS company needs to be selected there.

5. Encourage the expansion of the commercial Registry Industry
	by recommending that ALL government agencies
	(as well as Universities with NSF funding)
	include ALL of the new commercial Top
	Level Domains in their Root Name Servers.

6. Plan for the NSF to bow out of the above process in
	September 1998, the proud parent of up to 50 InterNICs
	which serve the U.S. and the world.

7. Enjoy the benefits of 50 InterNICs to coordinate a world collection
	of Root Name Server confederations to provide world-wide
	stability to the entire Internet without the need for NSF
	funding.

================================================

[1] Many people would like to make sure that future plans for
domain name management include some consideration for
FREE domains. In the U.S. the .US domain can be delegated
to these State InterNICs to help clean up some of the recent
problems that have arisen from the delegation of cities in one
state to commericial registries in another, without the city's
knowledge.

[2] The /8 IP Address Space would be primarily for management
purposes. Allocation policies would not change. Service fees could
be imposed, similar to ARIN, to help fund the State's InterNIC.
Each State would set its own policies based on input from their
Internet Community.

[3] These grants could be extended to the U.S. Virgin Islands,
Puerto Rico, Guam and other U.S. territories as funds permit.

[4] For the past year or more several companies have done extensive
research, development and deployment in the creation of Top Level
Domain registries. Those companies could be used to help kick
start some of the activities in each State. California, Illinois, Michigan,
Wisconsin, Arizona, Texas, Georgia, and Massachusetts should
easily be operational 60 days after receiving a grant. All 50 States
would not be required to allow for a smooth transition from the NSF.
The current InterNIC would be transitioned to the State of Virginia
in September 1998 no matter how many states are active.