By Dr. Philip Baczewski, Director of  Academic Computing and User Services

What's in a (Domain) Name?

Love may make the world go 'round, but FQDNs (Fully Qualified Domain Names) make the Internet work. FQDNs are the system addresses that form the heart of your e-mail address or favorite Web page URL. At the heart of the FQDN is the TLD or Top-Level Domain. The TLD is the last part of the FQDN which is the three or four-letter suffix (after the last dot) that identifies the kind or location of a particular site.

Most of us are familiar with common TLDs like .COM, .EDU, .GOV, .NET, and .ORG, but in the last several years a few new ones have been added to the mix. These include .BIZ for business sites, .INFO, .NAME, and a bunch more. A full list of these generic TLDs can be found on the IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) web site. In addition to the generic TLDs, there are TLDs for most countries in the world, such as .US, .MX, and .CA.

I Think ICANN

Overseeing the creation and management of these TLDs is an organization named the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). ICAAN is a non-profit corporation formed in 1998 to oversee the organization of the Internet. Previously, this function had been performed by the IANA under the control of the U.S. Department of Commerce. IANA is now subsidiary to ICANN and primarily assigns the numeric address ranges which are associated with the various domains. The U.S. Department of Commerce still maintains a degree of control over the actions of ICANN.

While playing an important role in overseeing the expansion of the available TLDs, ICANN's daily task is to manage the operation of the root DNS servers for the Internet. These servers are the authority for the translation of FQDNs to the numeric addresses that computer programs need in order to make connections on the Internet. The root DNS servers provide a reference to find the registration records for a particular Internet domain, and with those, the particular DNS server that can translate an address.

The root DNS servers, while not irreplaceable, serve a critical purpose in the worldwide operation of the Internet.  This has made ICANN a bit of a political football, with some seeing it as being controlled by the U.S. Government with ICANN claiming that such influence is minimal. The U.S. Department of State has declared that "transferring control of the Internet to the United Nations would stifle innovation with excessive bureaucracy and may help repressive regimes curtail free expression online."

Rated XXX

While decrying repression by other regimes, the U.S. Government has apparently been pursuing some repression of its own.  Among the recent TLD proposals before ICANN is one for a .XXX domain intended for sites service serving "sexually-oriented information, services, or products intended for consenting adults." An August cnet.com article described a request from the U.S. Government to place a hold on the contract to run the .XXX domain to allow "further scrutiny," even though ICANN had approved the concept.

According to an article on cnn.com,  "ICANN announced in June [2005] it would move ahead with plans to evaluate establishing a sex-site domain, but the proposal hit a snag in August when the U.S. Commerce Department asked for more time to hear objections."  Instead of moving forward, the .XXX proposal was sent to a  advisory committee, made up of representatives from multiple governments. That review has yet to be completed.

The resolution of the .XXX domain issue may be an indicator of how independent ICANN can actually operate.  In spite of its international mandate, the debate over the .XXX domain seems to be driven by some in the U.S. who feel that the domain legitimizes the porn industry, while others, including U.S. legislators, feel it's a way to segregate such content and apply more controls to shield those for which such sites are unwanted or inappropriate.

The World View

ICANN was a central focus during the recent World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) held this past November in Tunis.  This meeting was the second in a series sponsored by the United Nations and the International Telecommunications Union. While not named specifically in the WSIS declaration, the agreements reached via this summit could have a great influence on how ICANN operates.

The reaction to the latest output from the summit seems to be positive on most fronts. ICANN welcomes the Tunis declaration on their web site. InfoWorld quotes  ICANN President Paul Twomey saying, "For users, nothing is going to change from the present situation." The same article goes on to state the opinion of Robert Shaw or the ITU that "there are several paragraphs that call for changes in the way the Internet is governed today," suggesting an end to the domination of the U.S. Government in Internet governance.

ICANN Tomorrow

There is no doubt that the Internet is here to stay as a world-wide communications network.  However, if ICANN is seen to be under the control of the U.S., it could lead to a break-up of central administration of domains, with other regions asserting control over their TLDs.  The Internet would still interoperate, but some efficiencies would undoubtedly be lost in such a scheme.

The resolution of the .XXX TLD proposal may tell us a lot as to how independent ICANN is, and if it will or will not continue to act independently under the current U.S. administration. On the heels of WSIS, the feelings expressed by ICANN as well as those on various sides of Internet governance issues were generally positive. The WSIS declaration seems to have language that appeals to all sides. Whether or not such ideals are practical in implementation remains to be seen.

Return to top