Re: [ga] Vint: on the basic rationale for adding TLDs and any contra-indications

[Karl Auerbach <karl@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 9 Dec 2005, Danny Younger wrote:

> I'll admit that I hadn't yet considered the issue of
> processing and management limitations... does anyone
> have some thoughts on this consideration?

To add a new TLD requires:

1. Logging on to the computer that holds the master zone file for .

2. Opening up your favorite editor

3. Typing a few (usually on the order of five) relatively simple text 
lines into a file that represents the root zone.

4. Doing a *very* careful review of what you have added.

5. Saving the file

(A better system would use a database and have scripts to construct the 
actual file from the DB, but in that case the above merely changes to be a 
simple database insertion.)

You might also write into some other file the contact information for 
those who run the TLD.

> From personal experience, it takes very little time (minutes at most) to 
do this.

ICANN has wrapped this basic process with layers upon layers upon layers 
of voodoo.

Some of that voodoo might be useful - such as probing to see if the 
delegated-to servers are actually alive and answering.  However the vast 
bulk of ICANN's TLD voodoo is doodoo.

Remember, ICANN is a self-preserving bureaucracy; it is in their self 
interest to make everything seem as complex and arcane as possible.

The IANA function is to a large degree simply adding one to the previously 
allocated number.  It is rote mechanical clerical work to take a request 
for a new enterprise number, find the existing maximum, add one, write 
down the result, enter it into the big book of internet numbers, and close 
the request.  Some numbers are harder to "add one" to than others - 
sometimes UDP/TCP service port numbers need to fit into certain ranges and 
fit into spaces not occupied by other number allocations.  OK, in those 
cases one looks at a comprehensive version of /etc/services and finds an 
unused number.

Adding new TLDs is, when we get down to the basic act of doing it, not all 
that much work - a minute or two with a text editor, a few seconds if a 
simple script has been written to do the editing.

		--karl--