Public policy

Many of you are probably aware of the issues associated wish ownership of In te rnet domain names and the problems the Internet Corporat ion for Assigned Names and Numbers ( ICANN) (www. icann.or l l ) is having satisfying the interests of all stakeholders. My personal view is that the problems stem primarily from the need to register (which implies some sort of ownership) the alphanumeric domain names. My view, and there are a few others who 'agree with me, is that the DNS system should be abandoned in favor of the use of strictly numerical IP addresses. Many people view this as a step backward, but I argue that in many cases domain names are not at all obvious. Quickly, what is the domain name for Gateway Computers: gateway, gazewaycomputers, gal:ewaycomputers? Actually it's ~teway2000. Also, most of us who use any significant number of URI.s store them in a bookmark file where we can associate them with any meaningful (to us) name, so the actual addresses might as well be numeric. There's a system with strictly numeric addressing which has been used for years: the telephone. For some reason, some think that this is archaic, but I find dialinil a number to be a lot faster than using letters. Basically I remember a few key telephone numbers and use speed dialing or a personal directory for the rest. Some have pointed out that there's intense competition for alphabetically meaningful telephone numbers. That may be, but the registering authority doesn't have to care because they are making assignments on a strictly numerical basis.The use of alphabetic equivalents for telephone numbers is one of the most frustrat ingly t ime consuming processes rve ever encountered. Finally, DNS name servers present a single point of failure in the Internet that would be eliminated by the use of IP addresses.