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Re: nettime: Paul Garrin


On Tue, 21 Jan 1997 10:56:18 +0100 jesis@xs4all.nl (j bosma) Wrote:

>> I try to keep an open mind/heart to Name.space
>> I must say it gets harder
>> I wouldn't mind some serious comments by others on this list
>

On Tue, 21 Jan 1997 13:48:29 +0100 Jack Jansen <Jack.Jansen@cwi.nl> wrote:

>I more-or-less share Rop's views on the issue. I made similar points to Paul:
>I like the political idea of Name.Space but I'm not happy from a technical
>point of view. Paul basically replied that the technical side was a non-issue.

Paul Garrin Replies:

I don't recall ever saying that the technical side is a "non-issue".
In fact the technical aspects of name.space are a major part of the
initiative.  I have invested a lot of my own finances into upgrading
the connectivity of the name.space servers, including the following
upcoming improvements:

This week, a new server will go on line in San Jose on a 45Mb
connection which peers to mci, uunet and mae west.

In our new location, a 1.5 Mb line to Digex will be installed in the
coming weeks.

Co-locations on thing.net (who will shortly upgrade to a 1.5Mb line)
and escape.com (who will shortly upgrade connectivity to a T3 line)

My partner, Andreas Troeger has developed and implemented a fully
automated name registry which has even influenced InterNIC to automate
their process.  Name.space can still process registrations in less that
5 minutes.


>I think he's wrong here, but I may have too euro-centric a view (in Europe the
>upper domains provide some locality of reference, since people in country A
>are more likely to access addresses in country A, but in the US this advantage
>disappears, since the edu/gov/com toplevel domains probably have much less
>coherence).
>

The naming conventions developed by name.space are not about "domain" or
territory.  They are about content routing.
Content routing deals with direct addressing of web pages
by their names.   If geographic location is desired, the traditional
domains are still available.  Name.space is not looking to take anything
away from those who wish to identify with their countries, it is simply
adding diversity to the mix.  If you are looking for coherence, you can
create it with whatever name you choose, and that coherence can be based
on content or on location, as you wish.

The other aspect is that of participation.  Most of the new toplevel
rootnames have been suggested by the public and created on their
behalf and in their interest.  Also, the aspect of participation
to support a new alternative outside the current government and
corporate establishment is in the best interests of the public.


>The new developments (coordinating with AlterNIC) also take away the nice
>anarchic feel the project had, since it appears to become quite a bit more
>business-like and centralized: basically a commercial version of NIC.
>

This aspect of the news is more complicated than it first appeared.
AlterNIC is a group of insiders (Eugen Kashpureff even helped John
Postel of IANA write the original draft to expand the top level
namespace) posing as independent companies.  The reality is, that they
all know each other.  There is a quid pro quo going on within that group
and possibly with IAHC.

When dealing with such a project as name.space, it would be nice
and comfrting if we could stay within the confines of the safe
artworld, but this would be naive.  This type of initiative, like it
or not, deals with the ugly world of business and politics.  There are
real consequences to this and I am well aware of them, as I have to
face them every day, and act.  It may be very easy for you to
criticize these efforts from your safe position where you risk
nothing wheather this initiative succeeds or not.

>Since a project like this is inherently disruptive, because it replaces a
>single set of agreements on what a domainname means by multiple
>interpretations, the return should be worthwhile. My feeling is that the
>return is less and less worthwhile...

>--
>Jack Jansen             | ++++ stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal ++++
>Jack.Jansen@cwi.nl      | ++++ if you agree copy these lines to your sig ++++
>http://www.cwi.nl/~jack | see http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/spg-l/sigaction.htm
>
>

Some people, especially in europe have problems with the
published "business" model of name.space.  Most of them never
tried to play in the real world of politics and business...which
this whole thing is, like it or not.  It's not an easy game, or
a safe one.  I have a lot at risk here, including a substantial
investment of time work and finances.  If this venture is to
succeed, I have pledged to devote the network resources to
supporting free art and media.

I have tried to create a movement of artists behind this
as a way to create opportunities for the artists to build a
future on the net and to create an economic basis for them.
My rhetoric about capitalism is mostly to feed the media
the stuff they want to hear.

I hope you understand that often this type of endeavour
requires some tough dealings--especially given that what we're
doing is stepping on the toes of some serious
players, like the NSA and the telecoms.   Name.space is gaining
hundreds of new users daily, and the establishment doesn't like
it.  It would be nice if the artistic community would support
one of their own for once and stop with the petty bickering.
I am concerned that the issue is becoming obscured by the
misconceptions and disinterest in our own community.

If this continues, it will be a tragedy and another example
of the self-defeating nature of the alternative scene, where
people talk a lot but never _take action_ to liberate themselves.

If you recall, this was the criticism of the Next 5 Minutes
conference last year--that there was a lot of "theory" but
no concrete actions.  It was reported then that I was one
of the few, if not the only one at the conference, who had
a workable and practical plan of action.  At the time it was
called "panet" for "Permanent Autonomous Net".  That plan
has evolved into the name.space initiative, which has been
in progress for over a year with very little support of the
media art community.

Myself and Andreas Troeger have devoted an incredible amount
of work, energy, time and money into this project, and the
sysops of some of our fellow networks,
Reinout Heeck, Rob Bank of desk.nl, John Haley and Michael van Eeden
of dds.nl, Luka Frielih of kud-fp.si, Thomax Kaulman of icf.de,
and Neil de Hoog of v2.nl have cooperated in implementing the
name.space system on their networks.  I wish to thank them all
for their contributions to this project, and their will to
continue and see it through to its successful universal
implementation on the whole internet.

With the support of all of our community of artists,
writers, networkers and others we can succeed.

--Paul Garrin


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