International Ad Hoc Committee
The IAHC (International Ad Hoc Committee) was formed in 1996 by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and Internet Society (ISOC). During this period Internet saw its first major explosion of commercial growth after the commercial restrictions were lifted on the web by the National Science Foundation (NSF) which resulted in the number of computers on the internet doubling every three months. IAHC was a temporary alliance brought together to focus on one issue of managing the Domain Name System to serve the rising number of computers effectively. The Coalition included several organizations, along with IAHC and ISOC, the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), International Trademark Association (INTA) and World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) were all a part of the coalition. [1] [2] The IAHC was dissolved on May 1, 1997 in favor of the Generic Top Level Domain Memorandum of Understanding (GTLD-MoU). [3]
Formation of IAHC[edit | edit source]
Till May 1996, some Generic Top Level Domains gTLDs like .com, .org, .net were mostly used. Dr. Jon Postel, head of IANA which managed allocation of IP addresses, suggested revising the Domain Name System for assisting the internet’s rapidly growing commercial use. He proposed to add 50 new TLDs at the level of .com or .org. However, the suggestions made were criticized on several bases by the technical community. The technical community criticized the plan as it allowed anyone the right to register domain names in as many as three of the new TLDs potentially decreasing competition.
Later with the help of ISOC and further revisions the IAHC was formed in September 1996 to solve the domain name problem. In December 1996, IAHC drafted a report outlining its ideas for a more efficient and organized domain name system. In the final version of the report released in February 1997, IAHC addressed inconsistency with the definition of some top level domains. At that time TLDs were classified into two categories; International Organization for Standardization (ISO) country codes; .us, .fr, .ca etc. also known as national TLDs (nTLDs) and the second category included everything else like .com, .org, .net etc.
IAHC noted that the term "International" implied the domain belonged to multiple national governments. The committee suggested the use of term "generic Top Level Domain (gTLD)" which will describe domain names like .com or .org without being required to operate on an international level. Following this IAHC suggested introduction of seven new gTLDs. [1]
IAHC’s new gTLD's recommendations[edit | edit source]
The International Ad Hoc Committee typically noted that only three gTLDs; .org, .com and .net, were existent till the year 1997. As per IAHC’s definitions .com was kept aside for firms or businesses, .org for Not-for-profit entities and .net for firms that deal with emphasizing data networking services especially in reference to the Internet. The report recommended a Generic Top Level Domain Memorandum of Understanding (gTLD-MoU), which would be set-up including the seven new gTLDs, which were mainly:
- .web - for entities giving more importance to activities related to the World Wide Web
- .rec - for entities emphasizing entertainment/recreation activities
- .info - for entities that provide information services
- .firm - for firms or businesses
- .store - for businesses offering their products to purchase
- .nom - for those wishing personal or individual nomenclature
- .arts - for entities emphasizing on entertainment and cultural activities
The report led to the establishment of a large group of the global registries under the governance of Council of Registrars (CORE), to look after the new registries for the gTLDs proposed by the IAHC. [4]
The fall of IAHC[edit | edit source]
The IAHC somehow managed to garner support but its report was criticized on several grounds. The technical community viewed the report as too condensed and strict as it led the schedule for technological development and implementation a timeline of only 100 days. The others thought that the report gave no importance to the business issues and was unable to solve the problems which it was destined to solve. These mostly include the introduction of the .store, .firm domains along with already established .com. There was a lack of unity among the suggestions given by the IAHC. However, many of its recommendations were later successful proposals, one of which is .info, which the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) introduced later after the dissolution of the committee.
IAHC and ICANN[edit | edit source]
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a not-for-profit private sector corporation took over the functioning of the IAHC. It was in the year 2000, that ICANN approved the seven new TLDs for use .info, .museum, .name aero, .biz, .coop, and .pro. It was only in the year 2008 that the ICANN went further and allowed all the private and public organizations to register with any length of letters as their gTLD. [4] [5]
References[edit | edit source]