Message-ID: <3.0.1.32.19970520103710.007e7b30@funredes.org> Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 10:37:10 -0500 From: Daniel Pimienta <mailto:pimienta@FUNREDES.ORG> Subject: Re: RFC 1591 and .HT...Re: [NIC-961127.4583] HT, To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
Randy, Steve,>As far as I can determine, the authority for the domain seems to ALREADY
>HAVE BEEN CHANGED absent discussion or process.
Indeed. It has been changed two months ago with an efficiency without precedent (3 days!).Two months of obstinate complains from the initial TLD responsible (REHRED) had provoked no change to this "fait accompli" and the only argument from IANA is its interpretation of a fax from the Haitian government informing that they: "has decided to grant to FOCUS DATA, on a non-exclusive basis, the right to use Haiti's Top Level Domain" (read in http://www.funredes.org/funredes/domaine/actu_in/d4.txt).
The implicit message we got from IANA is that: - IANA decides the rule of the game, - IANA applies it with retroactive effect if it likes so, - IANA feels no obligation to document it.
Whatever is the quality of the IANA staff, this way of doing business should be rejected by the Internet community as unappropriate and be replaced by some due and transparent process (until the RFC has been changed the process m u s t n o t be changed).
This is why REHRED decided, after having used unsatisfactorily the direct dialog with IANA, to go one step further asking the ISOC President "to set up some mechanism to investigate an action which is based in no Internet documented rules and then appears as an abuse of power of an Internet body" and "to put in hold the specific IANA decision meanwhile".
Obviously, two months of discussion makes now the file rather complex, however it has been organized in web access for parties interested to understand what did happened (http://www.funredes.org/funredes/domaine/ which mirrors the source http://www.ht.refer.org/rehred/domaine/index.html).
Some of the undesirable side effects of this mismanagement are: - the weakening of a national network with low resource, obliged to change its priority scheme during 2 months to stand on its acquired responsibility for TLD; - the turmoil brought to the process of concertation of the concerned parties in Haiti; - the halt of any activity related to .HT (which, by itself, demostrates the wrong decision).
============================================================================ An immediate stepping back of the redelegation would avoid the prolongation of these effects and allow to start a mature and responsible analysis of what need to be done next. =============================================================================
===================================================================== Daniel Pimienta Tel.: +1 809 686 2804 President FUNREDES Fax: +1 809 689 3388 Networks and Development Foundation mailto:pimienta@funredes.org PO BOX 2972 http://funredes.org Santo Domingo (Republica Dominicana) ======================================================================