JPNIC Translated Document Source document: JPNIC REPORT 5 Date of the source: January 1994 Date of the last update of this translation: November 5, 1995 This is a translation of a JPNIC document. JPNIC provides this translation for convenience of those who can not read Japanese. But it may contain mis-translations, and is by no means official. One should consult the source document written in Japanese for detail. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Experiments for the introduction of Geographic Domain Name Geographic Domain name As it is mentioned in the October issue, "Geographic Domain name" uses geographic names and it has already been introduced in countries like America. Following are the merits of Geographic Domain name. o Enlargement of the name space Until now, there were only five types AC, CO, GO, OR, AD for the second level domain name. Now if the prefecture and the city names expressed in Roman letter is introduced then this number would be increased to 54 (47+12-5 (overlapped part)) types. As a result chances of a collision will become less. o The scope for domain name selection will be enlarged Compared to the conventional attribute type, the selection space would certainly get enlarged. o Individual, regional organizations ( Elementary/ middle schools, high schools, government offices) will be included Organizations related to regional activities or elementary/secondary educational institutions would be able to obtain names which would represent the scope of the organizations. In case of conventional attribute type domain name, there has been cases where the domain names overlapped. And applications from organizations owned by individuals, high schools, regional public organization's administrative system have rapidly increased. Considering the situation, JPNIC has taken the initiative to start its one year pilot project on Geographic Domain name allocation from December 1, 1993. Structure of Geographical Domain Name The second level of a Geographical Domain Name consists the name of the prefecture or the name of the city decided by the government in Roman form, the third level consists of the name of the village or town in Roman form (full spell in Hepburn system) and the fourth level is filled by the applicant. ::= ".""."".""JP" For example in case of FOO high school located in Chiba prefecture's Narashino city, the domain name will be FOO-HS.NARASHINO.CHIBA.JP. Besides, if the prefecture name and the name of the city decided by the government is the same, then the same name will be used for both. That is both of Chiba prefecture and Chiba city will become CHIBA.JP. Eligibility for allocation The organizations/individuals that satisfy one of the following conditions can obtain Geographic Domain name. 1. Individual who lives in that region and who would use the domain name in that region. 2. Educational institution lower than high school and located in that region 3. Corporation whose activities are based on that region and organizations that are associated with corporation 4. Organization whose attribute is one of AC, GO, OR and which is located in that region Although the organizations which have already obtained attribute type domain name are not eligible to apply for Geographic Domain name, alternation is permitted. Modification of conventional system With the start of Geographic Domain name, the eligibility for obtaining AC, CO of conventional domain name will be modified. AC is for academic organizations and until now it was allocable to all the organizations based on school education law. But the organizations related to the region, like elementary/middle school, high school, school for physically handicapped, school for blind, school for deaf and dumb and kindergartens are not allowed for this. In case of CO, as the organizations owned by individuals are now eligible to obtain Geographic Domain name, they are also excluded. Therefore, from now on the eligibility for obtaining AC and CO will be the following. AC: Academic organizations School based on education law and other regulations (elementary/middle school, high school, school for physically handicapped, school for blind, school for deaf and dumb and kindergartens are excluded), educational institutions, universities, school for higher education CO: Enterprises Profit-making organizations, corporations where mercantile law is applicable, corporations where company law is applicable, and other unique companies Pilot project A lot of problems have to be solved and a lot more investigations are to be followed before the full-scaled introduction of Geographic Domain name. The present pilot project is to get hold of the substantial demand, investigate the draw-backs and find solutions for the draw-backs, and thats why the project is limited to one year. The effort for further improvement is to be followed after the experiments are over. Depending on the case, the domain name might have to be changed. The problems that are clear at present, and the scheduled investigations are as follows. Full spell representation Although in the project the name of prefectures and towns are represented by full spell, there might be opinions that to write the names in full is a tiresome job. Opinions like, if the names get long then the probability for typos will get increased was given by the JPNIC working group. However, the JIS code corresponds to these classifications only, and no alphabetic codes are provided for this purpose. Besides, a lot of organizations use these numerical codes. Of course there were opinions like what about using the zip codes or telephone numbers. But in this case if there is a typo in the numbers then the message would go to some one else, and as a result it has been decided to use the full spell. However, during the project period, for example if the prefecture name or the name of the city is considered to be a two letter code, then the same code may be used when the project is over. Problem related to privacy With the allocation of Geographic Domain name to individuals, the address, telephone and fax number of the administrative contact and the technical contact will be recorded in the JPNIC database. From the aspect of network administration, the JPNIC database is meant for providing contact information. However, in this case the refusal to include one's telephone number is a difficult problem. It is closely related to the present database that is in operation, and it has to be carefully investigated with a certain amount of time. The problem has to be examined during the pilot project, and for the time being it has been decided that the allocation will start with the precondition that all the information will be included in the database. Administration based on contract As the name space that has to be administrated for Geographic Domain name gets large, the work load of JPNIC for the allocation, administration of name server will also have a sudden increase. In that case if an organization called ZZZ takes the responsibility for the administration of XXXX.JP, then it would lighten the work load of JPNIC and the procedure for allocation will become much more efficient. However, in that case the allocation procedure of that organization has to be fair and efficient as it is with JPNIC, and the organization has to be reliable. The procedure for finding this kind of organization or if there already exists an organization like this is to be investigated during the period of the project. Documents The documents related to the application of Geographic Domain name, contents of the project, obtaining fresh (attribute type), modification, abolition of JP domain name are as follows. o Allocation of JP Domain name Definition of JP domain name and important matters related to the application is documented o The pilot project related to JP domain name (Geographic Domain name) allocation This document is about the pilot project on Geographic Domain name that started on 1st of December. The method for a fresh application and the application forms are included. o Fresh application for JP domain This is an application form for a fresh JP domain name. Important matters related to a fresh application and the hints for filling out the form is documented. o Application related to JP domain name modification This is an application form for JP domain name modification. Important matters related to an application for modification, and the hints for filling out the form is documented. o Application for the abolition of domain name This is an application form for the abolition of a domain name. Important matters related to an application for abolition and the hints for filling out the form is documented. As a result of a series of serious discussions about the introduction of Geographic Domain name that continued for six months, finally the decision has been taken to start the pilot project. However, there are still a lot of problems that are yet to be discussed. Please send your comments and suggestions to JPNIC. (Kazue Kamiyama, Science University of Tokyo)