domain name for european parliament

I have been passed on the following message and would like to comment
on it:

> Subject: Re: domain name for european parliament 
> 
> Cc: dns-wg at ripe.net, Pierre.Verbaeten at cs.kuleuven.ac.be
> Date: Mon, 18 Jan 1993 12:29:54 +0100
> From: Piet Beertema <Piet.Beertema at cwi.nl>
> 
> 	If you think thats funny then check this one out:
> 	
> 	whois -h nic.ddn.mil "ec.org"
> 	Commission of the European Communities (EC1-DOM)
> 	   Directorate-general Telecommunications, Information
> 	         Industry and Innovation.  Rue de la loi, 200
> 	         B-1049 Brussel, Belgium
> 	
> 	   Domain Name: EC.ORG
> 	
> 	   Administrative Contact:
> 	      Mullender, Sape  (SM3383)  Mullender at cs.utwente.nl
> 	      +31 53 89 3709
> 	   Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
> 	      Vogels, Werner  (WV33)  werner at inesc.pt
> 	      +351 1 3100316
> 	
> 	   Record last updated on 20-Feb-92.
> 	
> 	   Domain servers in listed order:
> 	
> 	   FREYA.INESC.PT               146.193.4.36
> 	   HELIOS.CS.UTWENTE.NL         130.89.15.6
> 	
> 	
> 	Yes - we told them it might not be a good idea in the
> 	long term but what can you do....
> 
> Not much. It's a bit surprising though that the NIC did
> accept this registration from people outside DG.

We have been funded by the CEC/BRA to set up an support infrastructure 
to help researchers in Europe exchange information and to supply
support for issues like storage, naming, etc. The infrastructure is based
on a large number of fileservers throughout Europe using AFS as main 
technology. Although in the startup phase  aiming to support the nodes
covered by the three first Networks Of Excellence: ELSNET, CaberNet and 
Compulog, the infrastructure is supposed to be the blueprint for an
infrastructure also covering the new NOE's formed last year. 

In the framework of naming we wanted to enable resolution through
the DNS. As there was no top domain available that would cover a
general CEC organization, under which the infrastructure could be placed, 
we requested (with full knowledge and appreciation of DG) a domain name 
for a top domain ec.org. This domain was to be managed by the Infrastructure
Task Force of the proposed infrastructure for a startup-period, after
which the management of the top domain would be handed over to an
institution selected by DG. The subdomains dedicated to the research
infrastructure would still be managed by our own people.

(Instead of calling it "funny", Dave, you could have explained all this
as you are aware of most of the details of the infrastructure provision,
including the naming part)


> And as
> far as the nameservers are concerned:

.....

> So not to be taken serious.

I do not think that is a remark to be made without any further 
consultation of the people involved.

At the time of registration of the ec.org name, the machines to run the
servers were not yet delivered. The two names were supplied to the NIC
as being "temporary", to be replaced as soon as the initial part of the
research infrastructure was in place. The first two servers (INESC and 
Univ. of Twente) are running now, while this week the servers at the
Univ. of Newcastle and at LAAS will be added. Our first concern is to
have the AFS servers properly running, after that the NIC will be informed
about which machines will provide the DNS service.

If there are any other areas related to the CEC that want to make use
of the ec.org name they are happily invited to cooperate in managing a
possible subdomain of ec.org. In our planning we aim to provide DNS
service starting half of February.

Hope this clears up the confusion.


Werner Vogels

Distributed Systems and Industrial Automation Group
INESC - Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores
	Rua Alves Redol, 9-6o - 1000 Lisboa - Portugal
Tel:    +351 1 3100316, Fax: +351 1 525843, 
e-mail: werner at inesc.pt / C=pt;A= ;P=inesc;S=werner