Keith Moore <moore@cs.utk.edu>: >"alternate DNS roots" aren't part of DNS. if someone wants to propose >a URN based on a DNS-like system with its own root zone, they're free >to do so and see if they can get support for it. For that matter if >someone wants to propose a URN based on some other naming system that >doesn't look like DNS they're free to do that also. > >But trying to make "alternate DNS roots" fit into a DNS URI scheme is >like trying to make OIDs or some other naming scheme fit into a DNS >URI scheme. We don't need to do that - there's a separate scheme for >OIDs. And trying to do so would make DNS URIs far more complex than >they need to be - for no real benefit. For instance, how do you >assign names to the alternate roots? By specifying the root name as a prefix? I agree that alternate roots are not part of DNS as long as you contrain your universe to be the ICANN/USG published set of DNS names, but there are other things floating around the net that do use the DNS protocols and do resolve names for people who choose to use them. So, if your universe is legacy DNS then you really have two choices: consider expaning your universe to include everything or ratify some scheme to provice some named calculus to the DNS multiverse that exists today, comtemporary political views to the contrary. >And what happens if people want >to set up their own registries of names for roots and assign separate >names to the alternate roots which c... You can't force people to interoperate. But those who do are at an advatage. So be it.