>It appears to me that we are making some rather weird assumptions here,
>based on history in other environments (like current domain names, phone
>numbers, USMail addresses, and so). It is not so clear to me that there will
>always be a one-to-one mapping between the destination one wants to reach,
>and some name like vixie.sf.ca.us. Eventually such strict bindings will hurt
>us even more than they do today. What do you really want? Well, I want to
>email Joe Smith? No way, there are too many of those, give me more
>information? So, eventually may be we have to deal with more levels of
>indirection and some data base support that allows us to zoom in, and, like
>it or not, perhaps introduce some margin of error ("sorry, wrong number,
>find another Vixie")
Hmmm. Like X.400/500?? state=XX, country=US, surname=Jones, Givenname=Pete
city=YY, neighborhood=sunnyside, street=rockfence
etc. etc.
>
>I think in our discussions we have ways too much a historical Internet
>perspective
>with strict bindings in mind, and names and addresses that are supposed to
>last for lfetimes. This will not work. Ther are too many people, too many
>companies, too many mapping strategies out there. Whether I email to "Vixie,
>the bind dude," or "Vixie, the networking person living in Northern
>California," may be there should be algorithms and facilities in place that
>map those to the same person. Perhaps even in ways the information (such as
>email) follows him, rather than him having to chase after his email (e.g.,
>remap his "current" location when/after he moves).
>
>What names or addresses things eventually map to should be fairly irrelevant
>in terms of perceived complexity, as you'd alias Joe Smith@whereever to some
>short version in your personal alias/nickname file anyway. Or is that just
>mapping information for a data base supported translation server?
>
Dave Nordlund Dir of Technical Svcs
Databank, Inc 913/842-6699
1473 Hwy 40 nordlund(a)databank.com
Lawrence, KS 66044 "Your Key to the Internet
