Hello: Many schools are now connecting to the Internet and registering in the Internet Domain Name System. A decision has been made by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (after consultation with the new INTERNIC Internet Registry and the FNC) to direct these school registrations to the US domain using the naming structure described in RFC 1386. There is a need for competent, experienced, volunteers to come forward to act as second and perhaps third level registeries and to operate delegated portions on the domain name space. Specifically, if you would like to operate a branch of the US domain name space according to the plan laid out in RFC 1386 to register schools please let us know. Contact <us-domain@isi.edu> --jon & Ann. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Registering Schools in the US Domain ------------------------------------ A few high schools (and other schools) have been registered in the EDU domain. This practice can not continue indefinitely since there are too many schools. There are two reasons (1) uniqueness of names, and (2) management of the database. 1. Name Uniqueness: There are many "Washington" high schools, only one can be "Washington.EDU" (actually none can be, since that name is used by a (University). There will be many name conlficts if all schools attempt to register directly under EDU. 2. Database Management: One goal of the DNS is to divide up the management of the name database in to small pieces. Each piece (or "zone" in DNS terminology) could be managed by a distinct administrator. Adding all the high schools to the EDU domain will make the already large zone file for EDU even larger, possibly to the point of being unmanagable. For both these reasons it is necessary to introduce structure into names. Structure provides a basis for making common names unique in context, and for dividing the management responsibility. The US Domain has a framework established and has registered a few high schools already in a structured scheme. The general form of this structured scheme is: <school-name>.<district-name>.K12.<state-code>.US for example: Hamilton.LA-Unified.K12.CA.US Generally school names are unique within a district, and this provides two points at which to delegate a branch of the database to distinct administrators -- the K12 administrator for each state, and the district administrator for each district within a state. Yes, these name are generally longer than the current apparent alternative in the EDU domain, but that cannot last long without a significant number of schools finding that their "obviously correct" name has already been used by some other school. The US Domain Administrator will delegate a branch of the US domain to an appropriate party. In some cases, this may be a particular school, a school district, or ever all of K12 for a state. The responsibility for managing a K12 branch or sub-branch may be delegated to an appropriate volunteer. We envision that such delegations of the schools DNS service may eventually migrate to someone else "more appropriate" from an administrative organizational point of view. The "obvious" state agency to manage the schools DNS branch may take some time to get up to speed on Internetting. In the meantime we can have the more advanced schools up and running. For more about the US Domain see RFC 1386. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~