The success of the DNS experiments that lead to the commercial deployment of multiple Root Name Server Confederations has resulted in an increased awareness and education on the part of network operators and members of the Registry Industry. It should not be surprising or disruptive that this success will cause the continued growth and evolution of Root Name Server Confederations. As some of you may know, the eDNS Root Name Server Confederation is about to evolve into what appears to be three distinct Root Name Server Confederations. This evolution should increase the number of active Root Name Server Confederations from 5 to 7. NANOG subscribers that are following these events may want to pay careful attention to the operational issues of these evolutions because the fragile DNS does not always self-correct. One of the benefits of the eDNS evolution is that one of the new Root Name Server Confederations has announced that it will take the new BIND 8.1 code and use it as a base to evolve a new base of software that can help address many of the lessons learned from the extensive research done by leading edge, alternative, DNS advocates. Since this research is not funded by the U.S. Government's National Science Foundation (NSF) it may not be considered by some to be valid or of any value. No matter where you stand on that issue, you should at least know that it exists. -- Jim Fleming Unir Corporation http://www.Unir.Corp