IP: $$$

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

Check's in the mail? Private backers rev campaign to fund new Net naming body
By Maria Seminerio, 
ZDNN 
September 8, 1998 2:40 PM PT




Officials from MCI and IBM will announce on Wednesday a corporate funding 
initiative for a nonprofit organization that will soon take over the 
allocation of Internet domain names.


The funding campaign is the latest initiative from the year and a half-old 
HREF=http://www.gip.org>Global Internet Project, a working group of 
corporate executives (including MCI and IBM officials) who aim to promote 
Internet use across the globe. 


The group plans to set up a fund that will allow corporations to help defray 
the cost of running the nonprofit, which is set to take over domain name 
allocation duties next month from Network Solutions Inc. The company now 
runs the system under a contract from the National Science Foundation. 


Some of the funding will come from IBM (NYSE:IBM) and MCI (Nasdaq:MCIC), 
although exact details are being withheld until a press conference set for 
tomorrow, according to sources. MCI's Vint Cerf, senior vice president of 
Internet architecture and engineering, and IBM's vice president of Internet 
technology, John Patrick, are scheduled to take part in the press conference.




New name in domain names
Network Solutions won its contract from the NSF to be the sole provider of 
domain name registration services in 1992, and the contract runs out Sept. 
30. Details about who will run the nonprofit and how it will be organized 
have still not been released, in spite of the fact that Clinton 
administration officials have said they hope at least an interim system will 
be in place by the end of the month.


White House technology policy adviser Ira Magaziner told reporters at an 
Internet Society meeting in Geneva at the end of July that he was optimistic 
the government would meet the Sept. 30 deadline for ending its control, with 
Network Solutions, of the domain name allocation system.