Developing a broader view...

[Jim Fleming <JimFleming () unety net>]

Many NANOG members have been around longer than most.
If any NANOG members can help fill in the blanks on this
time-table, it might help your members develop a broader view.

JF

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March 1992
        Original NSF Solicitation
                <http://rs.internic.net/nsf/solicitation.html>
May 1992
        Original NSI Proposal
October 1992
        Modified NSI Proposal
                <http://rs.internic.net/nsf/nis/proposal-toc.html>
                "Network Solutions believes NSF's objectives will be met
                most effectively by the award of the bulk of the services to
                a single contractor."
                <http://rs.internic.net/nsf/nis/sectionM.html>
                "Network Solutions proposes Mr. Jon Postel as the
                IANA Manager and Chairman of the Advisory Panel for
                the NREN NIS Manager project. He will provide services
                as an employee of USC's Information Sciences Institute (ISI),
                subcontractor to Network Solutions."
        AT&T Proposal
                <http://ds1.internic.net/internic.info/proposal/>
January 1, 1993
        Cooperative Agreements
                General Atomics (GA)
                        ???
                AT&T
                        ???
                Network Solutions, Inc.
                        <http://rs.internic.net/nsf/agreement/>
                        Estimated Total Amount:
                                $4,219,339
                        Effective Date:
                                January 1, 1993
                        Expiration Date:
                                September 30, 1998

<1993...period of "cooperation"..1994>
        General Atomics was supposed to be the NIC of NICs
        and to help coordinate the activities of all three contractors.
        More NICs were supposed to be formed.

December 1994
        Midterm Evaluation
        <http://www.rs.internic.net/nsf/review/review-toc.html>
        "The InterNIC awards set the precedent of requiring significant
        self-coordination among a team of awardees, and requiring outreach
        to other Network Information Centers. The panel suggests that the
        NSF critically consider whether it is viable to expect significant
        self-coordination among a team of awardees in future awards.
        The panel also notes that the NSF's program management was
        not able to correct GA's problems early on despite excellent efforts
        by the NSF staff, primarily because the NSF staff were overextended
        by monitoring at least two major projects (the InterNIC and the
        NSFNET backbone) at once. The panel recommends that for future
        large scale efforts in the rapidly changing Internet environment, the
        NSF should form an ongoing advisory panel of outside experts or
        employ some external consultants to help manage such cooperative
        agreements, rather than waiting two years to call for a review."

December 1994
        General Atomics Dismissed

January 1995
        NSF gives NSI more money...
        Amendment 1
                <http://rs.internic.net/nsf/agreement/amendment1.html>
                This amendment increases the funds available under
                Cooperative Agreement No. NCR-9218742 by $1,258,457.

        NSI changes key personnel...
        Amendment 2
                <http://rs.internic.net/nsf/agreement/amendment2.html>

February-March 1995 (???estimated date???)
        SAIC purchases NSI
                http://www.saic.com
                http://www.netsol.com
        Circumstances, terms, previous owners....???? not known ????

May 1995
        NSF gives NSI more money...AND reviews plan to start charging
        Amendment 3
                <http://rs.internic.net/nsf/agreement/amendment3.html>
                "The National Science Foundation (NSF) hereby awards
                $1,948,632 to Network Solutions, Inc. for additional support..."

September 13, 1995
        NSF approves NSI's plan to charge for domain name registrations
                <http://rs.internic.net/nsf/agreement/amendment4.html>

October 1995
        Many people and companies debate the issues surrounding the
        commercialization of domain name registrations. The NSF and
        the IANA prevent commercial registries from having new Top
        Level Domains.
November 1995
        Debates
December 1995
        Debates
January 1996
        Debates
February 1996
        Debates and delays
March 1996
        Debates and delays
April 1996
        Debates and promises of plans
May 1996
        Debates and more promises of plans
June 1996
        ISOC Board of Trustees - ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
                Montreal, Quebec, Canada
                <http://www.isoc.org/trustees/96-004.htm>
                "RESOLVED, that the Board of Trustees of the Internet Society
                endorse in principle the proposal "New Registries and the Delegation
                of International Top Level Domains", dated June 1996 by Jon Postel,
                and approve the role assigned to the Internet Society in this proposal.
                The Board authorises Postel, in his IANA role, to refine the proposal
                to include a business plan for review and approval by the Board."
July 1996
        Debates and refinement of plans
August 1996
        Debates, meetings and claims of an October 1st start
September 1996
        Operational registries start to appear
October 1996
        The balance of the Intellectual Infrastructure Fund is disclosed...
                <http://rs.internic.net/announcements/iif-update.html>
        "..through October 31, 1996, $8,542,200.00 has been deposited into the account."

        The Federal Networking Council Advisory Committee advises the NSF
                <http://www.fnc.gov/FNCAC_10_96_minutes.html>
                "The FNCAC reiterates and underscores the urgency of
                transferring responsibility for supporting U.S. commercial interests
                in ITLD administration from the NSF to an appropriate entity." 

November 1996
        "...through November 30, 1996, $9,911,000.00 has been deposited into the account."
        Commercial TRUE Root Name Servers start to appear...
        the NSF does not allow commercial registries to have TLD entries
        in the Root Name Servers they control...
        The NSF awards USC/ISI $1.5 million
                <http://www.nsf.gov/ftp/awards96/awd9615/a9615927.txt>

December 1996
        "...through December 31, 1996: $12,685,450.00 has been desposited into the account."
        The ISOC's IAHC gets started to provide recommendations to IANA
                http://www.iahc.org

        NSI ends 1996 registering about 80,000 names per month
        which is an approximate gross revenue of $8,000,000 per month
        at $100 per registration. That covers the first 2 years. On an
        annual basis, this amounts to approximately $48,000,000 per year.

January 1997
        IAHC debates continue...
        Plans are announced by NSI to launch ARIN to charge for IP addresses
                <http://www.arin.net>
        NSF gives NSI more money...
                <http://rs.internic.net/nsf/agreement/amendment5.html>
        NSI and the IANA announce plans to deploy TRUE Root Name Servers

February 1997
        IAHC recommendations to the IANA finalized
                <http://www.iahc.org/draft-iahc-recommend-00.html>

        Commercial registries which are now fully operational are
        still restricted from having their names entered into the widely
        used Root Name Servers controlled by the National Science
        Foundation. Companies are now actively deploying commercial
        Root Name Servers to replace the NSF supported servers.

< YOU ARE HERE>

September 1988
        Cooperative Agreement Ends...

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--
Jim Fleming
Unir Corporation

e-mail:
JimFleming () unety net
JimFleming@unety.s0.g0 (EDNS/IPv8)

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