The US Government has just published a proposal to significantly alter the way that Domain Names, IP Address Allocation, and IANA functions are handled in the worldwide Internet.

This proposal can be viewed at:

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/domainname/022098fedreg.txt

There is a relatively short period for comment (about a month.)

If you are at all interested in these topics, I encourage you to read the proposal.

If you like it – send in a comment to that effect. If you don't like it, or don't like parts of it – also send in a comment. Well organized comments will, of course, carry more persuasive force.

People from outside the United States may also make comments. Indeed the non-US perspective could be particularly valuable and enlightening.

(If you want to look up statutory references, a good place to look is: http://law.house.gov/uscsrch.htm )

Consider this as an early exercise in Internet democracy.