DomainTools Blog

I love new TLDs however I hate the Dot Post proposal. Sponsored TLDs should not be allowed anymore. DotPro and DotMusuem are good examples of why sponsored TLDs should not be allowed. Setting up one company to dictate a TLD seems to be a bad idea that goes against the core principal of the free democratic nature of the Internet.

If you want a domain, you should be allowed to registered it, first come first serve. The Universal Postal Union (part of the UN) wants a separate TLD just for themselves to dictate. The UN already has DotInt. They can setup whatever they want at Example.Int. So they should set up Post.Int.  Their proposal to ICANN for .Post can simply be done one level below .Int and it would not require ICANN. Why are they complicating their idea with ICANN?  If they have a good idea they should just implement it under a sub-domain. Being a root domain doesn’t make the idea better. If the idea is worth its salt it can work under DotInt.

I think Countries should be the only organizations that control a global top level name space. Everything else should be run by competitive registries on a first come first serve basis. If people want to control top level name space, let them set up space and have UDRP procedures for people that abuse the nature of the space. Set up the space with rules, then allow anyone to register in it.  Assume everyone is following the rules and don’t check registrations as they sign up. If someone feels that someone in that name space is violating the rules they can challenge the entity.

I favor the creation of as many TLDs as the market will bear. If you want a domain in a new name space, just register it.

I would love to see Postal Mail being addressed with DNS entries but I don’t believe that the DNS entry should have to exist under a special name space. Just publish an RFC on how it should work and let the technical people enable their own DNS to operate with those specs.

We all know the Postal System can deliver mail to a famous person based on just their name as as the recipient address. So why not send postal mail using just a domain name as the recipient address? Every year kids write to Santa Claus. If someone writes, “The President” as recipient address the postal system will figure it out and deliver the letter. If someone writes, “Madonna” as the recipient address it will make it to the singer named Madonna. You can literally write anything you want on the recipient address and the post office will figure out how to deliver it.

The problem with mail in the US right now is that we use real addresses. If you change addresses and you fail to update someone who knew your old address then you might lose your mail. If you change your address they force you to update everyone that knows where you are. It is really backwards if you think about it because on the Internet we give out Domain Names. A domain name can be routed to any physical IP address in the world and the DNS will tell the user where the domain is. The domain can change its IP address several times and the web browser always figures out where the new server is. So why in the US do we give out real addresses; why don’t we give out a unique ID? A domain is unique, so why not use a domain name? If I change my address I would only need to tell one person, my Registrar. The post office can then deliver the mail to my address. If I had a magazine subscription or other mail I would not need to contact each company that sends me stuff. I would just give them my domain name for delivery of postal mail.

So here is my solution: Why not write down the domain name of the recipient on the letter? If this catches on, everyone will use domain names as a layer in front of their real postal address. A baby could be given a domain name at birth and as that child grows up and moves out all they need to do is update their whois record for their own domain name. The Postal Domain would allow mail to be delivered to the new address. People could choose to give out different domain names for different types of mail. JayWesterdal.com would always find where I live. NameIntelligence.com would always find where my office is. Imagine knowing the Postal Domain for friends in your Second Grade Class. Those addresses would still be valid. Currently I have no way of finding anyone from my second grade class. People move away and addresses change, if we had a Postal Domain back then it would be so easy to track down people from your past. The postal system should use domain names in front of real addresses!

If we all do it, the Post Office will be forced to adapt. They will be forced to do a whois lookup and figure out the address. Let’s try it out, send me a letter or a postcard and I will post a picture of every letter that makes it to me. Don’t put a return address on the envelope, the post office will likely be lazy and just return it. But if there is no return address I bet they will do the work and figure out where I live based just on the domain name. Better yet, put your domain name in the return address area.

As I receive the letters I will post them on this blog and tag every blog article with the tag “Postal Domain”. Now I wonder if this will work internationally too? Someone from outside the US, please try this too.