DNS: Domain Name System History
Interview with Paul Mockapetris, Creator of DNS, discussing new gTLDs and name collisions
Video Interview
Paul Mockapetris shares insights on the evolution of DNS and the introduction of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs).
Summary
Paul Mockapetris, widely credited as the creator of the Domain Name System (DNS), reflects on the new generic top-level domain (gTLD) program. He supports expanding choice and innovation in domain names, noting that name collisions and related concerns have been part of DNS history since its early days. Examples include issues with country code TLDs like .at and .cs causing misrouted mail, yet the system adapted. He recommends balanced caution with forward progress at "Internet speed," leveraging past experience and new safeguards rather than excessive delays that could stagnate the internet.
Full Transcript
Interviewer: Paul Makapetris, thank you very much for taking the time to talk to us.
Paul Mockapetris: Good to be here.
Interviewer: You're generally credited with being the creator of the domain name system, the DNS. In that context, what do you think of the new generic top-level domain, new GTLD program?
Paul Mockapetris: Well, as you know, there's about a couple thousand of them that have been proposed. And I'm sure that some of them are silly and some of them are invaluable and so forth. But I think moving forward and letting people have choice is an important goal. I'm particularly concerned about making sure that we have the ability to add new top-level domains at whatever rate we would like, because the technology is not supposed to limit the choice. You know, you can have various administrative and policy arguments about, only the city of Paris should own the Paris top-level domain, and that might displease some people in Iowa. But it's working out the compromise, and the technology should not stand in the way of that compromise.
Interviewer: Nobody has a greater history with the DNS than you do. There have been expressions of concern about various aspects of the GTLD program. Are those sorts of concerns unprecedented in the history of the DNS?
Paul Mockapetris: No, those kinds of worries have been around since the very early days. Let me tell you a few stories from the start...
Paul Mockapetris: ...My personal view is that this is a problem that we need to solve. But in the past, we've got collisions when we added Czechoslovakia, computer science mail got disrupted. It's nothing new...
Paul Mockapetris: Yeah. No. We have a history of dealing with it. I think the thing that's new here is that there are many more domains... We have to be able to innovate here at Internet speed. The Internet does not wait for us to catch up.
Interviewer: Paul, thank you very much. Appreciate you taking the time.
Paul Mockapetris: Sure, not a problem.
Full transcript of the interview with Paul Mockapetris.