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Date:	Mon, 23 Jan 2006 14:34:15 PST8
From:	"Mark D. Overholser" <os2@markoverholser.com >
Reply-To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
Subject:	SCOUG-Help: Alternative Internet...?

Content Type: text/plain

Martin Rosenfeld wrote:

> I read in the Wall Street Journal that people in other countries are
> developing alternatives to The Internet. They are either jealous of or
> mad at the United States and feel that we should not control The
> Internet. Work on the alternative internets is especially strong in
> Europe (Germany, et al.) and China. I wonder if anyone can explain
> exactly what is being developed as an alternative to The Internet.
>
> I can imagine three possible scenarios:
>
> (1) Set up new domains that existing routers and servers don't understand.
>
> (2) Send signals over existing wire and wireless networks using new
> protocols incompatible with The Internet.
>
> (3) Built an entirely new wire and wireless backbone not physically
> connected to The Internet.
>
> I imagine that some of (1) and (2) are taking place, and possibly a bit
> of(3). Can anyone fill in any details?
>
> Martin
>

A Google Search:
<http://www.courant.com/business/hc-wsjinternet.artjan22,0,4344057.story?coll=hc-headlines-business>

Seems to have some of your answers....

It seems to come down to the DNS system, and who controls it.
Everything else is the same..

"Some Quotes"...

"German computer engineers are building an alternative to the Internet
to make a political statement. A Dutch company has built one to make
money. China has created three suffixes in Chinese characters
substituting for .com and the like, resulting in websites and e-mail
addresses inaccessible to users outside China. The 22-nation Arab League
has begun a similar system using Arabic suffixes."

<< BIG SNIP >>

"Grundmann was surprised that a pillar of the U.S.-led system would want
anything to do with him. He told Vixie that he set up ORSN in February
2002 because of his distrust of the Bush administration and its foreign
policy. He fears that Washington could easily "turn off" the domain name
of a country it wanted to attack, crippling the Internet communications
of that country's military and government."

<< BIG SNIP >>

Twelve other computer scientists - mostly in Germany, Austria and
Switzerland - have agreed to help run the new root. Close to 50 Internet
service providers in a half-dozen European countries now use ORSN.

<< BIG SNIP >>

A company called UnifiedRoot, based in Amsterdam, has taken things a
step further than ORSN. In late November, it began offering customers
the right to register any suffix of their choosing, such as replacing
.com with the name of their company. The price is $1,000 to register,
and an additional $250 each year thereafter.

The company has established its own root and signed up Amsterdam's
Schiphol Airport, among other companies, according to Erik Seeboldt, the
managing director of UnifiedRoot. These companies can use their own
brand name as a domain name to create addresses such as
arrivals.schiphol, he said. Users of UnifiedRoot can also access all
sites using Icann-approved domain names such as .com, but Icann users
couldn't go to a .schiphol address, he said.

"We want to bring freedom and innovation back to the Internet," Seeboldt
said. The Internet service provider Tiscali SpA, which has 5 million
subscribers in Europe, and some of Turkey's largest service providers
use UnifiedRoot's naming system.

Some countries with non-Roman alphabets are also taking matters into
their own hands. China has created three domain names in Chinese
characters - .zhongguo, .gongsi and .wangluo - and made them available
for public and commercial use inside China only.

In the past 18 months, Arab countries also have experimented with
country code domain names in Arabic, distinct from the Icann system,
said Khaled Fattal of Surrey, England. Fattal is head of Minc.org, a
nonprofit organization dedicated to making the Internet multilingual.

"End Quotes"

MarkO

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