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Cyhist Dec. 12 1997 A
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========================================================================= Date: Fri, 12 Dec 1997 01:30:20 -0500
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: t byfield <tbyfield@PANIX.COM>
Subject: archiving DNS records?
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Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
For the past several weeks, I've been involved in an interesting (boring, really) tussle with the NIC over shifting some domains between ISPs. Our old ISP filed some bizarre and unauthorized modifications to our domains, then went belly up in the middle of our move. The resulting mess amounts to a series of catch-22s: the contacts for domain A can't approve any of the modifications for domain B, and vice versa, more or less. This scene has made very clear a curious aspect of the existing DNS system: because its primary purpose is currency and functionality, it amounts to nothing more than a "snapshot" of the net at any given moment. All well and good until a situation like this erupts, where I've found that what I need is a *historical* account of the domains in question--for example, to estab- lish that "ownership" should take precedence over modification procedure. As time passes, this kind of question will become more pressing--in ways that we'd be hard pressed to predict. But, as it stands, the snapshot of the present is publicly accessible, whereas historical records (in other words, anything that differs) effectively disappear into the archives of the NIC--not that anyone there has admitted their existence to me. Given all the emphasis on archiving--of usenet (definitely), of the web (exper- imentally), of MOOs and MUDs (speculatively)--I wonder whether archiving DNS records wouldn't actually provide a more important record of how the net has evolved. Are any such efforts underway? Any thoughts about this?
Ted
--
"It was in the nineteenth century that each person began to have the right
to his little box for his little personal decomposition." --M. Foucault
______________________________________________________________________
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: t byfield <tbyfield@PANIX.COM>
Subject: archiving DNS records?
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
For the past several weeks, I've been involved in an interesting (boring, really) tussle with the NIC over shifting some domains between ISPs. Our old ISP filed some bizarre and unauthorized modifications to our domains, then went belly up in the middle of our move. The resulting mess amounts to a series of catch-22s: the contacts for domain A can't approve any of the modifications for domain B, and vice versa, more or less. This scene has made very clear a curious aspect of the existing DNS system: because its primary purpose is currency and functionality, it amounts to nothing more than a "snapshot" of the net at any given moment. All well and good until a situation like this erupts, where I've found that what I need is a *historical* account of the domains in question--for example, to estab- lish that "ownership" should take precedence over modification procedure. As time passes, this kind of question will become more pressing--in ways that we'd be hard pressed to predict. But, as it stands, the snapshot of the present is publicly accessible, whereas historical records (in other words, anything that differs) effectively disappear into the archives of the NIC--not that anyone there has admitted their existence to me. Given all the emphasis on archiving--of usenet (definitely), of the web (exper- imentally), of MOOs and MUDs (speculatively)--I wonder whether archiving DNS records wouldn't actually provide a more important record of how the net has evolved. Are any such efforts underway? Any thoughts about this?
Ted
--
"It was in the nineteenth century that each person began to have the right
to his little box for his little personal decomposition." --M. Foucault
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