ICANN says ISOC for .org

09/24/2002 

The Internet Corp for Assigned Names and Numbers yesterday said it still thinks the Internet Society and Afilias Ltd is the best choice to run the .org top-level internet domain, when VeriSign Inc's contract expires December 31. 

The recommendation, which is still subject to board approval, comes after a period of public comment on the processes used to select ISOC from 11 applications. Applicants that were not recommended said the three evaluations were flawed, and Oracle Corp's marketing department last week criticized Afilias's choice of database software. 

"Although the comments contained much useful insight and, indeed, pointed out some errors in the original evaluations, none of these errors was sufficiently material to change the ultimate conclusion," ICANN said in its Final Staff Evaluation Report. The staff recommends ISOC, followed by NeuStar Inc and Global Name Registry Ltd. 

The recommendation is based on a technical evaluation from Gartner Inc and on a usage policy evaluation carried out by members of ICANN's non-commercial domain name holders' constituency (NCDNHC). Gartner recommended five applications, but ISOC's was the only one to be recommended by the NCDNHC. 

Eight of the applicants said they would use an Oracle database to manage the .org domain registry, with one opting for Microsoft Corp software. ISOC and one other bidder said they would use PostgreSQL, open-source database management software. Afilias has successfully deployed PostgreSQL in its .info registry, but Oracle was not happy. 

Details at: http://www.theregus.com/content/6/26404.html