Subject: Electronic domains for Indians and others
Date: 12 Nov 1994 06:47:48 -0800
Keywords: Internet, tribe, nation, email
Because individuals and groups of people feel it is important to
be called by the right names, I have been thinking about a problem
that is going to emerge as more indigenous groups come online.
Internet addresses usually have a geographical or organizational
address:
@bigsky.dillon.mt.us = Big Sky Telegraph in Dillon, Montana
@apple.com = Apple Computer, a commercial site
@nysernet.org = NYSERNet, a regional Internet provider
What is the best designator for Indian tribes, Alaskan corporations,
Hawai`ians, and all the other peoples around the world that may
come online and not fall into the above categories.
Geographical designator: if you use the state and country, some tribes
don't want to be identified that way. Even if the tribe does not mind,
there may be other complications--Navajo lands are in more than one
state.
The other domains: .org, .com, .net, .mil, .gov, .edu work for some
uses, but it does not represent all the activities a people may
engage it, or rathe there is no single term that would cover
schools, health service, tribal headquarters, library, casino,
businesses.
I have asked a few others for their input.
.res or .rez was suggested but many Indians are off the reservation,
and the term is meaningless to many other peoples who don't live
on delimited reservations.
two letter country names were suggested: .eu .ca .jp etc... but
there are not enough two letter combinations to cover all the
non-U.N. nations/peoples who have a strong cultural identity
and may eventually be interested in this problem.
The best I heard was .ind which could mean 'independent' or 'Indian'
or 'indigenous' but again, it is bound to English and a few other
Romance languages for those meanings.
I am on the advisory board of the Internet Society, and I'll be glad
to summarize the discussion I hope we can have to see if some satisfactory
resolution can be reached.
Steve Cisler
Apple Library
sac@apple.com
(on the road for a week and perhaps offline)