[dns-operations] TLD(s) for private use

[Geert Jan de Groot]

I would be in favor of having a TLD that is known never to be delegated
as Warren proposes. A little background:
These days I am developing semiconductor-chip lithography machines:
large and very, very, very complex machines that are used to do pattern
projection with sub-nanometer accuracy to produce computer chips.

These machines have several hundred computer nodes all working
together to yield the required accuracy. We're not talking simply
computers, but in some cases even gate arrays that implement a
protocol stack. In many aspects we're very close to theoretical
physical limits, which is why these things are so complex.
To use commercial components where possible, DNS is used inside.

The current internally-used TLD stems from a long time before
the "many new TLD" activities even started, and I worry someone
will sunrise it. I did not make the decision for the approach we
now have, but I do have to deal with it's consequences.

"registering a domain to prevent someone else deploying it" doesn't
work very well because our machines have a very long economic lifetime
because of cost - we're still supporting 20-year old machines and
know we'll need to do so for a long time, and for "current" machines
we're also looking at a decade or so and likely much longer.

The dynamics of this industry is very different from the 
Internet industry we all know. For better or worse, having 
'internal' or similar would go a long way to convince powers that be
that the approach used should change.

Just trying to share a different point of view,

Geert Jan