Network Working Group M.M. Mealling Internet-Draft Network Solutions, Inc. Expires: September 30, 2000 April 2000 The Network Solutions Personal Internet Name (PIN): A URN Namespace for People and Organizations draft-mealling-pin-urn-00.txt Status of this Memo This document is an Internet-Draft and is NOT offered in accordance with Section 10 of RFC2026, and the author does not provide the IETF with any rights other than to publish as an Internet-Draft. Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html. This Internet-Draft will expire on September 30, 2000. Abstract This document describes a URN namespace that is engineered by Network Solutions, Inc for naming people and organizations. 1. Introduction In many cases, Network Solutions' directory applications require some unique and persistent way to talk about an individual or organization. For example, white pages services need to determine if one user is distinct from another even if some of the data happens to be the same. Also, e-commerce authentication mechanisms need to identify a user uniquely and possibly over large spans of time. In many cases a customer relationship can last several decades. Such long term customer relationships can outlast any specific email address, Internet service provider, surname, or possibly even the DNS itself. URNs are a uniquely suited solution for this due to the requirement that they also be unique and permanent. In addition, the Mealling Expires September 30, 2000 [Page 1] Internet-Draft NSI PIN URN Namespace April 2000 availability of a standardized resolution mechanism makes it possible for vastly different systems to utilize the PIN URN without needing to utilize an application or protocol specific element. This namespace specification is for a formal namespace. 2. Specification Template Namespace ID: "pin" requested. Registration Information: Registration Version Number: 1 Registration Date: 2000-04-30 Declared registrant of the namespace: Michael Mealling michaelm@netsol.com Network Solutions 505 Huntmar Park Drive Herndon, VA 22070 Declaration of structure: The structure of the NSS is a flat space of alphanumeric characters which have no knowable structure outside of the context of Network Solutions internal resolver. Relevant ancillary documentation: None Identifier uniqueness considerations: Identifiers are assigned by Network Solutions proprietary registration system in a way that guarantees uniqueness. Identifier persistence considerations: The assignment process guarantees that names are not reassigned and that the binding between the name and the entity named is permanent. Process of identifier assignment: Names are granted via Network Solutions proprietary registration procedures. Process of identifier resolution: PIN URNs are resolved via URN resolvers run by Network Solutions. The data and databases used by those resolvers is proprietary data and can only be accessed by the resolver. Rules for Lexical Equivalence: The entire URN is case-insensitive. Conformance with URN Syntax: There are no additional characters reserved. Validation mechanism: None additional to resolution specified Scope: Global Mealling Expires September 30, 2000 [Page 2] Internet-Draft NSI PIN URN Namespace April 2000 3. Examples The following examples are not guaranteed to be real. They are listed for pedagogical reasons only. URN:pin:bs4321234 URN:pin:324kj5hkj45 URN:pin:mm2136 4. Security Considerations Since the URNs in this namespace are opaque there are no additional security considerations other than those normally associated with the use and resolution of URNs in general. It is noted however that attempting to resolve a PIN URN through a resolver other than the one provided by Network Solution is prone to error and is not considered authoritative. References [1] Moats, R., "URN Syntax", RFC 2141, May 1997. Author's Address Michael Mealling Network Solutions, Inc. 505 Huntmar Park Drive Herndon, VA 22070 US Phone: +1 770 935 5492 EMail: michaelm@netsol.com URI: http://www.netsol.com Mealling Expires September 30, 2000 [Page 3]