"In this "New World" the science of map making has become the business of location promotion.

I would like to see a map of the world with the continents sized in proportion to the number of active web sites operating within each border. A second map could size the continents based on the number of domains registered within each country.

Posted by: Jack on September 23, 2002 04:43 PM

 

Jack, you referenced one of my favorite quotes so I thought a "thank-you for reading" reply was in order. The fact that so many good domain names go wasted isn't the focus of my proposal but I think it does provide good example of how unnecessary chaos has been allowed to corrode and corrupt Internet Navigation. A good resource for getting a glimpse at the extent of the problem is
www.whois.net/search.cgi2?as=1
It allows you to do keyword searches within just root domain names. On some keywords it's not unusual for 80% of the returned to links to be "under construction" or worse.

I also would like to thank John for posting a link to my Whatis proposal. Sorry it didn't provoke much interest.

-Gary

Posted by: Gary on September 23, 2002 08:16 PM

 

I was interested and I do agree. What I wonder is what exactly are the steps needed to implement this and how can we make sure that someone on the paid staff doesn't become corrupt? You might be able to start a project on Sourceforge.net.

Posted by: Morris Cox on September 24, 2002 12:37 AM

 

Regarding Corruption [its prevention]: as I see it, public scrutiny, and a well constructed working contract would take care of this problem. If employees know going in that thay will face HUGH [lifelong] penalties for ethics violations they won't take the risk. The reason they're is so much corruption in government and business is that the powerful have exempted themselves from swift and certain accountability.

Regarding the steps needed:
1. Try to make people who matter care, or people who care somehow matter.

2. The cause needs better representation. I am for whatever reason apparently very dislikable and make an ugly "posterchild". If we could just get some cultural icon like Britney Spears to say it's all her idea, reform would probably happen in like a week.

Posted by: Gary on September 24, 2002 10:28 AM