Re: [ga] nTLD going gTLD

[John Charles Broomfield <jbroom@manta.outremer.com>]

Hi William,
	Would you mind informing us of an example or two of codes in
ISO-3166 which have been entered not at the request of any given government
and which are not affiliated with national governments?
Yours, John Broomfield.

> Hello;
> 
> This excerpt (see below) about ISO-3166 codes on the DIN Website could lead
> one to inappropriately believe that only national governments are the
> source of the ISO-3166 list, which is the basis for the current ccTLD
> two-letter domain names. In fact, the UN is itself the primary source of
> the ISO-3166 list, not the DIN, and many of the codes in the UN list are
> not affiliated with national governments, nor are they ever likely to be
> affiliated with national governments. 
> 
> If you read the complete DIN Webpage that was cited at
> (http://www.din.de/gremien/nas/nabd/iso3166ma/get_name.html), DIN says:
> 
> "How to get a country name into ISO 3166-1
> 
> There are two ways new entries can be added to the list of ISO 3166-1: 
> 
> A) A new entry is shown in the United Nations lists of country names.
> 
> These lists given in the UN Bulletin "Country Names" and in the code list
> of the "Standard Country or Area Codes for Statistical Use" are
> authoritative inputs for ISO 3166-1. By using UN lists of country names the
> ISO 3166/MA stays as politically neutral as possible. 
>       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> 
> B) Country names can be entered in ISO 3166-1 on request"
> 
> It is the unusual circumstance that an ISO-3166 code is made "On Request"
> to which item III (below) is referenced. In fact, the UN - not any national
> government - primarily determines membership on the ISO-3166 list. And the
> UN itself says this list does not designate "national status" or national
> recognition by the UN:
> 
> "a/ The designations employed and the presentation of country or area names
> in this list do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the
> part of the Secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status
> of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or
> concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The user of any
> particular dataset should consult the dataset documentation to determine
> the exact coverage of statistics for the country or area entities in the
> dataset. Various datasets may or may not include coverage of outlying and
> overseas areas, depending on the type of data and source." (see
> http://www.un.org/Depts/unsd/methods/m49alpha.htm and other UN statistical
> pages with similar disclaimers)
> 
> Bill Semich
> .NU Domain
> 
> At 12:28 AM 1/5/00 +0100, Elisabeth Porteneuve wrote:
> <major snip>
> 
> >On the other hand we read "How to get a country name into ISO 3166-1"
> >    http://www.din.de/gremien/nas/nabd/iso3166ma/get_name.html: 
> >
> >    III. A request for the inclusion of a country name (or the name of 
> >         a dependent area) in ISO 3166-1 must originate from the national 
> >         government of the country or from the national standards body 
> >         of that country. The ISO 3166/MA rejects any request which is 
> >         not accompanied by a written statement from the national goverment 
> >         explicitly agreeing to and supporting the request. 
> >
> >The problem arises when the ISO3166 code, which request originates from
> >the national government (and as such is a national patrimony), is not
> >"in service of the Country and people of such country to which it belongs".
> >
> >Elisabeth Porteneuve
> 
> 
> Bill Semich
> President and Founder
> .NU Domain Ltd
> http://whats.nu
> bill@mail.nic.nu
>