1. Background

As Internet gains its popularity, the once purely academic and free research tool has become an important medium of communication. This change of status is accompanied by a shift in the value of certain Internet resources, in the mind of the public. Domain name is one of these resources. The Internet Domain Name System (DNS) was originally designed to save the users' trouble in memorizing cumbersome numeric IP addresses. With the infiltration of commercial interest, domain name has become a symbol of a company's presence on Internet and an advanced image of the company. There are already many notorious cases globally of grabbing and reselling domain names for profit, and litigation against individuals/companies controlling domain names that are registered trademarks, commonly used brand names and product names.

 Although the University has already obtained the proper Internet domain name of cuhk.edu.hk , ITSC finds it necessary to establish policies and guidelines on the assignment and creation of names within this sub-domain. They are to ensure the perpetuity of our unique image and an effective administration of the domain names.

2. Need for Control

From time to time, ITSC would receive request from individuals and units in the university community for creating new fourth level domain names under cuhk.edu.hk . Most of these requests are for promotion of specific projects or simply to show a distinction from another existing unit (e.g. wonderproj.cuhk.edu.hk , studygroup.cuhk.edu.hk ). But as there are numerous projects, large and small; and a large variety of organizations, formal and informal, in the University, it would be an unmanageable task to entertain all the requests. Also, as some projects/initiatives and organisations would come to an end and dissolve after a period of time, it would be difficult to continuously monitor the proper usage of all the assigned domain names.

 The uncontrolled proliferation of domain names within the University will ultimately hurt the image of the University. Fierce competition for popular names and short-forms; deprivation of individual departments' identities; and irresponsible content providers who make use of the University's goodwill could escape from accountability, are some of the problems we could envisage. The ITSC, being the department that manages the domain names within the University, sees the need for a set of clear, systematic, and University-endorsed policies and guidelines.

3. Policies and Guidelines

In order to restrain the proliferation of domain names, the ITSC has devised a set of simple yet fair and rational policies and guidelines for the University community as follows,

1. The naming conventions should reflect a coherent system and organization structure of the University;
2. The collective contribution of the organization, whether teaching, research or administrative, will not be undermined by individuals' effort to show off their work (achievements of a unit, individuals or projects should however be honoured in this medium by means of properly-prepared descriptions in web pages or service introduction);
3. The source of the information and services offered onto the Internet must be identifiable and be accountable for the accuracy and appropriateness.

The following policies and guidelines have been endorsed by the University in the assignment and creation of the fourth-level Internet domain names under cuhk.edu.hk

4. What will be granted

A unique fourth-level domain name would be assigned each of the departments, faculties, colleges, research institutes and centres, administrative and service units defined in the administrative structure of the University. Specific programmes of study created under one or several academic departments will usually not be granted with a fourth-level name unless they are so requested and that they have a unique role of accountability and administration different from any existing structure. (Note that this policy has been in effect since the deployment of domain names in the University.)

Examples:

• psy.cuhk.edu.hk (Dept of Psychology)
• ces.cuhk.edu.hk (Centre for Environmental Studies)

Campus-wide information and networking services regularly used by all campus and external users, symbolically not belonging to any department, will also be considered for a fourth-level domain name. At present, these services are managed by ITSC. (This policy has also been in effect.)

Examples:

• mailserv.cuhk.edu.hk (Campus-wide electronic mail server)
• www.cuhk.edu.hk (University WWW server)
• alumni.cuhk.edu.hk (Internet access services for alumni)

Organizations incorporated by the University with specific missions and separate administration and accountability will be considered for a fourth-level domain name.

Example:

• inl.cuhk.edu.hk (Information Networking Laboratories)

5. What will NOT be granted?

Sections, sub-units, functions, programs, projects, publications, and laboratories within the entities defined above will not be granted with a fourth-level domain name. Note that this restriction should not be taken as a hindrance to the trend of Internet presence. Instead, the concerned Internet services, whether in the form of web pages or application server, could be established under existing departmental or University servers. This is a means of showing proper accountability of accomplishments as well as content responsibility within a unit. Some good examples are:

• The Harmony Block project by Department of Architecture
  http://www.arch.cuhk.edu.hk/conference95/harmony/
• Astronomy photos by Department of Physics
  http://www.phy.cuhk.edu.hk/star/
• Academic support function of Microcomputer Application Support Section within Information Technology Services Centre
  http://mcas.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/mcas/mcac.htm
• Japanese Language Centre by Department of Japanese Studies
  http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/jas/jlcenter/jlcenter.htm
• U-Beat magazine, student publications by Department of Journalism and Communication
  http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/journal/ubeat/index.htm
• FTP server created by Department of Computer Science and Engineering
  ftp://ftp.cse.cuhk.edu.hk/
  

6. Guidelines in the choice of domain names

Names used in the fourth-level domain names (and those of higher levels) should be concise but clear enough to represent the corresponding entity within the University. In general, commonly used department/faculty/college abbreviations will be used, e.g. itsc, lib. Care would be taken to avoid names that are indecent, or that might confuse with existing names, registered trademarks and commonly-used product names. Whenever appropriate, the Internet document RFC2219, Use of DNS Aliases for Network Services, will serve as a prime reference for the creation of domain names for the University community.

7. Application Procedures

Application should be sent to hostmaster@cuhk.edu.hk