The ten day period for comments on the plans to completely privatize the coordination of the domain name system will run up to, and including, Tuesday October 13. There are three plans on the web site of the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Agency (NTIA), which is overseeing the process (10/05/98). The three proposals come from the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), the Boston Working Group and Ronda Hauben, a private individual and author. In a separate development, the House Science Committee’s subcommittee on basic research and the subcommittee on technology is holding a joint hearing on the DNS privatization process tomorrow, October 7. The witnesses called so far are heavy hitters one and all. They are Becky Burr, senior internet policy advisor at the NTIA, Gabe Battista, chief executive of Network Solutions Inc, the current holder if the exclusive contract for the .com, .net and .org registry, Jon Postel, director of the IANA and Tamar Frankel, who chaired most of the International Forum on the White Paper (IFWP) conferences through the summer. The proposals are at https://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/domainname/domainhome.htm where the addresses for comments can also be found.