"The number (M) needs to at least exceed 6" Why is 6 the magic number? "the diversity of root server organizations is inadequate" It's been quite adequate so far, as in the root is served quite well by these RSOs. "it's clear that 10 are private sector organizations, 3 are US government agencies, and that there are no CS or intergovernmental organizations involved." First of all, the above is incorrect: I count at least 4 (5, really) CS bodies running root-servers (and it's unclear to me WHY any of them NEED to be run by CS groups), but nevertheless, they are: "F" Internet Systems Consortium, Inc. (ISC) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) public benefit corporation dedicated to supporting the infrastructure of the universal connected self-organizing Internet from isc.org www K - RIPE NCC - "The RIPE NCC is an independent, not-for-profit membership organisation that supports the infrastructure of the Internet through technical co-ordination in its service region. " from ripe.net www L - ICANN - The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is an internationally organized, non-profit corporation that has responsibility for Internet Protocol (IP) address space allocation, protocol identifier assignment, generic (gTLD) and country code (ccTLD) Top-Level Domain name system management, and root server system management functions. M - WIDE Project - The WIDE Project, an industry-government-academia..... working in close cooperation with international organizations such as IETF and ISOC is part of a technology consortium aimed at providing solutions to current issues and standardizing network and Internet related technologies. Then there is "I" run by Autonomica/NORDUnet. NORDUnet is the result of the NORDUNET programme (1986 to 1992) financed by the Nordic Council of Ministers. So a non-USG governmental effort, plus Autonomica, run by a Foundation (Stiftelsen för Telematikens utveckling) I count as "I" as CS as well. I would say that the Universities are NOT USG agencies OR PS. They both seem to be State Universities run by their Board of Regents. They can't really be classified as PS or USG. So, by my count, there are 3 PS: A - VeriSign Global Registry Services C - Cogent Communications J - VeriSign Global Registry Services 5 CS as above 2 run by Academia B - Information Sciences Institute at USC D - University of Maryland which leaves 3 run by USG agencies E - NASA Ames Research Center G - U.S. DOD Network Information Center H - U.S. Army Research Lab It all seems pretty multi-stakeholder to me. Who would you suggest hold the keys or run these servers? Are you sure the folk you have in mind would want to foot the bill? Do they have the capacity to be rootops so?