[ppml] Last Call for Comment: Policy Proposal 2003-5

[Michael.Dillon at radianz.com]

>I was given an augument against making it generic since ARIN only
>allows for ip reassignment information to be of the form of a SWIP or
>RWhois server. If ARIN allows for another form of distributed lookup
>service such as using a LDAP based service (like referral LDAP) or XML 
based 
>service (like IRIS), then it should be made more general at that point.

I strenuously disagree.

ARIN policies should not contain irrelevant details. In this case, SWIP 
and Rwhois are irrelevant details.

The root purpose of this policy is to specify that organizations who have 
received IP address space must keep track of where they are used (maintain 
an IP address directory) and must publish the directory of IP address 
usage. They can choose to either publish the directory by submitting 
regular updates to ARIN for inclusion in a central directory or they can 
publish the directory themselves by maintaining a publicly accessible 
server connected to the Internet 24/7.

That is the core essentials of what we are trying to do here. Any 
additional language should be there to make things clearer and easier to 
understand, not to restrict the policy only to the specifics of the way 
things were. Times change and sometimes we will need to change policies 
because of that, however that is not an excuse for making brittle 
policies.

Also, please remember the audience. The people who will spend the most 
time reading our policies will be people who know very little about ARIN. 
Let's not force them to dig into obscure details like SWIP and rwhois in 
order to understand what the policy is trying to say. This is a mistake 
that was often made in the past but we don't have to repeat it.

--Michael Dillon