[ppml] Directory Services - Take 2

[Edward Lewis]

At 11:12 -0400 6/10/05, Leo Bicknell wrote:

>More to the point, if I am going to add something to the list, it
>needs widespread support.  So far I see two in the XML camp, one
>in the LDAP camp, and one in the IRIS camp.  That's neither concensus,
>nor a leading candidate.

Consensus and voting are two different things.  I have suggested IRIS 
(which uses XML as it's presentation format for those counting such 
things), hoping there would be some dialogue.

Is IRIS unknown to people on this list?  The reason I have raised 
IRIS is that it is an improvement over WhosIs and RWhoIs, it can 
replace the two of them.  IRIS is not yet complete, so it is a 
long-term replacement, not an immediate item.

>What troubles me most is that it seems a number of people would be
>willing to hold up all of the other reforms in this policy to piggy
>back on their favorite technology.  If the technology is widely
>desired by the ARIN membership then adding a single line to this
>policy later with an additional proposal should be a trival excercise.
>Pet protocols should not be pork barreled onto this policy as a way
>to ram them through.

My problems with the policy is that the terminology is inconsistent 
(which leads to interpretation problems) and that its detail varies 
from segment to segment.

Directory services is one of the major external functions of a 
registry (DNS, billing, registration are the others), yet I don't see 
any background material for this policy.  Has ARIN (membership, AC, 
staff) ever identified the constituencies that rely on the directory 
services?  Has there been constituency-by-constituency delineation of 
requirements for the directory services?

It's really hard to effectively evaluate a policy statement without 
understanding the underlying system.  It's like putting regulation 
ahead of the technology.

What "reforms" does this proposal bring?  Why is there the feeling 
that people are "piggy backing" "favorite technology" to prevent the 
reforms?  I have suggested that IRIS become a priority - but that's 
not the major problem I have with the proposal.

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Edward Lewis                                                +1-571-434-5468
NeuStar

If you knew what I was thinking, you'd understand what I was saying.