[ppml] Directory Services - section 3.4.3

[Robert E. Seastrom]

Owen DeLong <owen at delong.com> writes:

   Well... DVD burners have improved a bit from last time I looked.  The newest
   ones are up to 16x, while CD burners continue to limp along at about 54x.

   However, I don't share your optimism about the pricing on the media.  As to
   long term thinking, when it comes to something that long term, the policy
   can easily be changed when we get to that point.

I think the list manager software may have eaten a previous post I
made with comments on this subject, so please forgive if this is
redundant.

The folks who suggest a policy that explicitly permits arbitrary media
on a cost-recovery basis are setting ARIN up for a huge annoyance of
one-offs.  The procedure for making a database copy for a customer
should be "insert blank media, push button, put label on media, put
media in envelope, put envelope in fedex".  It should be a process
that is sufficiently automated that one has an intern do it, not an
engineer.

I don't think the policy should not specify a media type or a file
format though.  The policy should leave media type(s) up to ARIN staff
and stipulate that they be reviewed periodically, without specifying
an interval so as to allow staff maximum flexibility to upgrade when
media type evolution or acute space shortage make it reasonable to do
so.

                                        ---Rob

PS: The media cost for DVD vs. CD is so small in the context of the
other fixed costs in delivering a copy (labor, cardboard mailer,
shipping, order processing and handling) as to be safely ignored.
Personally, I like the idea of DVD because it allows the flexibility
to put the database on it in multiple different file formats without
undue concern about running out of space on the media as a result.
The LERG, for instance, is provided in both
position-sensitive-card-image and MS Access formats (not that I'm
suggesting either of those).  That leaves open the possibility of
simultaneously having tab-separated, sql database dump, XML, other
experimental or transitional formats.