[ARIN-Suggestions] NEW ACSP 2018.5: Unified RIR Policy Proposal Submission System

[ARIN]

On 29 March, we received a new suggestion, numbered 2018.4 upon 
confirmed receipt, requesting that the five Regional Internet Registries 
move to a unified policy proposal submission system.

https://www.arin.net/participate/acsp/suggestions/2018-5.html

Description: After my experience for the round I'd this month submitting 
my own record of policy proposals (I didn't count them, but I think it 
is about 15 in total ...), I have a suggestion for all you, if you allow 
me ...

I don't pretend with this to change each PDP, but because in many 
occasions policies are submitted in different regions (and sometimes the 
same authors ...) and because the fact that we have also global 
policies, I believe it will be useful to unify the submission system, 
which will also facilitate comparative work among you, such as the 
comparison among policies done by the NRO.

I'm not sure if also it will be possible to have the "same" fields in 
all the RIRs, sometimes you have different views, or it may depend on 
each specific PDP, but in general I think you're looking for the same 
info, just with different "field names".

Copied also German, not sure if NRO can help on this, if there is 
interest in coordinating a "unified" submission system ...

I also understand that you may need to escalate this, or if I need to 
send this suggestion to someone else, at each RIR, just let me know!

1) I like the LACNIC form: 
https://politicas.lacnic.net/politicas/new?language=en. It has a couple 
of minor mistakes. One is asking for a phone number (mandatory), I think 
it must not be mandatory, no sense today (I never like to provide my 
phone number, just email). The other one is that the number of 
characters it has been too short for one of my actual proposals, but 
that's easy to sort out.

2) However, I will strongly suggest that it allows also using Word, so 
we can use track of changes and better "visual" tools (numbering, 
bullets, etc., which are allowed in both doc and html). What I do for 
LACNIC right now is preparing my own doc, then copy and paste each 
"field", which is a non-sense extra work ... I think it will be easy if 
the form allows you to fill in the text, or upload a file in Word or txt 
(for those that don't like using Microsoft ...). Towards that, the form 
should provide and empty Word or txt template. For example, AfriNIC uses 
internally a two columns template, but they don't publish it, however 
you get it if you ask to review the policy proposal once submitted ... 
I've made myself a "version" of that one.

3) One possible improvement to the LACNIC form is to have TWO fields for 
"actual policy text" (which can be left empty for new text that doesn't 
exist in actual policies) and "proposed policy text". It can be 
"further" automated, if the "actual policy text" allows you to "pick" 
from the actual policy manual what section/sections you are trying to amend.

4) I love the way AfriNIC presents it (example 
https://www.afrinic.net/en/community/policy-development/policy-proposals/2331-ipv6-pi-update): 
two columns and two colors. It is close to what RIPE NCC do after the 
1st phase (draft document, example 
https://www.ripe.net/participate/policies/proposals/2018-01/draft), I 
think, but it is nice to have that since the beginning. The ideal will 
be to add a button that you can click and presents a "diff". Right now, 
in complex proposals I prepared my own "online" diff and sent to the 
list. For example: https://www.diffchecker.com/ly1DaDcb

5) Add to the form a waiver, which only RIPE NCC is asking right now 
with a mandatory check-box, and you're done! I've copied the actual 
waiver text from RIPE NCC under my signature, as may be some of you 
didn't realized the importance of that.

6) LACNIC also send you a "link" (or you can recover it online) once a 
policy proposal has been submitted, so you can edit new versions, and so 
on. Again, the only needed change, in my opinion, is to allow uploading 
a txt or doc file.
Do I need to send a global policy proposal for that ? ... I hope not !

Value to Community: Improving the system to submit policy proposals, and 
making it more "coordinated" across the different RIRs, improving 
facility to compare them, etc.

***

We are currently reviewing this suggestion, and we will issue our
response as soon as it is available.


Regards,


Communications and Member Services
American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)