Thus spake Rodney Joffe
Some private messages have said that NSI claims the whois contact information is now their "property".
Not only. NSI has said publicly that this is the case. As does the data they return with each whois result :-)
Of course...I think this is a crock...as, I suspect, most of the people on this list thing...but that's not terribly relevant to my overall response...just wanted to throw my $.02 in ehre.
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A totally new from scratch database needs to be created. And it should *not* be me, GeekTools, or CenterGate. Or any individual. It needs to be controlled by a body trusted by all. What ICANN should have and could have been.
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So, while this discussion is interesting to some, unless the majority of lurkers here care enough to open their mouths and comment, we're just creating noise. So sad.
I agree that a whole new database should ultimately be created. As a sorta-lurker, I give my $.02 here. Whois sucks. As a protocol...its just pathetic IMO. Although its serviceable in its current incarnation...its *so* simplistic as to be a joke for the most part. I figure protocols exist to enable stuff (technical term). The whois protocol...being so simplistic doesn't really enable anything.... All of the current enabling is done in the back-end databasing and display engines. Let's face it...what we're trying to do here is directory services writ large. Something like NDS, or AD (shudder), or LDAP on a grand scale. Maybe these specific implementations wouldn't scale to what we need...I would guess LDAP would be the closest. I'd say we probably need to start from there...from a decent, enabling protocol...and build the service on that. Or perhaps, if the current protocols don't hack it, we need to build a new protocol and build the service on that. I really just think the whois protocol...as an access protocol to the database backend, just doesn't hack it. The addition of structure on the protocol will help do the referral, and delegation stuff that whois lacks and *DESPERATELY* needs. The lack of referral capability is what really prevents that setup from being distributed. The other suggestion I saw here...distributing stuff via DNS...seems like a hack (no offense to anyone...its a rather elegant hack...but still a hack). I tend to be of the opinion that overloading DNS with more and more functionality is causing more problems than it solves. Again...I think its being implemented fairly well...but the core solution to the problem is not optimal IMHO. Well...its early and my coffee hasn't made it into my bloodstream yet, so I'm not following through and explaining my ideas very well...I do think this discussion is a good one and will continue...hopefully I'll be able to flesh out my ideas and present them better later on. :) -- Jeff McAdams Email: jeffm@iglou.com Head Network Administrator Voice: (502) 966-3848 IgLou Internet Services (800) 436-4456