In earlier posts we began looking at the issue of data in the APNIC Whois Database. The issue of whois accuracy is a perennial one that is not easily resolved in a consensus-based decision-making process.
Izumi Okutani of JPNIC noted that some operators may be reluctant to include accurate information of truly responsible Points of Contact because they fear they will be overwhelmed by the amount of traffic it generates – both legitimate communications and non-legitimate.
“One of the things that was suggested informally was that maybe, in addition to Whois, have some kind of shared contacts between, for example, LIRs, for them to be able to immediately exchange information in case of abuse. But it’s not going to be made available to the public,” she said.
So public whois information would still be required, but between operators, a confidential set of contacts could be exchanged to allow for escalation of genuine requests from other technicians.
Although the Fukuoka discussion around quality, accuracy and scope of data in the whois was a good beginning, it quickly became clear that the range of solutions and suggestions could fall well beyond the scope of policy and outside the Charter of the Policy SIG.
In the past such a discussion may have taken place in the dedicated Database SIG. However, that particular SIG was dissolved at APNIC 32 due to a lack of participation. The charter of the Database SIG is to examine developments in the operation of the APNIC Whois Database and to discuss related issues affecting registration practices, database security, specification of objects and database features.
Clearly there are still database issues that need to be discussed within the APNIC community. There are those I have already mentioned in earlier posts, but there are more. The APNIC Whois shares a code base with the RIPE NCC database, which has recently had a number of upgrades that could be implemented in our own.
It has been suggested and agreed in the APNIC 39 Policy SIG meeting that a review of the Charter would enable these decisions and discussions to take place in the Policy SIG as the most efficient venue for participation and consensus decision making.
The charter of the Policy SIG is to develop policies and procedures which relate to the management and use of Internet address resources by APNIC, NIRs, and ISPs within the Asia Pacific region.
This will be finalized at the APNIC 40 Conference in Jakarta, but the discussion of a revised Charter will start soon on the mailing list.
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