RE: [ga] whois.txt, ala robots.txt, as a standard ?

[George Kirikos <gkirikos@yahoo.com>]

Hi Steven,

--- Steven Heath <Steven.Heath@Optimation.co.nz> wrote:
> > and a thought came to mind. Just as there is a "robots.txt"
> standard
> > for webcrawlers like Google, how about having a whois.txt standard
> that
> > folks can optionally use on their websites?
> 
> Interesting yet flawed idea. 

I'm glad you found it interesting. :) Just to be clear, I didn't want
it to be a *replacement* of the existing WHOIS -- just perhaps an
add-on, to those who want to provide more details that can't fit in
existing WHOIS, etc. i.e. an enhanced contact system....
 
> We all know on this list (as we can hardly call it an assembly now
> can we)
> that the domain names are more than HTTP related.

Definitely. Perhaps there are other protocols, besides HTTP that could
accomplish this instead.

 
> Domain names and all resulting detail that are called 'whois data'
> MUST be
> application or protocol neutral.

Definitely, the basis required WHOIS would remain....just thinking that
an enhancement might be of use by folks, e.g. for multiple languages,
more contacts than just the basic ones, etc. Perhaps simply an extra
field, which would allow a link to extra details (be it a http link,
gopher link, or who knows what other protocols folks can think up.....)
 
> The interesting thing about whois is that in New Zealand I can get
> full
> details on any company that is incorporated under NZ law. For

Nice! :) You're ahead of us in Ontario, Canada, I believe.

> Lets define what we are trying to achieve with whois data, then
> decide how
> to implement it.

Yep, just tossed it out for discussion. What kinds of data would folks,
as users, as registrants, etc. would they like to know about owners of
a website, besides the "basics" specified by ICANN or the ccTLDs?

1. Other languages?
2. Local offices?
3. Legal contacts?
4. Maps? (funky MapQuest links!)
5. Associated companies?
6. GPS data? (kind of like http://www.geourl.org/ which uses tags)
7. Banking/payment data, e.g. where to wire $$$$
8. Corporation numbers?
9. DUNS numbers?
10. Telex? (does anyone use this anymore?)
11. CUSIP number?
12. Stock symbol?
13. Logo?
14. Birthday? :) (for personal websites, remember, these are all
optional attributes!)

I think VGRS is committed to spending $200 million on enhanced WHOIS --
would be nice to see where that money has gone! :)

So, what else would folks like to see, OPTIONALLY, about owners of a
domain, besides the basics, in an ad-hoc standard ala robots.txt? Kind
of like a "V-card" for a domain. :) Maybe something like UDDI
(www.uddi.org)?

Perhaps all the above has already been done by some other
standard....just needs better promotion? (i.e. domain WHOIS is well
publicized and understood, whereas no one knows about the
alternatives...)

Sincerely,

George Kirikos
http://www.kirikos.com/
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