FW: [registrars] Teleconference Invitation: Whois

[Paul Stahura <stahura@enom.com>]

Ross,
I would like to be on the call.
Thanks for the invitation.
Paul

-----Original Message-----
From: Ross Wm. Rader [mailto:ross@tucows.com] 
Sent: Thursday, May 22, 2003 12:03 PM
To: registrars@dnso.org
Subject: [registrars] Teleconference Invitation: Whois


Folks,

Next week, there will be a community sponsored, open teleconference to
discuss how we can work within the ICANN process to start implementing
first steps towards a Whois that more appropriately suits the needs of
all affected stakeholders. There has been a lot of talk on the various
issues, public and private, but no actual sign-posts erected that would
allow us to see this issue towards a logical and appropriate conclusion.
This will not, of course, replace the policy development process, but
provide inputs to it and hopefully, early relief on key issues such as
access to data, privacy and accuracy.

Now is the time for registrars to take a leadership position within the
ICANN community and push for the creation and implementation of a
coherent whois policy that takes us beyond the current rhetoric and
conjecture and towards a resolution that we can all live with. This
isn't something that's going to happen by itself, but it is something
that interests working outside of the ICANN process might seize upon and
attempt to hand the ICANN community a solution that we had no input into
and doesn't suit our needs.

To this end, a group of registrars, business leaders, intellectual
property interests, generic and country registry operators, consumer
rights and other related parties are in the process of putting together
an open forum that will occur next week. Our goal is to start an open
and honest dialogue between impacted parties and identify points of
agreement that we can start building on. I must stress that this will be
an open forum with an agenda.  It will not be a closed session, but
progress is expected, so there will be boundaries and goals to the
discussion. We are in the process of identifying a facilitator that can
act as a neutral moderator of the discussion and ensure that the
continuum of positions each have a fair and appropriate opportunity to
be heard.

The call will occur next Friday, May 30, 2003. The final time and dialin
information still has not been established.

I am sending this message to the constituency membership now to ensure
that we can pre-book an appropriate number of teleconference ports and
finalize the call format to ensure maximum productivity.

If you would like to attend this open forum on Whois, please send an
RSVP back to the list. I may not be the person counting the final yea's
and nay's of who and who will not be in attendance, so it will just be
easier to use this mailing list as a collection point.

Similar invitations will go out, or have gone out, to other GNSO
constituencies and other key bodies with the ICANN community. As this is
an open call, please feel free to forward this notice to those whomever
you feel would like an opportunity to make a positive contribution.

In the meantime, start to give some consideration to what principle
attributes of the Whois you find most important and what your core
requirements are for Whois. Focusing on what is important to your
organization and what functions you would like to see maintained or
added will allow us to have a productive discussion focused on problem
solving.

For instance: 

Principle: Query based access to a coordinated Whois system upon the
presentation of valid credentials must continue to be maintained for
legitimate users.

Requirement: Implementations should rely on pre-existing IETF
standards-based or IETF standards-track based technologies.
Implementations *must not* require the development of new protocols.

I am just finishing up a Tucows document outlining our principles,
requirements and a proposal - it might be appropriate to use as a
lightning rod for constituency discussion and communication leading up
to the teleconference.

If you have any questions, feel free to drop me a line - preferably
on-list so that I don't have to answer the same question multiple times
;)

Thanks in advance,


           -rwr

-------------------------------
Ross Wm. Rader
Director, Innovation & Research
Tucows Inc.
tel: 416.538.5492
fax: 416.531.1257
email: ross@tucows.com
pager: rwr@tucows.com