Subject: [Ietf-not43] The Handle Issue

From: [email-masked] (Eric Brunner)
Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 23:21:42 -0400

> Andrew Newton wrote:
> > 
> > So I guess, before going after a or many possible solutions to the
> > problem, we should ask ourselves the following:
> > 
> >  1) Is this a problem many people would like solved?
> 
> Perhaps the problem should be split into several ones:
> 
> a) People need to maintain exactly the same information in several whois
> databases. This is something related to registrations, and we need to
> agree whether this is within the scope of this discussion group.

I assume that close to 300 instances of "whois" data bases exist, there
being some (x < 10) gTLD and sTLD registries, and some (y > 250) ccTLD
registries, and some (z < 6) RIR registries. Some other letters probably
have non-zero values and exist also.

"several" is an interesting variation on "one" and "all". In the interests
of equal ambiguity, I suggest that "same" be nuanced to mean something in
between matching one and matching all datums, and that "exactly" be nuanced
to mean something between when lucky and consistently.

Is this "in scope" for !43? Yes. (Is it "in scope" for 43? Yes. Unless shown
intractible on 43.)

> b) People need to know which database to query for a particular
> nic-handle.

Sigh. The problem with this (scoped uniqueness) is scope management, not
uniqueness. Catalog of catalogs (or ships), or root of roots (ICANN-esque),
a) (above) is what this reduces to. I'm me here, here, and here, but there
I'm slightly different. It is a sparce match problem.

> c) People don't know which nic-handle is theirs.

Huh? In .name sure. ;-)

> >  2) Or is this just a particular nit from R. Bush?

Has anyone seen my SRI NIC handle? I seem to have lost it. Me, circa 1987.
Reward. No questions asked. Thanks in advance. (Gratuitous particular nit)

Eric

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From: [email-masked] (Jaap Akkerhuis)
Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2001 15:25:20 +0200

Mine, from 1985 or so was also lost. Until it popped-up again: it
got recycled, causing interesting problems.

	jaap