[gnso-rds-pdp-wg] For your review - updated RDS Statement of Purpose

[Anderson, Marc]

I appreciate the concerns Chuck and others have raised that we are spending too much time on the RDS statement of purpose.  I know many of us (myself included) are anxious to get to get to the requirements deliberation phase.  That said it’s important that we do a proper job drafting the RDS statement of purpose.  As a PDP we’ll be judged on the quality of our work and the statement of purpose will be a very visible output.  Rushing through this will not serve us well in the long run

With a goal of wrapping this up quickly and efficiently in mind, I’ll skip the intro and goals section and get right to the purpose section.

Purpose 1:  A purpose of gTLD registration data is to provide information about the lifecycle of a domain name (as specified by ICANN’s Diagram of gTLD Lifecycle) to enable management of a domain name registration.

I agree that the first part of that statement “…provide information about the lifecycle of a domain name (as specified by ICANN’s Diagram of gTLD Lifecycle)” is a purpose of RDS.  The second part however “to enable management of a domain name registration” does not belong in a purpose statement.  This deals with a potential use case which I’m sure we’ll discuss in the requirements deliberation phase.  I would suggest an updated purpose 1 read:  “A purpose of gTLD registration data is to provide information about the lifecycle of a domain name (as specified by ICANN’s Diagram of gTLD Lifecycle).”

Purpose 2: A purpose of a system to collect, maintain, and provide access to gTLD registration data (hereafter referred to as “the RDS”) is to provide information that is needed by authorized parties to operate a gTLD generic top-level domain name in the DNS.

I have concerns with this second purpose statement.  Purpose 2 provides a definition of RDS and one that I don’t feel is accurate.  RDS does not collect or maintain gTLD registration data.  It does provide access to that data, but as I said on the call the Registration system itself that registries make accessible to registrars via EPP is the system that collects and maintains gTLD registrations data.  For purpose 2 how about: “A purpose of RDS is to provide information that is needed by authorized parities to operate a generic top-level domain name in the DNS”.

Purpose 3:  Further specific purposes of the RDS include:

a.       To enable contact with registrants, registrars, (registries?), and proxy/privacy service providers associated with gTLD domain names, for specific policy-defined purposes.

b.      To enable release of accurate gTLD registration data that may not otherwise be publicly available, under specific and explicit policy-defined conditions

I’m not sure why this is broken into a 3a and 3b.  They don’t appear related and should be purpose 3 and 4 respectively.  RDS doesn’t include registry data, so only registrants, registrars and proxy/privacy providers apply.  The “for specific policy-defined purposes” doesn’t belong in a RDS purpose statement, it’s more appropriate to the requirements deliberation phase.  An updated Purpose 3 would read: “A purpose of RDS is to facilitate contact with registrants, registrars and proxy/privacy service providers associated with generic top-level domain names.”

For 3b I don’t necessarily agreed with “accurate” in the purpose statement.  Having accurate data may be a goal, but the purpose is to display the data of record.  In fact a potential use case is to facilitate the correction of inaccurate data.  The “under specific and explicit policy-defined conditions” again refers to a potential requirement of RDS but not a purpose.  A new purpose 4 would read: “A purpose of RDS is to enable the release of gTLD registration data that may not otherwise be publicly available.”

Looking at these 4 purposes I think there is a theme.  You could say that they could all be rolled up in the statement “The purpose of RDS is to provide access to information about domain names in a TLD.”  As Whois today also provides information about Registrars and Name Servers, perhaps a more fulsome consolidated RDS purpose statement could be:


The Purpose of RDS is to provide access to information about Domain Names, Name Servers and Registrars in a TLD.


Thank you,
Marc Anderson


From: gnso-rds-pdp-wg-bounces at icann.org [mailto:gnso-rds-pdp-wg-bounces at icann.org] On Behalf Of Marika Konings
Sent: Wednesday, September 28, 2016 1:12 PM
To: gnso-rds-pdp-wg at icann.org
Subject: [gnso-rds-pdp-wg] For your review - updated RDS Statement of Purpose

Dear All,

Please find attached for your review the updated statement of purpose which aims to reflect the changes discussed during yesterday’s meeting. You are all encouraged to review this version, especially the section ‘Specific Purposes for Registration Data and Registration Directory Services’, and share your input with the mailing list prior to next week’s meeting. Also note that a couple of WG members (Marc & Fabrizio) volunteered to provide updated language for two specific parts of the document which have been flagged accordingly, so please hold your comments on those parts until the proposed language has been circulated.

Best regards,

Marika

Marika Konings
Senior Policy Director & Team Leader for the GNSO, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)
Email: marika.konings at icann.org<mailto:marika.konings at icann.org>

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