[registrars] gTLD Registry Maintenance Notices

[James M Woods]

Jean-Michel, Donny,

Getting all registries to "setup a new command in EPP" is not a trivial
matter (and what about RRP and Email etc.), nor does it solve the problem of
better communication to registrars, which is what Tim was trying to drive
at. Namely those of us who front line manage that part of the business which
is constantly flooded of repetitious and non standard messages. I know I've
missed a few important notices in the past.

Second, don't knock RSS as just a blogging tool, Ross's proposal is very
elegant if you look past the blogging stigma. RSS allows registries to post
to a RSS enabled maintenance site so that anyone who needs to know about a
maintenance window can either check the registry maintenance site or
subscribe to the RSS feed itself, which subsequently gets neatly organized
in its own folder (see no CFO/CEO involvement whatsoever ;) along with any
updates to that particular maintenance thread.

Maybe XML hasn't saved the world, but RSS is based on XML so maybe it can
solve this weary souls registry communication issues. Maybe Ross could setup
a demo so that all parties can see what benefits this may or may not bring
us all?

Cheers,

James

James M Woods
Product Manager - TLD's
Tucows Inc.
Phone: 416.538.5453
Fax: 416.531.5584

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-registrars at gnso.icann.org
[mailto:owner-registrars at gnso.icann.org] On Behalf Of Jean-Michel Becar
Sent: April 25, 2004 10:39 PM
To: registrars at dnso.org
Subject: Re: [registrars] gTLD Registry Maintenance Notices

I agree with a more standard form amongst all the registries for their
maintenance announcement.
I don't really see the point to introduce a new system like RSS, we already
have EPP so why not to have the following:

1- A standard mail form sent to all the registrars tech contact
2- A new EPP command we can pull so we can automated some internal
procedures

and like Donny said: Problem solved :-)

Regards,
Jean-Michel

Donny Simonton wrote:

>I don't like the email system we currently have, and I think RSS feeds 
>would be just as bad if not worse than what we have right now.  The 
>reason is very simple, if a registry goes down they wouldn't have to 
>notify us, they would just post something via RSS feed.  So what would 
>happen, people would be checking it every 30 seconds to make sure there are
no problems.
>
>Bloggers think that RSS will solve all problems, just like the people 
>who invented XML thought it would solve all problems.
>
>If we had a combination of email and RSS that would probably help.  
>Hell, why not just allow us to poll it via EPP.  Why involve RSS when 
>we already have a system in place.
>
>Problem solved!  Next problem.
>
>If that doesn't work, at least an option via the registries to have a 
>downtime mailing list.  So at least we could send it to the people who 
>actually need the information.  Our CFO really doesn't care if .name 
>will be down for 4 hours on Saturday.  But CS and Network Operations do.
>
>Donny
>
>  
>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: owner-registrars at gnso.icann.org [mailto:owner- 
>>registrars at gnso.icann.org] On Behalf Of tbarrett
>>Sent: Sunday, April 25, 2004 3:10 PM
>>To: ross at tucows.com; 'Larry Erlich'
>>Cc: 'Tim Ruiz'; michael at palage.com; registrars at dnso.org; 
>>dam at icann.org; 'Marie. Zitkova'; 'Miriam Sapiro'
>>Subject: RE: [registrars] gTLD Registry Maintenance Notices
>>
>>
>>I'd like to echo Ross' comments.
>>
>>The ideal scenario is a registry-maintained website that can be polled 
>>or syndicated to display registry notices to our customers.  This is 
>>the most efficient mechanism for distributing urgent registry notices to
end-users.
>>(and eliminates a manual re-publishing step for registrars)
>>
>>Tom Barrett
>>
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: owner-registrars at gnso.icann.org
>>[mailto:owner-registrars at gnso.icann.org] On Behalf Of Ross Wm. Rader
>>Sent: Sunday, April 25, 2004 1:53 PM
>>To: Larry Erlich
>>Cc: Tim Ruiz; michael at palage.com; registrars at dnso.org; dam at icann.org; 
>>'Marie. Zitkova'; 'Miriam Sapiro'
>>Subject: Re: [registrars] gTLD Registry Maintenance Notices
>>
>>
>>On 4/25/2004 3:40 PM Larry Erlich noted that:
>>
>>
>>    
>>
>>>>I'd personally like to see the Registries move away from email for 
>>>>important administrative notices like the ones that you describe. 
>>>>Some sort of standardized XML syndication format like RSS or RDF 
>>>>would seem to make the most sense. It might even make sense to offer 
>>>>notifications like this in parallel with email on a trial basis to 
>>>>start.
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>We are happy with the current email based system.
>>>
>>>Any future system should keep the legacy email system running in 
>>>parallel permanently with individual registrars having the option of 
>>>being removed from the email notifications.
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>Email is a great low-volume, low-reliability, no-scale notification 
>>system. I wouldn't advocate abandoning it entirely, but the registries 
>>should be working to provide registrars with more stable, more 
>>efficient and more reliable services in order to ensure that they can 
>>serve our businesses as they grow. As I mentioned, maintaining 
>>something in parallel or running a trial is probably the best approach 
>>- at least to start.
>>
>>It really is time that the registries provide registrars with a 
>>complete quality of service guarantee rather than relying on best 
>>efforts messaging technologies like email for notices and messages 
>>that are so important to each of our businesses.
>>
>>--
>>
>>                        -rwr
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>                 "Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions.
>>                                            All life is an experiment.
>>                             The more experiments you make the better."
>>                         - Ralph Waldo Emerson
>>
>>Got Blog? http://www.blogware.com
>>My Blogware: http://www.byte.org
>>
>>
>>
>>
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