In message <96C31A09-3BFF-4733-AA62-660722537FA8@rfc1035.com>, at 10:28:45 on Mon, 22 Sep 2014, Jim Reid <jim@rfc1035.com> writes
On 22 Sep 2014, at 09:44, Roland Perry <roland@internetpolicyagency.com> wrote:
These aren't my questions, they are simply quite reasonable ones which concerned members of the public (or even governments) might ask.
Anyone is free to ask those questions and get more than satisfactory answers Roland.
Sometimes the answers aren't what they'd regard as satisfactory, though.
As long as there's a clear and transparent mechanism for handling those sorts of queries -- ie who to ask and how to ask them -- all should be well.
Precisely. Most of those questions were about 'governance', which is why the mechanisms you mention should be revisited as part of a process of recasting IANA's oversight.
Though I doubt it would help. Those who make those sorts of questions are generally looking for a stick studded with rusty nails to beat any Internet governance body. When they find one stick no longer works, they just move on and find another. Repeat ad nauseam.
That's politics, which you'll never get rid of. Although sometimes real engineers want to know is in charge of a block of numbers, and get a bit frustrated when the data is so obviously out of date (and hence of no use).
I suppose it might help if there's something which explains that the prime responsibility for maintaining timely and accurate contact data rests with the address holder, not IANA or the RIR. They can intervene when there's a problem.
What does the enquirer do when the holding entity mentioned (eg on IANA's list of /8's no longer exists (Like the UK's Department of Social Security). -- Roland Perry