Proposal for Adding a Haiku Object to the RIPE Database Requirement: System Administrators and other users of the RIPE Database need some avocation beside their exhausting work with ip address space assignments, routing and other occupations concerning database objects which have to be taken seriously. The existing limerick object provides such avocation but obviously has some limitations: - The limerick has to have a fixed aabba rhyme scheme which restricts the creative genius of the author in an inadequate manner. It has to be admitted that this restriction can be considered as a challenge, but for spontaneous poetical outbreaks the fixed specifications and the great length of five lines are more debilitating than inspiring. - The limerick has to be humorous. While there is nothing wrong about funny poems, there are always moments in a System Administrators' life, when there is just not the need for jokes. Deeper insights into the meaning of life and other more or less important things are said to have come to people's minds while working with internet protocols. These insights should be given the opportunity to be put into a poetic form and as such into the RIPE database for the enlightenment of like-minded people. - Even System Administrators and other users of the RIPE Database need some variety, at least when writing poems. There is a need for another poem object beside the existing limerick object. Solution: The haiku ist a traditional Japanese poetic form without the restrictions of the limerick described before. It has no rhyme scheme and no measure encumbering the author. The only formal requirement (which is not even mandatory) is the segmentation into three lines of 5, 7 and 5 units each, which are usually understood as syllables in languages other than Japanese. Haikus don't have to be humorous, in fact the traditional Japanese haiku is not humorous at all.[1] Haikus have attracted attention in the IT world already some time ago. Mentionable appearances include the Salon Magazines's Haiku Error Message Contest[2] and the ActiveState Perl Haiku Contest[3]. Although there are also voices condemning the joke haiku (and proposing the limerick as an adequate poetic form)[4], the old Japanese poem still has its right to exist, even and particularly in the world of computer professionals. People occupied with servers, routing and internet protocols at large tend to have an own kind of humor not comparable to the stupid corny jokes told in the world outside. Besides the humorous aspects of computer adminstration, the haiku empowers computer professionals to turn their insights into other aspects of computer adminstration or even life to poetry. The haiku object as described below gives System Administrators and other users of the RIPE Database the opportunity to share their thoughts and feelings put into haikus with like-minded people. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiku [2] http://archive.salon.com/21st/chal/1998/02/10chal2.html [3] http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Perl/Haiku/ [4] http://www.phenry.org/junkdrawer/haiku/ The haiku class: The haiku object represents a poem that usually has three lines with 5, 7 and 5 units. In languages other than Japanese units are generally applied as syllables. There is no rhyme scheme at all. haiku: [mandatory] [single] [primary/look-up key] descr: [optional] [multiple] [ ] text: [mandatory] [multiple] [ ] admin-c: [mandatory] [multiple] [inverse key] author: [mandatory] [multiple] [inverse key] remarks: [optional] [multiple] [ ] notify: [optional] [multiple] [inverse key] mnt-by: [mandatory] [multiple] [inverse key] changed: [mandatory] [multiple] [ ] source: [mandatory] [single] [ ] The content of the attributes of the haiku class are defined below: haiku Specifies the title of the haiku. HK-<string> <string> can include alphanumeric characters, and "_" and "-" characters. descr A short decription related to the object. A sequence of ASCII characters. text Text of the haiku. There are no fixed rules about the subject or form of the haiku although there are some traditional conventions. Further information about this Japanese poetic form can be found at <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiku>. A sequence of ASCII characters. admin-c References an on-site administrative contact. From 2 to 4 characters optionally followed by up to 5 digits optionally followed by a source specification. The first digit must not be "0". Source specification starts with "-" followed by source name up to 9-character length. author References a haiku author. From 2 to 4 characters optionally followed by up to 5 digits optionally followed by a source specification. The first digit must not be "0". Source specification starts with "-" followed by source name up to 9-character length. remarks Contains remarks. A sequence of ASCII characters. notify Specifies the e-mail address to which notifications of changes to an object should be sent. An e-mail address as defined in RFC 2822. mnt-by Specifies the identifier of a registered mntner object used for authorisation of operations performed with the object that contains this attribute. Made up of letters, digits, the character underscore "_", and the character hyphen "-"; the first character of a name must be a letter, and the last character of a name must be a letter or a digit. The following words are reserved by RPSL, and they can not be used as names: any as-any rs-any peeras and or not atomic from to at action accept announce except refine networks into inbound outbound Names starting with certain prefixes are reserved for certain object types. Names starting with "as-" are reserved for as set names. Names starting with "rs-" are reserved for route set names. Names starting with "rtrs-" are reserved for router set names. Names starting with "fltr-" are reserved for filter set names. Names starting with "prng-" are reserved for peering set names. Names starting with "irt-" are reserved for irt names. Names starting with "lim-" and "hk-" are reserved for limericks and haikus respectively. changed Specifies who submitted the update, and when the object was updated. An e-mail address as defined in RFC 2822, followed by a date in the format YYYYMMDD. source Specifies the registry where the object is registered. Should be "RIPE" for the RIPE Database. Made up of letters, digits, the character underscore "_", and the character hyphen "-"; the first character of a registry name must be a letter, and the last character of a registry name must be a letter or a digit. -- RSP-RIPE