Dear Registries, Please note that this message is send to both the lir-wg and the local-ir mailing lists. We would like all discussion to take place on the lir-wg mailing list only. We are re-evaluating the usage of the admin-c field in the inetnum database object. This is what ripe-185 currently says about the admin-c field: The administrative person specified in the admin-c field must be physically located at the site of the network. The person does not have to have technical knowledge of the network. The technical person specified in the tech-c field may be a network support person located on site, but could also be a consultant that maintains the network for the organisation. In both cases, more than one person can be specified. We are wondering how the admin-c field is used in practice, and whether it is really necessary for the administrative contact to be on-site. Usually when something goes wrong with a network, people are meant to try the technical contact to get things fixed. If that person cannot be reached, however, the administrative contact should be somebody responsible for the network who can in an emergency find someone who can take care of the problems. The administrative person does not have to have technical knowledge of the network, but should know who to contact in case of problems. For this purpose it is not strictly necessary for the administrative contact to be on-site. We therefore propose a change to the policy- that the administrative contact should be somebody who is responsible for the network, but does not necessarily need to be on-site. Please let us know your thoughts on this, we would especially like to hear how these fields are used in real-life. Have you ever had the need to contact the admin-c? Is it usefull for that person to be on-site or not? Kind regards, Paula Caslav RIPE NCC