Hi!
[...] The IPv4 policy has been updated and a draft of the revised text is available for review by the community, now. It can be found at:
<http://www.ripe.net/ripe/draft-documents/ipv4-policies.html> [...]
There are also a few advantages to the new forms that may not be apparent from the customer perspective but remain very important. Because the syntax-checking software at the RIPE NCC has been replaced the forms can be changed and updated more easily in the future. This means we can be more responsive to your needs than in the past.
Maybe I did get you wrong, but I don't think that the forms can be changed "on the fly". A quote from the draft: 6.1 Documentation for Assignments [...] The RIPE NCC provides forms for gathering the required information. The information requested in the forms must be collected by the LIR. [...] Nothing wrong with this, but if we are expected to follow the wording the forms have to be stable.
Also, providing services via the LIR Portal will let us improve the request process to make it easier and faster in the future. Thank you for your insights into these new forms. We are keen to get reactions from LIRs so that we can continue to improve and update them and the services we provide - both e-mail and web versions.
Looks like RIPE NCC gets a bit too webbish for us (as in the dilbert strip http://www.gaertner.de/~schuma/not-too-webbish.gif). What about providing a new autohm in ftp://ftp.ripe.net/ripe/tools/ ? We use autohm for each assignment to meet the documentation requirement of the current policy: 5.1.1 Documentation [...] However, if a request needs to be approved by the RIPE NCC or if information is required in the event of an audit, the information must be submitted on a current version of the IPv4 Address Space Request Form available from [...] The IPv4 policy draft makes the need for autohm even clearer: [...] This is very important when an LIR makes assignments using its AW. If a request needs to be approved by the RIPE NCC or if information is required in the event of an audit, the information must be submitted on a current version of the request form found at: [...] Most of our assignments fall into the "using its AW" category. According to ripe-170 "Pro-active Audits of LIRs with little contact" should exist. Using autohm ensures that we could provide the documentation in the required format on the fly. Regards, Joerg