Dear TLD-WG People, The period between the Spring and Autumn RIPE meetings is usually dominated for me by two things: summer upgrades (since I work in a university computer centre) and holidays (with some luck). I don't know exactly what keeps all of you so busy, but I hope you have at least been able to enjoy a holiday break. Before long, the TLD WG meets again at RIPE 34. I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible -- again, or perhaps for the first time -- and to a productive TLD WG meeting. But first, some preparation. Please take a look at <http://www.ripe.net/mail-archives/tld-wg/index.html> and in particular at the workplan discussion document presented at RIPE 33 and the action list as of the end of that meeting. The key topic for the TLD WG session will be the future direction of the WG. The conditions which led to the establishment of the WG have changed utterly since May 1997. Much of this change has come about as a result of work begun in the TLD WG: in particular, CENTR has been established, and has has been instrumental in shaping the DNSO and Names Council. Besides all that, ICANN has been created and is functioning. Our energies have been focused on the emerging organisational structure. The structure is now in place, and it is time to shift focus to questions of what the policy and operational priorities should be and how the network of organisations (registries and registrars as well as those already mentioned) is to be influenced. We have open issues since RIPE 33 which have both operational and policy aspects: domain objects in the RIPE DB, and participation in the HARMONIC project. Much of our workplan, which we must formally review, can be traced back to the RIPE 27 BOF. I expect sections of it may become redundant when we have identified the appropriate future directions. One way or another, a less grandiose and more focused workplan would surely be better, with identified co-ordinators (or even task forces) for each area. I'm asking you to do the following: refer to the mail archive, consider where the TLD-WG now stands, look at what baggage we are carrying, identify what we don't need any more, tell us all what you think, and how you would like to participate in the future directions. Simple, no ? See you in Amsterdam Niall O'Reilly TLD WG Chair -------- Logged at Fri Sep 3 10:17:37 CEST 1999 ---------