On Thu, Dec 01, 2011 at 08:11:54AM +1100, Nettlefold, Peter wrote:
I've missed a lot of discussion on this overnight my time, so I apologise if I've missed something that answers my question.
So do I. I'm still confused about the current state. Mea culpa.
I had understood that we would recommend that ICANN create a smart web portal for consumers that would effectively do a WHOIS search for them. As I understood it, ICANN would not need to make its own database, thereby avoiding some of the data protection issues, and instead purely focus on the user experience.
Exactly that's the proposal. I tried to clarify it last week during the telco.
If so, does this address the concerns about scope - ie why wouldn't ICANN provide a comprehensive search tool for all gTLDs?
All of them: Domains, IP addresses, AS numbers. ICANN is the political root. IANA maintains the primary allocations. So a "central WHOIS search tool" should include all of them.