Dear all, Here are some thoughts about what Wilfred wrote:
Amongst other things, I think we should agree on
- what is the intended audience for the doc?
I think that there are two different groups: . general public, who uses the whois service to consult the DB, and . local registries and all entities that have local copies of the RIPE DB, and use the software supplied by RIPE (or a different version of it).
- what is a good structure?
About the contents: . to the general public: what can the service provide to commum users? which are the new objects available? This would be an updated version of the already existent leaflet about the whois service supported by the RIPE. . to the second group: a detailed document decribing all the objects available and theirs sintaxe. a document describing how the new software is supposed to work and a brief description of each existent module. how to install the new software. which are the new facilities and/or characteristics available.
- who should contribute and how/when do we produce the paper(s)
Who should produce it: . no dought that the most important person is the person or persons who wrote it, they are the ones who know all these things. . the beta sites that are testing the software can give an important input. . everybody who uses the software can help accomplishig this task. If I can help with something, please let me know. I think that this documentation is needed and can help a lot. Regards, Graca. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Maria da Graca Carvalho graca@uminho.pt Rede da Comunidade Cientifica Nacional graca@rccn.net RCCN/FCCN Tel: +351 53 604475 Portugal Fax: +351 53 612954 ----------------------------------------------------------------