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empowering, very enfranchising, and impe > > > Recent Events > > ====================== > > > > It has recently come to light that several weeks ago, a > significnt change > > was made to the IP registration/creation process. > > > > This basically involved discontinueing the use of the IPDB, and > registering > > IP's as individual users with filespace allocated under the > 'home/' tree > > with urls in the form of: > > > > http://chebucto.ns.ca/~HAPCS > > > > rather than > > > > http://chebucto.ns.ca/Technology/HAPCS > > There are no plans to force this change immediatly. In fact existing accounts could stay this way indefinitly. There is a significant difference beteween depreciated and discontinued. No new entries are being made, and over the next few months existing (active) IPs will be massaged over to member accounts. IPs that are inactive will be deleted (or arcived) with the exception of those with some clear historcial value (the websites of conferences that CCN sponsored, for example) > > > > *** > > At the same time, the office stopped notifying editors about the > > receipt of IP agreements. > > *** The office has not explicitly done that. Since there are no new IPs, there are no new IP agreements and there has been no need to make any notifications. New entities walking in the door are given/sold/rented 'normal' accounts (with associated privilages). This was mandated at the bord level by the IP chair, and in fact was initialy oppopsed by the lower half of the office staff (at least (?)). If there is a complaint about communication, direct it to the source of the lack of communication, the (non-)sender or the (non-)recever who dosent show up at real life meatings. > What is the IP Database? > > It is a synthetic piece of software (created largely by David Trueman and > Gerard MacNeil) working hand-in-glove with the Group Editor, the User > Database, the Notes Database, etc. which is a centralized source for > information which pertains to Information Providers. > > What Does it Do? > > It allows Editors, IP Volunteers and others who have some interest or need > to answer questions like: > > * Who are the editors of an IP website? (check the composition of the edit > group.) The editors are whoever the group decide to share the account name/password with. Not our problem. > * Who is in charge? (look to see who the IPE1 is.) Not our problem. 'In charge' is either the technical contact or the billing contact, depending on context. > * What majordomo lists are associated with the IP? majordomo lists are now sold as a extra package (though some group packages get lists). Yes, this should be tracked, but a better place would be as a comment in the listname.config file. Groups are not the only entities that can get lists. I do note that this is advertised as "Contact us for details." > * What is the contact address, phone, fax, etc. of an IP organization? this is tracked with namedb entries > * Who signed the IP Agreement? this is tracked with namedb entries > * What is the status of an IP? (active, withdrawn, moved, in progress, > etc.) this dosnet do anything though. IPs are never deleted. > * How do I add/delete an editor to the site (follow the gateway into the > group editor). not our problem. the group entity is responsible for sharing the account/pass pair > * Where are the directories of an IP situated? ~groupname > * What is the home page of an IP? URI:http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~groupname > * What is the jumpkey of an IP? this is a unused feature. > * When was an IP created? this is tracked with namedb entries > One can search the database in various ways to (for instance) find IPs > that are in process, find IPs for whom all IP editor accounts have expired > (and take some remedial action), take effective steps to close sites and > create re-direct pages for IPs that have moved their sites, and deal with > a plethora of administrative on-going issues that characterize our > relations with IPs. groups are never 'in progress' they either have an account, or dont. editors are never expired because there is no concept of editors in the new scheme. with the linking being done from the stuff-to-indexdb, you just change the url there. > > Who can Use it? > > Anyone. Board Members, Office staff, CCN volunteers, Technical People, > etc. Any bona fide CCN volunteer with a legitimate need or desire to help > in this area can be given HTTP authorized access and use the Database. I'm > not sure how many current people have such access (David Murdoch could > probably supply a number) but I'd guess that it is in the order of two to > three dozen people. There is no reason for anyone beyond a couple of people (ie whoever is working in the office, and a Trusted To The Nth Degree assistant) to have access to the administrative side of things. And there are very good reasons to explicity deny everyone excpet a even more select group of people access to any physcial addresses, phone numbers, billing contact names (as they differ from the tech contact). Moving away from the IPDB frees up editors from tedious administrative duties, and will allow them the ability to focus there attention at the developement of the yahoo style index. > > What does it represent? > > Those new to the CCN may not be familiar with how much thought, > consultation and work went into creating the IPDB, not only as a piece of > software in and of itself, but because it represented a key CCN principle: > the involvement and enfranchisement of CCN volunteers in meaningful roles > in relation to the functioning of the CCN. It empowers people by giving > them direct access to information and the ability to take meaningful roles > in relation to managing the IP sector and processes. It enshrines the > principle that the CCN will be a community and membership focused > organization where volunteers make meaningful contributions and take > appropriate decisions. The notion in creating it was not that such > knowledge and responsibility would lie solely with administrative staff. > Expediancy was not the only value considered in designing this approach. > If we are taking anyting away from volunteers it is adminstrative headaches, with the added benifit of more privacy/security of out member records. Agian, this frees up time for the important jobs of editors, the maintanance of the CCN index. > Now, under the current proposals, all of this functionality will become > lost to CCN volunteers and will be controlled solely by ... whom? It > appears that it will become exclusively the province of office staff. No. The administrative aspects of group accou