[db-wg] ORGANISATION country code

Colleagues

We have a number of outstanding issues from RIPE 85 so let's start
with NWI-10. Ed said in his update,
"Country code is now editable in organisations without co-maintained resources"
I think this is a really bad idea.

The country codes entered into ORGANISATION objects by the RIPE NCC
are well defined, verified and maintained by the RIPE NCC. If we allow
users to edit this field in other ORGANISATION objects, the values
they enter will be undefined, unverified and meaningless. Just like
the country code in resource objects. I don't think we should allow
more meaningless data to be added to the RIPE Database. Even worse, we
are mixing well defined data with meaningless data in the same
attribute in the same object. This will end up with some people
trusting all of this data and some people not trusting any of
it...confusion.

I suggest we don't allow users to enter any data into this attribute
and remove any data that may have already been entered. If there is a
need for resource holders to enter a country code in ORGANISATION
objects set up for end users, then let's define a specific attribute
for that with a well defined meaning. Your thoughts are welcome...

cheers
denis
co-chair DB-WG