What is the length of the period for appeals against namespace decisions? 1 Month?

Should there be a quorum on the vote on a disputed namespace allocation? I'd say no.

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One month or six weeks seems reasonable for period for appeals against namespace decisions. Start with a month and see if members are dissatisfied for some reason. We are talking about top level namespaces only. There should not be too many of those. (to react to any supernamespace proposals - yes or no

We should make people aware that two character namespaces as the root, but that is not necessary. In Perth, ARC namespace, Australian Resource Center. The idea was for the geochemical lab to use ARC.

KL: We took the step of beginning namespaces with IE in order to reduce the number of top level namespaces taken.

Core repositories should have relatively few namespaces to begin with - 3 or 4 for example for Bremen.

Might be good to give some guidance of how allocating agents assign (last section of handbook)

AA: groups or AA have a supernamespace, like IE, IE takes care of all clients with subnamespaces (up to IEDA). But there could be cases where people have a supernamespace and only use it once. CC: all namespaces should be associated with someone who is a member of IGSN (and that is the way it is).

We are looking for namespaces for allocating agents - that requires an approval process.

Define the toplevel namespaces - IGSN assigned to 10273 is sort of confusing - especially to include into this document, this is for a completely different use.

There is a cultural difference of how people understand the terms, (informed by cultural practices), this text has been around for a long time, tries to explain the pattern of hierarchical thing and how to get from an IGSN name to a resolvable URL. KL: some things are more generic than they need to be in the document. There could be confusion if 10273 never changes.

AA suggestion: Document could have numbered sections and subsections - this is better done in Microsoft instead of Google Docs. When talking about 10273, put that in where to resolve. In the next section, it could be about the IGSN itself, and remove the handle section information. That would be more clear to focus just on IGSN. CC: could use a specific example, like the IE case.

May need to set up a namespace subcommittee (mentioned in the text)

KL: can we define a “top level namespace”

One of the flowcharts is out of date, if not rejected right away, there is an appeals period. vs. approval period. If the membership does not react, is that an approval or a rejection? If we seek an approval, we need a vote for all, if it is an appeals period then it goes through unless there is a rejection. The persons who would appeal would be the persons that objected.

Supernamespace can only be given to a new allocating agent. Requesting that they become allocation agents. Or, an existing allocation agent serves a new community and wants another supernamespace. Example: IEDA is building sample registration system for the critical zone observatories. The will ask for CZ. It's agreed, that the top level namespaces are under the responsibility of the AA to adhere to the rules of the handbook. AA: that may be something that does not happen in a month. Check: are they a member? Does it conflict with anything else? That can be done in a month. But we need to make sure that the allocation agent is functioning in the way that we envision they are.

CC: in the invoicing letter, we wanted to tell members what the rules and responsibilities are. Must adhere to the namespace policies. What happens if people don't use, then what? Membership rules refer to the statutes. But something else about the rules of the procedures. If people don't come to the meetings (are not active), then they are not active. It should be made clear that members should participate. There is a member that pays their dues and attends the meetings, they propose a namespace, at that point, there is not much else besides saying that the namespace is unique and conforms to the understood rules. After that, what happens if the group doesn't act on it for 1-2-3 years, then what. OR if they start breaking the syntax. Then what. Also, how do we even monitor that? The registry would have to control the syntax of IGSNs being registered at the registry. It will increase the burden of the organization running the registry and would require some resources.

AA: every year at the General Assembly, then we will get some summary of what has happens. There is a summary once per year. Total, new IGSNs assigned per year. (1) Looking at the activity is something that DataCite does as well, to give a people an overview of what is happening. (2) If a namespace is not being used, for one year, then it should be revoked. There could also be a warning period.