An Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) working group is seeking public input on a successor to the current WHOIS system used to retrieve domain name information.

The Expert Working Group on gTLD Directory Services (EWG) has issued a report (PDF) that recommends a radical change from WHOIS. The working group, which had a clean-slate approach to a new domain name information, was formed "to help resolve the nearly decade-long deadlock within the ICANN community on how to replace the current WHOIS system, which is widely regarded as 'broken.'"

With the current system, client software can retrieve database records from a WHOIS server run by a registrar or registry that typically list details such as administrative and technical contact details for the owner of a domain name, name servers and details of the registration and expiry dates of a domain.

The EWG is proposing a shift to an "aggregated RDS (registration data service) (ARDS) model", whereby most access to domain name registration details would be provided from a central repository. This would mean that operators of WHOIS services would no longer have to provide port 43 access to the public (port 43 is generally used for WHOIS queries).