Subject: [Ecrit] Administrative (non-emergency) assistance

From: Henning Schulzrinne <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2017 18:46:00 -0400

Making good on its reputation for bureaucracy, Germany has *115
Behördennotruf*, for assistance with administrative matters. This seems
similar to the 311 service popular in the US and Canada.

In general, we don't have a good label for these types of referral
services. *counseling.government* seems ok, but not great, as the label
implies that the government needs counseling. (That some people wish that
there was such a psychological counseling service for certain governments
is best discussed on editorial pages.)

Similarly, the US has the 211 service in some places that provides
referrals to social services. France has a similar service (115) for
housing (homeless shelter) referrals.

*counseling.social-services* would be one option, but we had, at some point
in the very distant past, also discussed the creation of a new tree for
such referral services.

Henning

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From: Brian Rosen <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2017 19:34:04 -0400

Yeah, I think a separate tree is more appropriate.  Coming up with a name for the tree is challenging.  “government-services” might be too limiting, as there could be such services that aren’t operated by the government (utilities being an example in countries where the government doesn’t operate the elecricity/gas/water/… services).  Just “services” might work, but counseling and sos are services.  “non-emergency-services” might be possible, or an acronym of that.

Note that I’ve had a draft that adds the police, fire and medical trees to sos, and I’m happy to expand that to cover these registrations, with co-authors as appropriate.

Brian

> On Jul 11, 2017, at 6:46 PM, Henning Schulzrinne <[email-masked]> wrote:
> 
> Making good on its reputation for bureaucracy, Germany has 115 Behördennotruf, for assistance with administrative matters. This seems similar to the 311 service popular in the US and Canada.
> 
> In general, we don't have a good label for these types of referral services. counseling.government seems ok, but not great, as the label implies that the government needs counseling. (That some people wish that there was such a psychological counseling service for certain governments is best discussed on editorial pages.)
> 
> Similarly, the US has the 211 service in some places that provides referrals to social services. France has a similar service (115) for housing (homeless shelter) referrals.
> 
> counseling.social-services would be one option, but we had, at some point in the very distant past, also discussed the creation of a new tree for such referral services.
> 
> Henning
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Ecrit mailing list
> [email-masked]
> https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ecrit

---

From: Henning Schulzrinne <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2017 22:13:47 -0400

I think it makes sense to keep the gas/water/electricity under sos - first,
because it's hard to argue that a water main break or downed electric wires
are (much) less of an emergency than a gas leak. Secondly, they also,
typically, all yield an immediate and truck-rolling response, even if the
light flashing is orange rather than blue.

I was thinking of the 211, 311 and German 115 services in the new tree, as
well as the French shelter service. They are all government services (or at
least operated on behalf of local or county governments).

Since there's no cost in having trees, maybe just picking off those as
*government
*(311*), government.social-services *(211) and *government.shelter *avoids
naming creativity.

In going through the country list, I have come across another short-code
service in some countries, namely roadside assistance. These are harder
since they are often operated by multiple different private entities, and
you pick the one that you have a membership card for, if any. (Austria, for
example, has two of them and Germany seems to have a dozen -
https://pannenhilfevergleich.de/)

There is official roadside assistance, e.g., on some toll roads.

On Tue, Jul 11, 2017 at 7:34 PM, Brian Rosen <[email-masked]> wrote:

> Yeah, I think a separate tree is more appropriate.  Coming up with a name
> for the tree is challenging.  “government-services” might be too limiting,
> as there could be such services that aren’t operated by the government
> (utilities being an example in countries where the government doesn’t
> operate the elecricity/gas/water/… services).  Just “services” might work,
> but counseling and sos are services.  “non-emergency-services” might be
> possible, or an acronym of that.
>
> Note that I’ve had a draft that adds the police, fire and medical trees to
> sos, and I’m happy to expand that to cover these registrations, with
> co-authors as appropriate.
>
> Brian
>
> *counseling.social-services* would be one option, but we had, at some
> point in the very distant past, also discussed the creation of a new tree
> for such referral services.
>
> Henning
>

---

From: Paul Kyzivat <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2017 15:23:59 -0400

On 7/11/17 7:34 PM, Brian Rosen wrote:
> Yeah, I think a separate tree is more appropriate.  Coming up with a 
> name for the tree is challenging.  “government-services” might be too 
> limiting, as there could be such services that aren’t operated by the 
> government (utilities being an example in countries where the government 
> doesn’t operate the elecricity/gas/water/… services).  Just “services” 
> might work, but counseling and sos are services. 
>   “non-emergency-services” might be possible, or an acronym of that.

How about "public-services"?

> Note that I’ve had a draft that adds the police, fire and medical trees 
> to sos, and I’m happy to expand that to cover these registrations, with 
>> On Jul 11, 2017, at 6:46 PM, Henning Schulzrinne <[email-masked] 
>> <mailto:[email-masked]>> wrote:
>>
>> Making good on its reputation for bureaucracy, Germany has /115 
>> Behördennotruf/, for assistance with administrative matters. This 
>> seems similar to the 311 service popular in the US and Canada.
>>
>> services. *counseling.government* seems ok, but not great, as the 
>> label implies that the government needs counseling. (That some people 
>> wish that there was such a psychological counseling service for 
>> certain governments is best discussed on editorial pages.)
>>
>> point in the very distant past, also discussed the creation of a new 
>> tree for such referral services.
>>
>> Henning
>>
>> [email-masked] <mailto:[email-masked]>

---

From: Henning Schulzrinne <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2017 16:04:53 -0400

"Public service.X" seems to fit, but does seem a bit odd for governmental
services like tip lines or 311. Based on my review (see slides), we'd have
in that category

. (311 and similar general services)
social (referral to social services)
shelter (emergency homeless shelter)
police (for non-emergency issues)
tip-line (for information from the public to resolve a serious crime)
road (roadside breakdown service)