[dns-operations] Planning the 2021 DITL collection

[Mark Allman]

> OARC is beginning planning for the 2021 Day in the Life (DITL)
> collection.

As a researcher, the DITL collection is a fantastic resource.  I
appreciate all the hard work.

That said, as I have used or tried to use the data over the years I
have been bit by the lack of meta-data.  I would encourage folks to
document a few simple things as the data is collected.  In
particular:

  - It is often crucial to know what is missing from a dataset, if
    possible (it isn't always).  So, e.g., if there are 10 replicas
    of x-root and data only comes from 7 of them that is good to
    scribble down.  And, which are missing and where they are
    located would also be nice to know.

  - Similarly, if you have some indication of the measurement based
    packet loss rate please also scribble that down.  That isn't
    packets lost in the middle of the network somewhere, but packets
    that were not recorded by the measurement infrastructure.
    Tcpdump or the like spit out their own (incorrect, but sometimes
    better than nothing) notion of this and recording that would be
    handy.

  - If the packets in the traces have been changed in any ways from
    what was on the wire, it'd be great to know.  The crucial one
    here is whether the IP addresses have been anpnymized.  And, if
    so, are they being uniformly anonymized across all the traces /
    locations you submit?  Or, is it random per trace / DNS server /
    what?

  - If there is something strange going on that might impact how
    folks interpret the data, please scribble it down.  Even really
    benign things like the disk filled and so there is an hour long
    gap are handy to know because when we see this gap we can
    readily decide it wasn't network-related.

  - Add some easily accessible contact information if you wouldn't
    mind.  Sometimes we could use some help in figuring out puzzles
    in the data.  I know sometimes folks don't want to be interupted
    to help ... and OK.  But, if you wouldn't mind, we'd for sure
    appreciate it.

I am not suggesting some formal document or something.  Scribble in
a text file that can be left with the data.  Anything is better than
the current state.

Many thanks!

allman
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