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Hisham Ibrahim is the Chief Community Officer at the RIPE NCC. He leads the RIPE NCC's engagement efforts to foster a dynamic, inclusive RIPE community. He is responsible for engagement with RIPE NCC members, the RIPE community, Internet governance and training services. Hisham is active on several committees in various Network Operator Groups (NOGs), peering forums, IPv6 task forces and forums across three continents.
• 6 min read
A 2026 operational review of Public ENUM under e164.arpa found that half of the current delegations show some form of DNS problem. The findings are expected to be discussed at RIPE 92, including the operational status and future support of Public ENUM under e164.arpa.
• 7 min read
The Internet’s core, rooted in open standards and unique identifiers, has always depended on trust. That trust is part of what makes coordination possible across distributed actors, shared systems, and diverse institutions. Looking at the Internet in these terms may help explain why similar technic…
• 4 min read
Periods of armed conflict often lead to renewed scrutiny of how the Internet functions and of the organisations involved in its coordination. In such moments, simplified or incorrect narratives that can frame technical coordination roles as political choices, or assign responsibilities to coordinat…
• 9 min read
The path to sustainable development runs through the Internet’s technical core. Beneath every digital service, every collaboration, and every step forward in how societies grow and adapt lies the infrastructure that supports progress in education, healthcare, governance, innovation, and more. The R…
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• 13 min read
Effective digital governance begins with understanding the layered systems that make it possible. Technical coordination keeps the Internet running, Internet governance shapes how we use it, and digital governance steers how technology transforms society. Confusing these roles risks undermining all…
• 13 min read
IPv6, a protocol developed in the late 1990s to address the anticipated Internet address exhaustion crisis, exists in a paradoxical state. For some, while its adoption might have taken longer than expected, it represents a success story - steadily expanding in deployment and enabling more users and…
• 5 min read
The Internet is not social media, nor the web, nor your favourite app. In fact, it’s not even the digital economy or the communication tools we’ve all come to rely on. The Internet is something deeper, a foundational network of networks that has quietly powered the digital age for over 40 years.
• 11 min read
As the secretariat of the RIPE community, the RIPE NCC has had the privilege of observing and facilitating the evolution of RIPE Meetings over time. Looking forward, we are excited about the opportunities that await us and the potential challenges as we continue to foster collaboration and innovati…
• 19 min read
We reflect on progress made in 2023 in all our community and engagement efforts at the RIPE NCC, as measured against the objectives we set for ourselves at the start of the year.
• 11 min read
In the fourth instalment in our series focused on the RIPE NCC’s Draft Activity Plan and Budget 2024, Hisham Ibrahim - RIPE NCC’s Chief Community Officer - talks us through tending and sustaining the Internet commons in 2024.
“Dear Hisham, Thanks for the elaborate overview and bringing this discussion to where it belongs (RIPE Community). Looking forward to the discussion during the Services Working Group session. Ahead of that and to inform the discussion, a couple of questions. - Could you provide an overview of the costs associated with the operation and management of the e164.arpa zone, on an annual basis, related to capex and opex to both ensure the DNS responses are provided and the administrative burden to maintain the delegations? I am asking particularly since the meeting report of ITU SG2 contains a reference to the cost: "[..]The meeting reviewed the current status of on ENUM on e164.arpa as operated by RIPE NCC according to the agreed interim administrative procedures as well as the operational and cost related impacts of the potential migration from who is to the new protocol Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP).[..]" To the latter, any insights on the capex required to add RDAP support would also be welcome. The report at least in my interpretation suggests there is a sharing of burden (costs) between ITU TSB and RIPE NCC on the costs of implementing RDAP, am I correct? - Could you share any qualitative or quantitative analyses on the efforts to date to deal with the non-responsive or non-working delegations? From the SG2 report "[..] and despite the outreach of TSB regarding a number of ‘stale’ Country Code delegations to Member states in the DNS under e164.arpa, these remain inoperative [..]" In my view, the current operating instructions 2.11/2.12 provide a pathway to remove such delegations as "[..] in case the technical set-up of an existing delegation becomes fully non-functional, and the assignee has no intentions to restore it (or is unreachable), the RIPE NCC will consider this to be a revocation request[..]". Has this procedure been followed on any of the delegations identified in 2020 or 2025 and what was the outcome?”
Thank you Marco for your comment. I will be presenting the results of the 2026 operational review the RIPE NCC conducted at the services WG session at RIPE 92 (https://ripe92.ripe.net/programme/meeting-plan/sessions/90/). The slides are available with the findings and the video should be available after the session.
“Thanks for this, Hisham! I especially liked that OKR table, linking the goals to the programme objectives.”
Thanks Michael for mentioning that. Indeed it required some work from my colleague Alena Muravska, our Programme Management Officer, and I to get the logical mapping done right to start the OKR process. I am sure you would also appreciate the addition of the environmental programme based on the feedback we heard from staff and community members including yourself.
“What are the numbers and geographic distribution of not-for-profit network operators? I can imagine that academic, research and civil society network operators would be engaging more if they are explicitly addressed together.”
I'm not entirely sure I got your question... However, the RIPE NCC has several activities for engagement with academics and researchers throughout our service region, such as RACI, free student tickets, sessions at universities fall under this. We also organise online and in-person academic sessions connected with each RIPE Meeting. Our in-house researchers also cooperate with universities all over our service region. You can read more from my colleague Gergana Petrova, our Community Development Manager: https://labs.ripe.net/author/gergana_petrova/community-development-plans-for-2023/
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