After a busy start to the year, here's an update from the RIPE Chair looking at the RIPE Chair team's activities so far in 2021 as well as a number of noteworthy community developments.
Preparing for RIPE 82
As many of you have heard, we had to make the decision to hold RIPE 82 virtually instead of going to my beautiful hometown Berlin.
Together with the RIPE NCC Meeting Team, the Programme Committee and the Working Group chairs, we've come up with a meeting plan that tries to incorporate feedback received after RIPE 81:
- More time for discussion
- Longer breaks
- No parallel tracks
Combining these wishes has led to a draft programme of longer days than usual and a very full meeting week. But on the plus side, the programme we drafted gives more room for discussion, as requested, as well as more break time to help avoid screen fatigue. The RIPE 82 draft meeting plan will be published soon, so do take a look!
Please start thinking about talks you would like to give or see. The call for presentations for plenary presentations will open mid to end February 2021. Working Group chairs will call for input shortly after. If there are any topics you would like to discuss during the community plenary or in one of the Working Groups, please do not hesitate to contact the RIPE Chair Team directly or leave a comment under the article. All meeting dates and deadlines are online.
Policy Development Process
As mentioned in the last RIPE Chair Team update, a decision made by the co-chairs of one of the RIPE Working Groups was appealed (see APPEAL-2019-04). Since this part of the Policy Development Process (PDP) was applied for the first time, we thoroughly reviewed and analysed the process and collected feedback from all parties involved. We then discussed the review and the recommendations at a meeting with the RIPE WG Chair Collective. We also set up this meeting to learn from the experience of the WG chairs with the policy development process and how changes to the PDP were discussed and decided in the past.
The review of the appeals process and the impact this might have for the PDP led us also to a detailed analysis of the PDP and its evolution.
As soon as both documents are published as RIPE Documents, we would like to start a community review of the PDP. The discussion will take place on the ripe-list.
Events
For ten years, the RIPE NCC has organised Roundtable meetings for governments. The most recent one, targeted at government representatives in Europe, took place on 26 January. Niall and myself were introduced as the new RIPE Chair Team to the audience and we used the opportunity to encourage participation in RIPE, especially in the RIPE Cooperation WG. Other topics that we discussed at the meeting were related to IPv6, Internet operations and traffic during the pandemic and also possible next steps in the New IP debate.
We spend quite a lot of time reading and listening to input from community members. And we regularly participate in community events, including:
- Open Source in Networking by Jonne Soininen - part of the speaker series organised by LINX
- How Life, including COVID-19, is Digital by Bert Hubert - also from the LINX speaker series
- Revised Directive on Security of Network and Information Systems (NIS2) - webinar organised by EURO-IX
We're also planning to attend some of the Open House sessions organised by the RIPE NCC.
Other Community Activities
The RIPE Cooperation Working Group has selected Desiree Miloshevic as new co-chair in addition to the two existing co-chairs Johan Helsingius and Acheilleas Kemos.
The RIPE DB Requirements Task Force has sent out a questionnaire to gather more input on a number of specific items in addition to the draft document published earlier. I would like to encourage everyone to respond to both documents.
The Code of Conduct Task Force is almost ready to publish an updated Code of Conduct. This will be the first document according to the TF charter. We would like to encourage all of you to review this document carefully as it is important to everyone participating in the RIPE community.
Together with the RIPE NCC and the WG chairs we are also looking at the way RIPE Mailing Lists are maintained and moderated and we can ensure that subscribers follow the RIPE Mailing List Code of Conduct.
RIPE Meeting Programme Committee (PC): After having published guidelines for new RIPE Working Group chairs, we now also published a document describing the responsibilities of the RIPE PC and the time required of PC members.
We are also working on a more comprehensive document for new and not-so-new RIPE participants that will describe various ways for more active participation on the community.
Till Next Time!
As we push on into 2021, and with many of us still coping with ongoing lockdowns, I do hope that all of you are staying safe and remembering to get away from your screens and getting some fresh air when you can. I wish you all well and we'll be in touch with another update soon!
Amsterdam in the snow this week (picture courtesy of Stephen Strowes)
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