Time for an end-of-year roundup from the RIPE Chair Team, with RIPE 91 follow-ups and a first look ahead to RIPE 92. Get updates on submissions, community initiatives, and what’s coming next.
RIPE 91 bits and bobs
I see that some Working Group chairs have shared the minutes from RIPE 91 on the WG mailing lists. The minutes of the meeting with the WG chairs collective and the minutes of the meeting with the Programme Committee (PC) have been published on the RIPE website for your information. All remaining minutes will be published soon.
Planning for RIPE 92
Preparations for RIPE 92 are underway. You can already find useful information on the RIPE 92 website and registration is open.
Call for Proposals
The call for proposals for RIPE 92 will be published this week. We will use Pretalx again as the submission system. Since we used it for the first time at RIPE 91, the RIPE NCC has made a number of improvements. If you notice anything unusual, please let us know.
Public Speaking
As suggested by the PC and other RIPE participants, we are working with the RIPE NCC on a training course on public speaking. This will most likely be a combination of online modules, a webinar, and a face-to-face training at RIPE 92. The course will help speakers create a narrative and deliver a clear message.
Childcare
As mentioned during the community plenary at RIPE 91, we see a decline in RIPE participants making use of the childcare we provide at RIPE Meetings. This was originally an initiative by the Diversity Task Force to allow parents who are both active in the community to participate in the meetings, and it was welcomed by the community. The RIPE NCC kindly took on the responsibility to organise this service at every RIPE Meeting and to cover the costs. We never know how many children will need to be taken care of.
Since the service is free, we also see a number of “no-shows”. This makes planning difficult. We would love to continue this service, but we need a better idea of whether it is still valued by the community. Therefore, we will send out a survey early next year, and I hope many of you will respond to it.
RIPE Fellowship
As described before, we are introducing a new fellowship programme which is a lot more comprehensive than the earlier programme, which focused solely on mentoring during the meetings. Applications for fellowships for RIPE 92 and RIPE 93 are now closed, and I am pleased to see a high number of good applications come in. I am also grateful to everyone who volunteered to be a coach for our new fellows.
RIPE Governance
We are in the process of updating a number of RIPE documents that describe various aspects of our governance.
RIPE Programme Committee Charter
It has been suggested to create a space on the RIPE Programme Committee (PC) for a representative from the Central Asia Peering and Interconnection Forum (CAPIF), our community in Central Asia. This was added to the current RIPE PC charter (ripe-829). I sent the new version to the RIPE List for feedback earlier this week.
RIPE Working Group Chairs job description
The RIPE Working Group Chair Job Description and Procedures (ripe-692) was last updated in 2017. Together with the WG chairs, we did a thorough review of the document to clarify the responsibilities of WG chairs. I will share the new draft version with the RIPE community.
Industry Events
IETF 124: Shortly after RIPE 91, I participated in IETF 124 in Montreal. It was nice to hear positive feedback about the RIPE Meeting and to pick up some ideas for topics for RIPE 92.
WSIS+20: This week, the World Summit of the Information Society (WSIS+20) is taking place in New York. A number of our community members and sister organisations are there to follow the discussions. You can find more information, including a link to the livestream, on the website above.
In preparation for the WSIS+20 meeting, the Informal Multistakeholder Sounding Board held a consultation session to hear feedback on revision 2 of the framework document that will inform the WSIS+20 deliberations. People appreciated the recommendations to keep the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) and urged the UN not to limit the scope of the IGF to Internet infrastructure or Internet governance. The structure also works for other topics related to the digital society.
Financing of the IGF is still uncertain, and a number of speakers welcomed the idea of setting up a Finance Task Force. You can find the recording and statements online.
RIPE NCC Executive Board: I participated in the last RIPE NCC EB meeting of the year and provided an update on developments and plans around the RIPE community. I also thanked the Board for supporting the 2025 RIPE NomCom process.
Happy holidays!
I wish you all a relaxing and, above all, peaceful break. I am looking forward to seeing many of you again in 2026!
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