The RIPE Chair Team Reports - February 2023

I hope you all had a good break. The new year is already in full swing and we're seeing a lot of activity. Maybe most excitingly :-), the call for proposals for the RIPE 86 meeting in Rotterdam will open shortly. Please start thinking about topics you would like to discuss or present.

New and Ongoing RIPE Activities

DNS Resolver BCP Task Force

During the community plenary at RIPE 85 it was agreed to set up a new RIPE Task Force (TF) to look at best current practices for operators of open DNS resolvers. This has been initiated by the DNS WG together with the Cooperation WG. We received a good number of volunteers and the TF has started its work. You can find more background on the charter and a link to the mailing list archives on the TF webpage. The TF will regularly report back to the community.

IP address policy developments

IPv4 assignments for IXPs

Following up from a discussion at RIPE 85, a new policy proposal has been submitted to Reduce the size of IPv4 assignments for Internet Exchange Points. Discussion takes place on the Address Policy WG mailing list and is open until 7 February.

IPv6 policy review

While the RIPE IPv6 policy has undergone frequent reviews and updates, the Address Policy WG has started an activity to do a more thorough analysis. You can find more information in this RIPE Labs article by Address Policy WG co-chair Leo Vegoda.

IP address transfers

In introducing temporary measures to protect Ukrainian networks, the RIPE NCC asked the RIPE community to develop a policy that gives a clear mandate to the RIPE NCC to provide these measures as a lasting solution to all members who see the need for it. A volunteer has stepped forward and I expect a proposal to come out shortly.

Temporary assignments

A review of the policy that defines Temporary Internet Number Assignments was discussed at RIPE 85. Two community members volunteered to prepare a proposal that will be shared on the Address Policy WG mailing list.

RIPE NomCom recommendations

We made progress on the recommendations issued by the 2020 RIPE Nominating Committee. We sent proposed updates to The RIPE Chair Selection Process and The RIPE Nominating Committee to the RIPE List in December. New versions of these documents have now been published as ripe-787 and ripe-788 respectively.

Anti-Abuse webinar

Together with the RIPE Anti-Abuse Working Group, the RIPE NCC developed a webinar on the topic of network abuse and handling abuse reports. The first webinar took place on 25 January.

Code of Conduct Reporting Process

After publishing version 2 of the RIPE Code of Conduct: Process and Consequences, the RIPE Code of Conduct Task Force has now incorporated the community's feedback and will publish the final version shortly. In the meantime, the Code of Conduct Task Force has heard from a number of community members who have volunteered to be on the RIPE Code of Conduct Team, which I hope we will have in place by RIPE 86 in May 2023.

Industry Events

RIPE NCC Government Roundtable

The RIPE NCC held another Roundtable Meeting for Governments and Regulators in the European Region on Thursday, 26 January 2023. The agenda was packed with hot topics from the impact Internet sanctions have on network operations to EU regulatory developments and the resilience of the Internet in Ukraine, including a presentation by a representative of the Ministry of Digital Transformation in Ukraine. I was able to contribute to most topics and to give a community perspective. You can see the agenda items and links to the slides on the website.

The Swedish Agenda

In their training series for the Nordic Region, ICANN held a webinar featuring Carl Fredrik Wettermark, Coordinator for Cyber Affairs and New Technologies at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. With Sweden holding the EU Presidency in the first half of 2023, this session explored the Swedish priorities and what the cyber agenda looks like. It was refreshing to hear a government representative refer to the Internet layers and defend the global, unfragmented Internet. But he also urged the technical community to keep an eye on the big picture and to not underestimate the impact technical decisions today can have on regulations in the long-run. The technical community needs to spend the time and energy to explain what elements are essential to protect the global Internet and to formulate a long-term vision that works for politicians.

Open Wallet Foundation

Early in the year I followed a webinar describing the Open Wallet Foundation. Digital wallets are going to be important for almost everybody. They will be a vessel for your credit card, ID, drivers license, permits etc. The aim of the foundation is to develop standards-based open source code that can be used by digital wallet providers. This will ensure interoperability and increase security of the products that use the code.

IETF LLC Board

As mentioned in an earlier report, I was nominated for the IETF LLC Board of Directors. The IETF NomCom has now finished their work and I have been selected to fill a seat on the IETF LLC Board. The hand-over will take place during the IETF 116 meeting in March 2023. I am looking forward to this new challenge and I hope this will be beneficial for both, the IETF and the RIPE community.