The RIPE Chair Team Reports - March 2021

Community Activities

RIPE Working Group Interim Sessions

The monthly sessions of the DNS WG have become regular events that the DNS community look forward to. This time on the agenda there was an update of DNS related developments at the IETF and a report from one of the root server operators on their DNS protection strategy.

Also, the Cooperation WG organised an interim session to discuss the European Union’s proposed revision to the Directive on security of network information systems, or NIS 2. Following up from this session, the co-chairs of the Cooperation WG group, together with RIPE NCC staff and some community members involved in the topic, formulated a response to the European Union.

Operational Questions

Triggered by a mail exchange on one of the RIPE WG mailing lists, I was wondering what list(s) people in the RIPE community use to discuss topics related to network operations. With so many active network operators groups (NOGs), it has been suggested that the local NOGs can play a vital role in answering such questions, possibly even in your native language. You can find a map and more information about local NOGs on RIPE Labs.

RIPE Code of Conduct

The RIPE Code of Conduct Task Force has almost finished the first part of their charter and published a Draft Code of Conduct. So far, the feedback from the community was positive overall. There are still some questions and suggestions that the TF is going to work on over the next few weeks. At RIPE 82, the CoC TF is planning to organise a BoF to gather feedback about the next two documents: Reporting procedures and the formation of the Code of Conduct team.

RIPE NomCom Report

We were pleased to see the publication of the final report of the RIPE 2020 Nominating Committee. We would like to thank Daniel Karrenberg, the Chair of the NomCom and all other members of the NomCom for their work and for this detailed and transparent report. The document contains a number of recommendations for future NomCom chairs and for the RIPE community that we will review in due course.

Preparations for RIPE 82

The RIPE Meeting Programme Committee reviewed the submissions for RIPE 82 plenary presentations. I am happy to report that the PC received so many good submissions that it was decided not to extend the deadline and I am looking forward to a very interesting plenary programme. Submissions for BoFs and Lightning Talks are still possible.

Some of the RIPE WG chairs also sent out calls for content. I would like to encourage everyone to think about topics they would like to see or discuss at RIPE 82. 

Industry Events

Either Niall or I attended a number of online events in March. Here is a short summary of some of them. 

• Earlier in the month I attended a number of sessions at APRICOT 2021. I was especially intrigued by reports from local NOGs. While some NOGs decided to postpone their annual events, many NOGs managed to hold successful online events last year. The NOG organisers showed great collaboration and shared a lot of useful experiences with each other and the audience. Some NOG organisers used quizzes and other gamification methods to foster interaction and discussion.

• We attended a session organised by AFRINIC to discuss behaviour on community mailing lists and how to possibly address undesired behaviour. 

• The German Internet association eco organised a panel discussion covering important topics such as the digital transformation, capitalism, open source and sustainability. Vint Cerf, one of the panelists, summarised it nicely when he said "Transparency is your friend.".

• At the 142nd RIPE NCC Executive Board meeting, I gave an update on developments in the community, including our work on RIPE community governance, community wellbeing and the new Code of Conduct.

• EURO-IX organised another interesting session, this time on the Power of Mentoring. While many of us are used to working on our own (and not only since COVID-19), a mentor can play such an important role in someone's career. On the other hand, many in our community have a lot knowledge and experience they would be happy to share with a mentee.

• The Sustainable Digital Infrastructure Alliance (SDIA) organised a webinar about The Role of Renewable Energy which touched on topics such as the important role of transparency and reliable data collection as well as energy usage in data centers.  

• I also met with the new chair of the IETF, Lars Eggert and introduced him to Hans Petter Holen. We exchanged some ideas about how to encourage volunteer work and the challenges to keeping and guiding a strong community in times of COVID-19.

And so April is upon us! I wish you all a peaceful and safe weekend, and to those who celebrate it, I wish you a happy and healthy Easter. I'm looking forward to enjoying my new hobby: I put a number of bird feeding devices in the tree in front of my house and love watching the different types of city birds come over for a snack.