Vittorio, On 02/08/2017 11:53, Vittorio Bertola wrote:
I'm not saying that RIPE is doing anything bad or with any bad intent, also I didn't really mean to start a thread, but even if this precise discussion has been going on for a long time at ICANN and elsewhere about 15 years ago, and views on it really vary, it looks like RIPE still has to deal with it.
The point is that having an open door and saying "if you have anything to say, just show up" is not enough, if you really want to make balanced policies. Some stakeholders, like governments and business, have well funded employees and lobbyists that can afford showing up, while other stakeholders don't. In fact, the "public interest" is the hardest thing to keep into account, because any narrow group with specific interests can show up and scream to push your policies in their favour, while the general public has a weak interest that only becomes huge if you could aggregate several billion Internet users, which you can't practically do. So either you make active efforts to include these other points of view, e.g. like ICANN has been doing, or you will always risk to produce policies biased in favour of those few that actually can afford to show up, and against the general public interest.
This is hugely important and has been a recent topic of conversation in the community. The RIPE NCC and the Community have been working for some time to lower barriers to entry and to actively seek out those who either don't know how to engage or can't engage. Are we done yet? Absolutely not. But things are always improving. The External Relations team and the Training team in the NCC do a lot here, as to the Board and various Community members. This work is achieved through RIPE meetings, Regional Meetings, training, NOGs, member lunches etc. Policies in RIPE are driven by a number of different people and groups, but quite often the people putting finger to keyboard don't work for big companies, or sometimes any company at all! The mailing list model has always been an attempt to make sure barriers to participation are as low as possible, the RIPE Forum idea is an attempt to open it up more. The recently set-up Diversity TF is also looking at a number of these questions. So, we aren't there yet, certainly, but the work is ongoing in both a pro-active and re-active fashion and certainly, while this thread may not be the place for it, the WG Chairs, the RIPE Meeting PC and the NCC would all welcome input on these matters. Thanks, Brian Co-Chair RIPE AA-WG Brian Nisbet Network Operations Manager HEAnet CLG, Ireland's National Education and Research Network 1st Floor, 5 George's Dock, IFSC, Dublin D01 X8N7, Ireland +35316609040 brian.nisbet@heanet.ie www.heanet.ie Registered in Ireland, No. 275301. CRA No. 20036270