Dear group members,

As Meredith has already signalled to the Group I work for the European Commission. Specifically, I work in the "Directorate General for  Communications Networks, Content & Technology" (DG CONNECT) and my responsibilities relate to public policy issues associated with network technologies, with a particular focus on standardisation activities. To this end, I have been Commission representative in the key technical bodies related to Internet Protocol (IP) standards issues and IP address allocation policies (the IETF and RIPE respectively) since 2012.

In this context, I have been focusing in particular on enhancing cooperation between the private and public sectors on Internet matters, taking advantage wherever possible of the knowledge and expertise of both technical experts and public sector representatives.  As part of my mandate,  I have been very happy to help  RIPE NCC to organise Roundtable Meetings in Brussels and the IETF to hold a special session for Member States officials at IETF 89 in London (March 2014). I am of the opinion that RIPE Roundtable Meetings have enjoyed great success and note that RIPE NCC share this view, having kindly acknowledged the contribution of the European Commission in "coordinating the organisation of this meeting as vital in reaching out to new public sector representatives and facilitating their participation".

I am looking forward to further enhance this cooperation via the workgroup. I am currently dealing with issues of IoT standardisation and numbering, as well as the involvement of vertical industries in next generation networks (5G, mobile Internet, …) and I believe these are also issues of interest for RIPE and the Coop workgroup.

I am looking forward to meeting with you all in Copenhagen and providing any further information you may require about the Commission's interests in RIPE's activities.

Achilleas

Achilleas Kemos

Programme Officer -EU Policies

European Commission

DG CONNECT - Network Technologies Unit

From: cooperation-wg [mailto:cooperation-wg-bounces@ripe.net] On Behalf Of Meredith Whittaker
Sent: Thursday, May 05, 2016 10:12 PM
To: cooperation-wg@ripe.net
Subject: [cooperation-wg] Call for co-chair nominations

This is the thread where I, as Chair, officially call for Coop-WG co-chair nominees to identify yourselves, and provide a bit of background about who you are and why you'd bring energy and great content to the Coop-WG. 

Per the process, we'll leave this open for two weeks. I encourage discussion, questions, and and other productive activity that helps you get to know the nominees on this thread. 

Thanks,

Meredith -- currently the sole Coop-WG Chair

--

Meredith Whittaker
Open Research Lead
Google NYC