Dear EIX-WG Member, dear Fellow IXP Operator, [... sorry for any duplicates ...] "Euro-IX" ( http://www.euro-ix.net/ ) was presented as a new initiative during the EIX-WG meeting at RIPE39 in Bologna last week. The slides of this presentation and further information can be found at http://www.euro-ix.net/newsevents/europresent.htm http://www.euro-ix.net/newsevents/index.htm If you are representing an Internet exchange point in Europe you are invited to join as a founder member of this association (in the course of formation) by signing a letter of intent (LOI) before 31.5.2001. Further details can be found at http://www.euro-ix.net/newmembership/index.htm A Euro-IX meeting has been scheduled for Monday, 21.5.2001, 11:00 - open end in Amsterdam aiming at drafting the Articles/Charter of the Euro-IX Association. All founder members having signed the LOI by that date are invited. Further comments on the Articles/Charter will be accepted from all founder members until 31.5.2001. After the Euro-IX presentation at RIPE39/EIX-WG we received various comments from Rob Blokzijl, Keith Mitchell, Andre Opperman and others which have been seriously considered by the initiating (charter) members of the group. We therefore want to clearly express the following statements which might be missing - at least in this clearness - in the press release and original presentation: Based on ongoing discussions at or close to various RIPE meetings a strong need was identified for co-operation between independent exchange point operators regarding technical, operational and administrative matters. Setting up an umbrella/membership organisation (association) for IXPs was after all the logical answer. In addition to the co-operative aspects a common Euro-IX web site/portal opens the opportunity to present key information about independent european Internet exchanges in a homogeneous way, facilitating the access for international ISPs who want to connect to more than one IXP in Europe. There is definitly no intention to replace the RIPE EIX working group, it's a complementary approach focussing on the needs of exchange point operators. Euro-IX and its affiliated IXPs will independently continue to give presentations to the RIPE/EIX-WG. Euro-IX will not impose any standards onto its members and is not claiming any power of representative authority on behalf of its members. Participation of all (not restricted to) european IXPs (for-profit and non-profit) is explicitly encouraged. Financial contribution (membership fees) will be used for ongoing maintenance of the portal and intranet web site, basic secretariat, research work (white papers, recommendations, ...) and intellectual IXP start-up support. All research/results/white papers produced by the association will be made freely available, with the exception of internal IXP operational issues. The initiating (charter) members are inviting all prospecting IXPs to join Euro-IX as founder members in signing a Letter of Intent (LOI) before 31.5.2001. The proposed charter/articles of the association, which will be established in The Netherlands (Amsterdam), will be circulated to all founder members (22.5.2001) for review with a deadline for comments (31.5.2001). All input will be considered and a final charter will be published shortly thereafter. All founder members having made comments and who could finally not agree with the published charter may then withdraw their membership within one week without beeing charged any membership fee. Joining the Euro-IX association is of course also possible at any later stage for any IXP. The first general assembly will take place either close to the Prague RIPE meeting (October 2001) or at latest close to the next Amsterdam RIPE meeting (January 2002). For that meeting all members are invited to suggest board members and to elect the board. In the meantime the function of the board is performed jointly by the initiating (charter) members, who may be contacted at: <board@euro-ix.net> or individually: Magnus Andersson, Netnod <magnus@netnod.se> Pascal Delmoitie, BNIX <pascal@belnet.be> Arnold Nipper, DE-CIX <arnold.nipper@de-cix.net> Christian Panigl, VIX <panigl@vix.at> Valeria Rossi, MIX <valeria.rossi@mix-it.net> John Souter, LINX <john@linx.net> Job Witteman, AMS-IX <job.witteman@ams-ix.net>