On 16/09/2009, at Wed, Sep 16, 00:45, Shane Kerr wrote:
Perhaps it is time to move beyond the traditional administrative and technical co-ordination of RIPE and begin shameless advocacy. Widespread IPv6 adoption is in the best interests of everyone.
I am sure we can think of a lot of ways that RIPE can use its unique position to improve IPv6 adoption. The discussion about vendors saying "no demand" is a good point. Things like petitions signed by a huge number of ISPs in Europe may have an effect. It may also be possible to encourage governments in the RIPE region to insist on IPv6 for new purchases. I doubt there would be a shortage of ideas if people were asked for them.
Perhaps one option is to look to intoduce a policy like the one which is currently in final call in the APNIC region. It's prop-073: Simplifying allocation/assignment of IPv6 to APNIC members with existing IPv4 addresses http://www.apnic.net/policy/proposals/prop-073 Terry Manderson and I pushed for this when we realised that a number of people had misconceptions about how difficult it is to get IPv6 address space. I know that a similar proposal was mooted in the RIPE region and it failed to be adopted for a number of reasons but perhaps it's time for the IPv6 Working Group to advocate for this and other measures that make adoption easier. Terry and I advocated strongly that people on the APNIC sig-policy group and other who attend APNIC meetings were not necessarily an ideal litmus test about how easy or hard adopting IPv6 is - they're mostly people who get it and I'm sure the same applies in the RIPE region and other RIRs. Regards, andy