Dear Address Council, As chair of the lir-wg, http://www.ripe.net/ripe/wg/lir/index.html the RIPE open forum where policy is made I am writing you this open letter. The purpose of this note is to update you all on the input gathered from our region. It is an open letter to work as a startingpoint for a broader discussion on the same topics in all of the addressing community. This would provide valuable input to the planned workshop to be held between the AC, the RIRs and ICANN in Brisbane later this year. (This initiative was first suggested in Budapest and later discussed at the AC phone conferences, please refer to the minutes for more information: http://www.aso.icann.org/docs/) At RIPE 37 I called for a special workshop in order to bring those especially interested in ASO matters together with the AC representatives from our region for closer discussion. The announcement of the issues I brought to the meeting can be found at http://www.ripe.net/ripe/mail-archives/lir-wg/20000701-20001001/msg00150.htm l Some 20-30 people showed up including Address Council members - Sabine Jaume, Wilfried Woeber, and myself. The following rather broad topics lies on the Address Councils table, and will be discussed by the AC, ICANN and the RIRs at a physical AC meeting in Brisbane just after the APNIC meeting in October. This effort is thus an attempt to seek advice from the community before these discussions to satisfy the basic requirements for openness and transparency. 1) What is global policy ? There are several dimensions to this discussion: - replace RFC 2050 with a ICANN Address policy document - what is the distinction between regional and global policy - do we understand and appreciate the differences between the regional policies ? - differences between v4 and v6 with respect to the last item - what's the role/work mode of the AC ? to make the definite address policy, or to work on issues as they show up - were is the border between a service level contract and policy issues. - are there other operating guidelines for the ICANN - IANA than the global addressing policy ? 2) Revising the MOU In the widest sense: are there things in the present MOU that needs more work and needs to be changed ? 3) Addressing the essence of the ad Hoc committee, i.e. discussing how to best address new addressing needs emerging for 4) How to promote ipv6 ? 5) Emerging RIRs How to enable and support the emerging RIRs to establish regional policy processes ? The official minutes from this meeting will be posted shortly, but a brief summary is as follows: * The distinction between regional and global address policy needs to be set * The AC needs to understand and appreciate the differences between each of the regional policies * There is interest in harmonizing the core procedures and requirements of the various Regional Registries with regard to LIRs applying for and obtaining IP address space. * The Address Council should proactive set the agenda for global policy development. * IPv4 address exhaustion - the AC should work with the RIRs and the ICANN IANA to produce comparable statistics on address space consumption. Care should be taken to first produce solid data, then diagnose, and finally seek the proper cure. * The AC should not see it as its role to promote IPv4 over IPv6 or vice versa. * The AC should look further into addressing the concerns that initiated the ad Hoc committee * It was also expressed satisfaction with the ASO annual meeting in Budapest and further interest inntrest in more opportunities to meet and discuss global addressing policy with the address council. It was suggested to me publicly and privately that the AC sould seek to hold an open meeting in conjunction with the ICANN annual meeting later this year. The agenda of such a meeting should consist of not only reporting from the work done by the AC and the ASO but also provide open discussions on addressing issues including the ad Hoc group issues, global policy development and several legacy addressing issues. A well prepared meeting with invited speakers as well as a discusion panel is likely to bring more insight into the issues in front of us. Such a meeting would in my opinion serve as an important step in the ongoing process of seeking global consensus. We have started the discussion regionally at RIPE 37, the ARIN policy meeting and the upcoming APNIC policy meeting. Thereafter the AC, RIRs and ICANN will work further on some issues, present and discuss them at the ICANN annual meeting before seeking final consensus at all the regions mailinglists and upcoming policy meetings. I would by this ask the chair of the address council to bring these suggestions to the address councils next phone conference. Sincerely, Hans Petter Holen RIPE lir-wg Chair, the open forum where policy is made.