Hello all,
tl;dr I think that we should have a RIPE archivist.
More words:
I was looking at some historical RIPE meeting records recently, and I
noticed that as we go further back in time the quality of records gets
worse. Formats are inconsistent, information is missing, and so on.
Generally the records about RIPE meetings have improved recently, with
working group minutes being easily accessible, plenary agendas clear,
and so on. I appreciate the work that the RIPE NCC comms team has done
to make it better!
However, I think that it is reasonable to try to organize the old
information as much as possible. For instance, minutes from working
group sessions from many years ago are not on the web pages; although
probably these can be found in mailing list archives in many cases.
Other basic information like who was chair of which working group at any
given time are difficult to find.
I think the RIPE NCC should hire someone to improve the records.
Probably such improvement would involve a couple of phases:
1. Initial work of going through all of the old records for the past 29
years and collecting them into a consistent, coherent set of data
that is available on a set of web pages.
2. Establishing some tools and guidelines going forward, and actually
applying them for future meetings and other RIPE activities so we
don't have to repeat the exercise every 29 years. 😉
I know this would cost money, but it doesn't seem like it would be that
expensive; certainly the 2nd, ongoing phase is not a full-time job. (It
might be possible to give this task to one of the current staff, but
that would mean taking away work from their current duties, and I have a
feeling that there are people with training and experience that
companies and other organizations use for this sort of work.)
Anyway, please let me know if you think this idea makes sense or not.
Cheers,
--
Shane
