On Wed, Aug 13, 2003 at 03:17:27PM +0100, Neil J. McRae wrote: [...]
I'm not against a number of the RIPE's activities, in fact some of the work that has been done has been great, but it needs to have strong foundations and support from the RIPE NCC members and stakeholders and at the moment that isn't the case.
Most of the tasks RIPE is taking up are things that *are* of relevance, but most members do not notice the relevance for a few years *after* 8-) E.g. the k-root multisite experiment or the anti-spam wg (which lagged, but was and is very important).
I'd hazard a guess that a vast majority of the members signed up so they can register IP addresses, AS numbers and get reverse DNS and if all the other stuff stopped tomorrow that they wouldn't even notice.
Yes, they would not notice for a few years and then would wake up and say "We *had* this and killed it, my, now, that we need it".
The purpose of the RIPE NCC are the registration services which is what we signed up for.
The purpose extends to other important areas, and they need to be covered in an open manner. I know other ways this can be covered (DE-NIC, ECO) and I do not prefer those ways. It was suggested: "If you need lobbying, start another group". I've done that already (www.ispeg.de, very german-centric), but this does not keep me from wanting RIPE being the platform for advanced topics it currently is.
There are a several other organisations that have been setup working with the public and the media to lobby specific points and actions.
Yes, and most/all of them failed for critical mass, skills, person power, influence, you name it.
About the RIPE meetings: They are crucially important to the functioning of the RIPE NCC, and of industry self regulation. Yes, they should be self supporting, but they aren't fully. Can we raise the meeting fees?
How much is required to cover all the costs ? -- MfG/Best regards, Kurt Jaeger 17 years to go ! LF.net GmbH fon +49 711 90074-23 pi@LF.net Ruppmannstr. 27 fax +49 711 90074-33 D-70565 Stuttgart mob +49 171 3101372