I find the use of public sector, as in "The Collaboration Working Group is a forum for discussion focusing on collaboration between the private and public sectors on Internet matters." somewhat strange and perhaps misleading. My (not insignificant) country has a public and a private sector, and the former has grown steadily over the past 10 years, encompassing a wide variety of services and businesses. To me, public sector means state owned, state run, answerable to ministers, as opposed to private sector, run by a board of directors, answerable to share holders. Is this really what you mean? I suspect not. Tom Petch ----- Original Message ----- From: "Patrik Fältström" <patrik@frobbit.se> To: <ripe-list@ripe.net> Cc: "Marin Boyle" <martin.boyle@nominet.org.uk>; "Maria Häll" <maria.hall@enterprise.ministry.se> Sent: Monday, July 14, 2008 3:10 PM Subject: Re: Proposed new working group: Collaboration After input from a number of people (thanks) and discussion with the proposed working group chairs, here is a new version of the proposed charter. Changes to the charter specifically include talking about what this working group is *not* to discuss. I have heard indirectly that some individuals are not happy with the name of the wg. I am not married to this name. It was just something I came up with as we agree we should NOT call it "enhanced cooperation". If not anyone comes up with a better name, I propose we live with this for now, and then change the name if someone comes up with something better. I do not personally want this discussion on what the name is block the creation of the wg. We need it, me thinks, in Dubai. Patrik, holder of the pen Collaboration Working Group Suggested chairs: Martin Boyle, Nominet Maria Häll, Swedish Government The RIPE community decision-making processes are open to anyone, meaning that anyone with an interest can suggest policy, take part in reviewing documents and participate on mailing lists and at RIPE Meetings. To encourage participation from people and organisations outside the traditional RIPE community, a number of special outreach programs have been developed, including a series of "Governmental Roundtable Meetings", at which RIPE community members and government representatives can meet and discuss common areas of interest. Government representatives participate in RIPE Meetings, and the RIPE NCC actively reaches out to governments and others in the public sector to inform them on issues related to the RIPE community and engage them on issues related to RIPE and RIPE NCC activities. The Collaboration Working Group is a forum for discussion focusing on collaboration between the private and public sectors on Internet matters. This kind of collaboration has taken on increased prominence in recent years, as the wider Internet community strives to ensure that all voices are heard and the interests of all parties are considered. Fostering more open dialogue between all stakeholders is vital to ensuring the continued stability of the Internet. The working group discusses the following: 1. Topics raised by working group participants that are of interest to both the public and private sectors. Topics are NOT to overlap with issues discussed in other working groups. This working group should complement the other working groups. 2. The RIPE NCC's current outreach activities will be reported, and the RIPE NCC will seek advice and guidance on future activities. This to make the discussions more focused as the current only forum is the ripe-list@ripe.net mailing list. 3. The working group will develop and clarify the RIPE community's position on issues that are of relevance to the public sector or on which a community position has been sought. These discussions are to be more focused in a working group targeted for these kind of discussions. 4. The working group will be responsible for maintenance of the RIPE Document produced by the Enhanced Cooperation Task Force, describing the RIPE community, existing policy development processes and outreach programs. This working group does explicitly NOT have change control over the PDP itself, just change control of the document that describe it. The working group is also an important channel through which the RIPE community can communicate with others in the "Information Society". The chairs are not to become special "Ambassadors" for RIPE. Their role is the same as other wg chairs at RIPE, which implies they of course could be asked now and then what the status of the wg is. The process by which RIPE and RIPE NCC respectively coordinate with other bodies (such as NRO) and communicate (mostly via RIPE NCC or the chair of RIPE) is not changing by creation and existence of this wg.