I have observed the recent discussions in the community and the RIPE NCC membership. Here are three personal appeals for these discussion as we meet in Krakow and on the Net.
Let us be proud! Together we have built a strong community and an exemplary way of self governance. Let us cherish what we have and develop it further by consensus.
Let us support the RIPE NCC. A strong RIPE NCC is more than just a registry: it is a neutral place where the community does things together. Let us avoid weakening it by exaggerating its shortcomings but rather evolve it in deliberate steps by consensus. A strong RIPE NCC benefits everyone.
Let us not fall for divisive rhetoric and seemingly easy and convenient solutions. Most everyone wants to pay less for the same benefit. More often than not, after deciding to pay less one discovers that the benefit is not quite the same. Let us not focus on the cost first but constructively build consensus to evolve the RIPE NCC in the direction we want and only then decide how we split the costs.
For those who do not know me well, here is my background so you know where I come from when I speak up: My name is Daniel Karrenberg. I have been involved with RIPE and the RIPE NCC from the very beginning. I have helped to create RIPE in 1989 while I was busy bringing the Internet to the region. I helped to create the proposal for a RIPE NCC. In 1992 I took responsibility for implementing that proposal and became the first employee of the RIPE NCC and its first CEO. I helped to create the initial versions of many RIPE NCC services including the first two versions of the RIPE Database software. During the first year of the RIPE NCC the first Internet boom hit and the RIPE NCC needed to meet entirely unforeseen demands. I resisted the temptations of the boom and decided to stick with the NCC during this challenging time.
At the start of this century I stepped down as CEO and went on to help build new RIPE NCC sevices, such as RIPE RIS, RIPE Atlas and RIPEStat. During the following decade I stepped back from operational resposibilities and became an advisor to the RIPE NCC CEO; I still advise him on a part-time basis which makes me the longest serving RIPE NCC employee. Recently I have helped to build consensus about RIPE self governance by authoring documents describing the role of the RIPE Chair and the RIPE Chair selection process. I have subsequently led the first round of that process as chair of the 2020 RIPE Nominating Committee.
Currently, on request of the RIPE Chair, I am drafting a document on the community consensus about the current state of the relationship between RIPE and the RIPE NCC. I am also looking forward to advise the next RIPE Nominating Committee in my role as the previous chair.
So far my history with this community. This should let you draw your own colclusions about my biases and the merit of what I have to say. Now for the longer version of my appeals:
Let us be proud! Together we have built a strong community and an exemplary way of self governance. Let us cherish what we have and develop it further by consensus.
We are currently facing many challenges such as
At the same time the climate of public discourse in general has become more hostile and divisive. Whole countries are facing a divided population, sometimes close to 50/50. People concentrate more on what divides them rather than on what unites them. Ironically some believe that our very Internet has been a major instrument for this to happen.
We should not follow this trend! I fear that significant divisions in our community and a hostile discourse will damage our standing and our credibility as a self governing community.
We should be proud of the unique community we have built and the exemplary self governance we have created, especially in the area of Internet Number Resources or as we like to call it Address Policy and the RIPE Registry. Our community has been leading the world in this and we should be proud of it and build on that success. I do not mean to say that we do not need to evolve. To the contrary! We should do this in our successful tradition of constructive discourse leading to rough consensus.
Let us support the RIPE NCC. A strong RIPE NCC is more than just a registry: it is a neutral place where the community does things together. Let us avoid weakening it by exaggerating its shortcomings but rather evolve it in deliberate steps by consensus. A strong RIPE NCC benefits everyone.
Some argue that the RIPE NCC should be reduced to just the registry or that they do not benefit from all the extra activities. This is a dangerous view to take. The RIPE NCC is strong and stable just because it is more than a registry. The RIPE NCC was established from the start as a neutral and trustworthy place where the community organises common activities while being fiercely competitive elsewhere. Such a place is worth preserving all by its own. The RIPE NCC is uniquely placed for some of these activities such as neutral Internet measurements and promoting our self governance. It is stronger and less prone to hostile takeovers than just a bookkeeping function.
I do not propose that everything the RIPE NCC does should be done forever, including the activities I helped to create. The RIPE NCC does what the community and the membership want. We have always reviewed and updated the RIPE NCC Activity Plan.
I fear that weakening the RIPE NCC may destroy the unique resource that we have created and, once weakened, it will be difficult or even impossible to re-build its strength when we need it. We all benefit from a strong and well recognised RIPE NCC whether we individually benefit from all its activities or not.
Let us not fall for divisive rhetoric and seemingly easy and convenient solutions. Most everyone wants to pay less for the same benefit. More often than not, after deciding to pay less one discovers that the benefit is not quite the same. Let us not focus on the cost first but constructively build consensus to evolve the RIPE NCC in the direction we want and only then decide how we split the costs.
Of course the RIPE NCC and its activities need to evolve with the changing environment and the changing needs of both the membership and the RIPE community at large. Starting this process by proposing to reduce the costs for individual members however is the completely wrong way around. We should first achieve consensus on what we want from the RIPE NCC and then talk about how we split the cost.
Our governance is designed such that RIPE and the RIPE NCC association cooperate. In short it works like this:
Evolving the RIPE NCC starts with the RIPE community and with the RIPE NCC membership. We give guidance to the board. The membership elects that board. So we should provide this guidance and elect those people. We should be prudent in this and avoid falling for divisive polemics and seemingly easy solutions. If we screw this up we may very well lose what we have built up over a long time with considerable effort.
Let us continue our tradition of constructive discussions leading to rough consensus and the selection of good people. We have shown that we can do that and we will continue to be successful and, importantly, continue to have some fun together.