RIPE NCC Hosts Largest Roundtable Meeting To Date

The agenda of the meeting covered a range of topics including a particular focus on developments in Internet governance. Paul Rendek, RIPE NCC Director of External Relations, led a wide-ranging discussion about the increase in groups and forums that concern themselves with Internet governance issues, including the recently formed 1Net and the upcoming NETmundial meeting in Brazil. He stressed the RIPE NCC's strong support for the Internet Governance Forum as the key venue for multi-stakeholder consideration of such topics.

Alain Van Gaever, Co-Chair of the RIPE Cooperation Working Group, gave attendees an update on recent activities in the working group, including the workplan proposed by the three co-chairs late last year.

The afternoon session looked at the RIPE NCC's recent and upcoming engagement activities in two areas: the institutions of the European Union, and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). This led into general discussion of capacity-building activities and cooperation between the public and private sectors.

The RIPE NCC would like to acknowledge the cooperation of the European Commission in coordinating the organisation of this meeting adjacent to a meeting of the Commission's High Level Group on Internet Governance (HLIG). This cooperation has been vital in reaching out to new public sector representatives and facilitating their participation.

The RIPE NCC will hold its next Roundtable Meeting in the second half of 2014.