PDP Clarification

Summary of Proposal:

In the Review Phase of two recent policy proposals, it was determined that the consensus was not clear enough, and so the respective WG Chairs decided to extend or “restart” the Review Phase.

According to the RIPE Policy Development Process (PDP), “The Review Phase should last for a maximum of four weeks”. The correct procedure would therefore be to close the Review Phase, declare “not enough input”, and start a new Review Phase with a new version of the policy proposal that has the same text.

The common practice of informally extending the Review Phase to gather more input seems preferable to starting over with an identical policy proposal. This proposal aims to make a small amendment to the PDP to formally allow this.

Current Policy Text:

2.3 Review Phase

The purpose of the Review phase is to review the full draft RIPE Document compiled at the end of the Discussion Phase so that the final documentation the proposal will lead to and all modifications made to that document are transparent to the community. During the Review Phase, discussion of the proposal can continue, also in the light of the impact analysis that is published at the beginning of this phase, and within the context of the proposal, further modifications can still be suggested regarding the draft RIPE Document. The Review Phase should last for a maximum of four weeks.

At the end of the Review Phase, the WG chair determines whether the WG has reached rough consensus. If the WG chair decides that consensus has not been reached, then the WG chair can withdraw the proposal. Alternatively, the WG chair can send the proposal back to the Discussion Phase if the proposer is willing to continue to author the proposal and make the necessary changes to the proposal according to the feedback received from the community. The WG chair can also decide to have the draft RIPE Document edited and start a new Review Phase with a new version of the proposal.

New Policy text:

2.3 Review Phase

The purpose of the Review Phase is to review the full draft RIPE Document compiled at the end of the Discussion Phase so that the final documentation the proposal will lead to and all modifications made to that document are transparent to the community. During the Review Phase, discussion of the proposal can continue, also in the light of the impact analysis that is published at the beginning of this phase, and within the context of the proposal, further modifications can still be suggested regarding the draft RIPE Document. The Review Phase should last for a maximum of four weeks.

At the end of the Review Phase, the WG chair determines whether the WG has reached rough consensus. If the WG chair decides that consensus has not been reached, then the WG chair can withdraw the proposal. Alternatively, the WG chair can:

1. Send the proposal back to the Discussion Phase if the proposer is willing to continue to author the proposal and make the necessary changes to the proposal according to the feedback received from the community.
2. Decide to have the draft RIPE Document edited and start a new Review Phase with a new version of the proposal.
3. If not enough community input was received, extend the Review Phase for a maximum of four additional weeks.

Rationale:

a. Arguments Supporting the Proposal

Formally adopts a common practice.

b. Arguments Opposing the Proposal

Not foreseen.

Note: In order to provide additional information related to the proposal, details of an impact analysis carried out by the RIPE NCC are documented below. The projections presented in this analysis are based on existing data and should be viewed only as an indication of the possible impact that the policy might have if the proposal is accepted and implemented.

A. RIPE NCC's Understanding of the Proposal

It is the RIPE NCC's understanding that this proposal will clarify the options available to the Working Group (WG) chairs at the end of the Review Phase of the RIPE Policy Development Process (PDP). It will add explicitly the option of extending the Review Phase for a maximum of four additional weeks, if more input is needed to determine whether the WG has reached rough consensus. This option is already implicitly a common practice for the PDP.

B. Impact of the Proposal on the RIPE NCC

The proposed change to the PDP is relevant for the RIPE Community, in particular the WGs, but has no direct impact for the RIPE NCC.

Therefore, no impact is expected for the registry and addressing system, the RIPE NCCs operations, services and legal aspects.