RIPE Hostmasters visiting LIRs

On Thu, 16 Sep 1999, Abbey Shasore wrote:

Please read ripe-154:
RIPE NCC Local IR Training Policies 

The proper thing is for new LIRs to attend these workshops:
http://www.ripe.net/cgi-bin/courselist.pl.cgi

What should be required is that part of these workshops
have time allocated for the LIRs to introduce themselves
to the hostmasters and explain anything specific that 
they do differently.

The LIR list at:
http://www.ripe.net/lir/registries/indices/data/index.html
is 208K in size!  How many LIRs are there - 1000?  How
long would it take for the RIPE hostmasters to visit ALL
of them?  

The logistics of having the hostmasters taking a traveling
tour of Europe, Africa and the Middle East just doesn't
make any sense.  This should be handled during the training
course that all LIRs should have to attend.  

-Hank


> Hi Chaps,
> 
> Now come along...it is *great* idea for RIPE to get to know what we do and
> how we do it. However, I am far from convinced that this is the way to do
> it!
> 
> Of course there will be lobbying, of course there will be LIRs that will
> make an impression, and of course there is a real risk of compromising RIPE
> neutrality.
> 
> Also, how would this be funded? Ok for the big(ger) guys, but how about us
> less big guys? Personally, I would like to have you guys get to know us
> better and so on - but I am not sure we can afford it!
> 
> More thought required me thinks...
> 
> Abbey Shasore
> A4U Net - Alpha Internet
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sam Critchley [mailto:samc at UU.NET]
> Sent: 16 September 1999 16:01
> To: lir-wg at ripe.net
> Subject: RIPE Hostmasters visiting LIRs
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Hello,
> 
> Recently a few colleagues and I have been talking about the way we
> interact with the people in the RIPE NCC when dealing with customer
> assignments (and some other matters). One of the things we thought could
> bebeneficial is if Hostmasters had more experience of the kind of issues
> we in the ISP community face on a day-to-day basis.
> 
> We thought it might be a good idea if some of the Hostmasters were able to
> visit an ISP and see how they work, meet the peoplethey deal with and
> perhaps work alongside them for a period of time. With this in mind we
> first thought of inviting individual people to come and visit us, or
> perhaps addressing the NCC asking if this were possible. However, we soon
> realised that this would have neutrality implications, and that it could
> be damaging both to the RIPE NCC reputation and to ours, and that for
> this reason it was unlikely to be accepted by them.
> 
> In the last week or so I've been in touch with people in several other
> LIRs here in the Netherlands on an informal basis, and we all seem to
> agree that, were visits made to multiple registries by multiple members of
> the staff of the NCC, then this would have fewer neutrality implications.
> It seems like there are several registries who would be happy to offer
> help with this if it has a potential benefit for all LIRs. I realise that
> this has been discussed in various forums before, but feel personally that
> we are now able to remove many of the barriers which might prevent it
> happening.
> 
> Do other LIRs feel that this could be beneficial to everyone in the RIPE
> community? What do RIPE NCC staff themselves think about it? What kind of
> restraints do people feel should be placed upon any such scheme? How
> should it be organised? Should it be discussed at a meeting?
> 
> 
> Looking forward to any comments on the lir-wg mailing-list,
> 
> 
> Best wishes,
> 
> 
> 
> Sam
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 

Hank Nussbacher