Policy and PR problem

At 10:27 13/02/2001, Hans Petter Holen wrote:
>personally I think that we have a serious PR problem here: is it so that the
>rules and regulations have become so strict and complicated that we, the
>lirs, tell our customers that this is very difficult and you should realy
>use private addresses, rather than explaining how the procedures and
>policies realy work ?

IMHO, the main problem seems to be clueless salesmen who do not understand 
RIPEs procedures, and the clueless product managers who will go and design 
a solution without knowing what procedures they have to follow or 
restrictions they have when it comes to IP addresses.

This leaves the poor hostmaster trying to explain to the company that it 
can not do what it wants to do and by then it is almost too late.. 
advertising etc is all done.

What may be worth doing is getting 'salesmen' to go to RIPE training 
courses - as it is these  people who talk to customers directly for that 
signature on the contract. :)

What we need to realise is how companies in this industry conduct business 
nowadays.. (I am not including those companies who have followed the RIPE 
rules from time immemorial).

I have also already spoken to Axel about RIPE maybe looking at an Outreach 
program (something that Nominet - the .uk not for profit registry - is 
doing now)... this will be good for PR.

The other aspect I have briefly spoken to Axel about and also to Margriet 
is how to make the new LIR sign up process less administratively heavy.

I am not saying that we change the RIPE NCC we have all come to love over 
the years.. just that we need to be aware of business in this industry and 
the way it is going.

Regards
Denesh
-- 
Denesh Bhabuta           Chairman, CEO and Principal Consultant
Cyberstrider Limited                                   www.cyberstrider.net
  Internet and E-Commerce: Strategy, Consultancy and Solutions