[ncc-services-wg] Proposal: Reduction of RIPE-NCC Actvities

>> There are activities of the NCC that can be discussed if they are to 
>> be
>> considered relevant or not. However, what current activities of the
>> RIPE NCC do you feel that are not "necessary to the continued well
>> being of the Internet"?
>
> an interesting question, to which i have no answer.  i would note
> the contrast between the four current rirs, with arin being very
> bare-bones address allocation, lacnic adding more educational
> outreach as they perceive a need in their region, apnic which does
> more infrastructure and more outreach work, and ripe/ncc which has
> major branches into representing isps in policy fora, doing r&d,
> etc.

This is a very important observation, and I guess at the end what the 
debate is all about. The problem is also though that the "landscape" in 
the regions are very different. Traditionally RIPE have for example 
also to some extent played the role of NANOG, as the only alternative 
would have been something like EuroISPA. EuroISPA on the other hand is 
far more towards a lobbying organization, and very little into 
operational details. In the APNIC region there is also the APRICOT 
meetings.

In the RIPE region, the natural co-operation point have been RIPE. When 
at KQ we attended the RIPE meetings as mush for meeting customers, 
solve various inter-provider problems, and also participate in the WG 
activities. What might be worth considering is to arrange the meetings 
in a more "US like manner" with the ARIN/NANOG split but with the 
meetings back-to-back. That would make it easier for people who only 
want to go to some of the current WGs.

> my issue is with ripe/ncc (and apnic) forgetting that the internet
> is a cooperative venture, making war with icann (with whom folk
> know i have major doubts, and towards which my comment on lawers
> and politicans replacing a part-time computer scientist were
> directed (some years ago)), naively aligning with the itu (apnic
> has joined the itu), and non-cooperation with the ietf.  it is how
> these policies are made and decided in back rooms that tip me over
> the edge.  it is not my enemies who make me most frustrated, it is
> my friends.

Hopefully we are changing this. But I do think part of the problem have 
been the lack of interest from the community in the past.

- kurtis -