[ripe-list] RIPE Accountability Task Force - Draft Scope

Daniel, all,

Thank you for your input.

We took some time with our response as we wanted to discuss this with the
task force during our meeting yesterday on Monday 3 April 2017.

Your main points about the scope seem to be stemming from:

1. A concern that the TF will produce new processes
2. The lack of a clear deadline
3. A concern that the group may have a tendency towards needless complexity
or bureaucracy

Regarding the first point, the answer is simply no – we will not produce
new processes. The TF members do not see this as within our scope at all.
What we do see as within our scope is basically reviewing what is in place
and identifying where accountability could be improved by filling in any
gaps – and documenting these findings together with recommendations in a
report. We hope that this report will help the RIPE community to decide
whether it would like to follow up on the TF’s recommendations and change
some existing processes or create new ones.

In other words, the task force will not create any new processes, nor we
will change any. The RIPE community will eventually do this if it sees fit.
Our work is about helping this process.

Having said that, we recognise that the draft scope's current wording is
not ideal. There had been suggestions at our meeting by various task force
members and we discussed making the following specific changes. We have
also outlined below where we do not see the need for a change for each of
the current draft scope points:

- Review existing RIPE community structures, documentation and processes to
ensure they are accountable and in alignment with RIPE values
*We suggest changing this to: *
- Review existing RIPE community structures, documentation and processes to
*evaluate* whether they are accountable and in alignment with RIPE values

- Document existing RIPE community structures or processes where needed
*We suggest changing this to: *
Document existing RIPE community structures or processes.
[This enables us to do a stock-taking exercise of the processes that are
relevant to an accountability analysis and that are currently already in
place. Note the "existing".]

- Identify potential gaps where RIPE accountability could be improved or
strengthened
*We suggest NO change on this: *
This simply says make an analysis of what other potential structure or
process could exist to make RIPE accountability better. It does not say
fill those gaps. Our scope is to identify the gaps (as we see them) and
bring these to the attention of the community.

- Identify areas where communications efforts or materials may be required
*We suggest NO change on this: *
This simply says to identify whether the existing material or the approach
used is at the desired quality for accountability.

- Publish recommendations for the RIPE community
*We suggest NO change on this: *
This simply says to document whether the TF has recommendations for
specific improvements. Maybe some gaps will be found to be insignificant by
the TF. With this we will be publishing those thoughts too. It will be
helpful to share these with the RIPE community.

Again, it will be up to the RIPE community if it wants to follow-up on the
recommendations of the TF and discuss further potential work.

Regarding your point about the deadline, you are right that we do not have
one yet. However, I would be cautious of setting one at this stage. We have
just started our work and we plan to communicate and take input from the
RIPE community regularly. Depending on the input we receive, the deadline
can be determined later once we have a clearer idea of the work ahead.

Regarding the third point, it is worth noting that many task force members
have been a part of the RIPE community for a while now. We know how this
community works and we do not have a desire to add needless complexity or
bureaucracy simply for the sake of it. The informality of the RIPE
community is one of its strengths. While we may end up recommending that
some processes be created or documented, we are certainly not starting from
an assumption that everything should be covered by process and
documentation.

Finally, regarding RIPE values, it is worth noting that the task force
believes there is support for the “open, transparent and bottom-up” model.
While these are certainly not the sole values of the RIPE community, they
serve as a useful lens when assessing its accountability.

With this, we would again like to hear from the RIPE community on the
revised draft scope discussion so the task force can focus its work within
the remits of it. As you can imagine, it is particularly hard to produce
work as long as scope stays in draft status. In fact, even setting a
deadline is highly attached to the scope of the TF.

Please let us know if the changes above address the concerns so far and if
there are any other comments.

Both notices of support or objections will be much appreciated and will
help us to structure our work in accordance with the community's guidance.

Kind regards
Filiz Yilmaz & William Sylvester


On Fri, Mar 17, 2017 at 6:39 PM, Daniel Karrenberg <dfk at ripe.net> wrote:

> Filiz, William, task force members,
>
> Thank you for putting together this draft scope.
>
> After reading it a couple of times this sounds to me more and more like
> the  charter for a RIPE 'formalisation committee' than like a document
> describing the *task* of a 'task force'.
>
> One of our 'RIPE values' that I personally consider quite important is
> that we are first and foremost pragmatic and that we are naturally
> skeptical of formalisation and creating too much 'process'.
> Maybe we should have a refreshing, in more than one sense of that word,
> discussion about our consensus on what our 'RIPE vlaues' are.
> But that is a little besides the point of my suggestion here.
>
> RIPE creates task forces to produce specific results and I suggest that
> we write this scoping document accordingly. What is it that the task
> force should produce?  What is the time frame for it?  The scope of a
> task force should *not* be to create or "document" new formal process on
> behalf of the community, nor should it be open ended.
>
> I offer two rough examples for writing down the scope:
>
> "The RIPE Accountability Task Force will build consensus in the RIPE
> community that our way of working is transparent and accountable by the
> first RIPE meeting in 2018."
>
> "The RIPE Accountabily Task Force will produce a document describing any
> deficiencies in the working of the RIPE community concerning
> transparency and accountability as well as suggestions on how to address
> these deficiencies. The task force will continuously collect community
> input and produce the final document in time for community discussion at
> the first RIPE meeting in 2018."
>
> Both approaches work for me. I am also not hammering on the detailed
> language or the specific deadline. The scope of a task force needs to be
> as concise as possible with a specific result and a specific deadline.
>
> Daniel
> "Contributing to the RIPE Community since 1989." ;-)
>
>
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