20 Years Serving The RIPE Community

In April 1992, the RIPE NCC was established to coordinate and support the activities of the RIPE community and to function as a European Internet Registry (later a Regional Internet Registry) responsible for the distribution and management of Internet number resources. This month, the RIPE NCC celebrates 20 years of serving the RIPE community.

Originally set up as part of Réseaux Associés pour la Recherche Européenne (RARE, later TERENA) and with a staff of one (current Chief Scientist Daniel Karrenberg), the RIPE NCC has grown over the past two decades to become a diverse organisation with more than 8,000 members and responsible for a wide range of functions and projects. During this time, the Internet has grown and interwoven with business and society in ways few could have predicted, and the role of the RIPE NCC has evolved to meet a range of new challenges.

During the RIPE 64 Meeting in Ljubljana, Slovenia, there was a plenary session devoted to celebrating this milestone and looking to the future of the RIPE NCC. There was also a quiz for RIPE Meeting attendees on the RIPE NCC's 20 years. The winner of the quiz was Antoin Verschuren, who got all 21 answers correct.

As part of the activity surrounding this anniversary, the RIPE NCC is compiling a timeline of significant milestones in the organisation's development. Below is a first draft of this timeline, but we invite our membership and community to contribute - if you know of any major events that you think should be included in this timeline, or if you have an experience or photograph that you'd like to share, please send details to 20years@ripe.net.

20 Years of the RIPE NCC