RIPE NCC Staff Participation in the RIPE Community

Introduction

In its final report, the 2020 RIPE Nominating Committee recommended “to document a consensus on the relationship between RIPE and the RIPE NCC and, in particular, how RIPE NCC staff can participate in RIPE.”

In this document, we focus on the second part of this recommendation: how RIPE NCC staff can and should participate in the RIPE community and how the RIPE community welcomes participation by RIPE NCC staff. In addition to that, the RIPE NCC may have more detailed internal guidelines for staff participation in the RIPE community and other community work.

Principles

There are a number of underlying principles that apply to all RIPE community members, such as openness, inclusion, collaboration and transparency. In addition to that, the RIPE Code of Conduct applies to all participants.

RIPE is open to anyone who contributes constructively, including RIPE NCC staff. Moreover, RIPE NCC staff are in a position to contribute expertise which is valuable to and appreciated by the RIPE community.

Providing guidance to the RIPE NCC is an important part of RIPE activities. RIPE NCC staff play a special role in these activities: on the one hand, they are important experts with excellent knowledge; on the other hand, they are ultimately the ones receiving guidance from RIPE. In these situations, RIPE NCC staff need to act sensibly in order to avoid the perception of unduly giving guidance to themselves.

Therefore, we recommend the following principles as a basis for RIPE NCC staff participation in RIPE activities:

1. RIPE NCC staff are part of the community and may participate in RIPE activities on the same terms as anyone else.
2. In settings that provide guidance to the RIPE NCC, RIPE NCC staff shall take care both to disclose their position and to avoid giving direction.

References

ripe-762: Final report of the RIPE Nominating Committee 2020, Daniel Karrenberg, July 2021

Initial draft: RIPE NCC Staff Participation in the RIPE Community, Hans Petter Holen, Mirjam Kühne, Niall O’Reilly, May 2023

Revised draft (v2): RIPE NCC Staff Participation in the RIPE Community - Draft v2, Hans Petter Holen, Mirjam Kühne, Niall O’Reilly, July 2023

Document History

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank all who participated in the related discussion on the RIPE Discussion list, in particular Denis Walker, Andy Davidson, and Daniel Karrenberg; as also Ulka Athale for her cheerful and helpful editorial support.