Euro-IX: Announcement and Invitation

["Christian Panigl, ACOnet/VIX/UniVie" <]

    Dear EIX-WG Member,
    dear Fellow IXP Operator,
    
    [... sorry for any duplicates ...]

    "Euro-IX" ( http://www.euro-ix.net/ ) was presented as a new initiative
    during the EIX-WG meeting at RIPE39 in Bologna last week.  The slides of
    this presentation and further information can be found at 
    
    	http://www.euro-ix.net/newsevents/europresent.htm
    	http://www.euro-ix.net/newsevents/index.htm
	
    If you are representing an Internet exchange point in Europe you are
    invited to join as a founder member of this association (in the course
    of formation) by signing a letter of intent (LOI) before 31.5.2001.
    Further details can be found at
    
    	http://www.euro-ix.net/newmembership/index.htm

    A Euro-IX meeting has been scheduled for
    
    	Monday, 21.5.2001, 11:00 - open end  in Amsterdam
	
    aiming at drafting the Articles/Charter of the Euro-IX Association.  All
    founder members having signed the LOI by that date are invited.  Further
    comments on the Articles/Charter will be accepted from all founder
    members until 31.5.2001.
	

    After the Euro-IX presentation at RIPE39/EIX-WG we received various
    comments from Rob Blokzijl, Keith Mitchell, Andre Opperman and others
    which have been seriously considered by the initiating (charter) members
    of the group.  We therefore want to clearly express the following
    statements which might be missing - at least in this clearness - in the
    press release and original presentation:
    
    Based on ongoing discussions at or close to various RIPE meetings a
    strong need was identified for co-operation between independent exchange
    point operators regarding technical, operational and administrative
    matters.  Setting up an umbrella/membership organisation (association)
    for IXPs was after all the logical answer.
    
    In addition to the co-operative aspects a common Euro-IX web site/portal
    opens the opportunity to present key information about independent
    european Internet exchanges in a homogeneous way, facilitating the
    access for international ISPs who want to connect to more than one IXP
    in Europe.
    
    There is definitly no intention to replace the RIPE EIX working group,
    it's a complementary approach focussing on the needs of exchange point
    operators.  Euro-IX and its affiliated IXPs will independently continue
    to give presentations to the RIPE/EIX-WG.
    
    Euro-IX will not impose any standards onto its members and is not
    claiming any power of representative authority on behalf of its members.
        
    Participation of all (not restricted to) european IXPs (for-profit and
    non-profit) is explicitly encouraged.  Financial contribution
    (membership fees) will be used for ongoing maintenance of the portal and
    intranet web site, basic secretariat, research work (white papers,
    recommendations, ...) and intellectual IXP start-up support.  All
    research/results/white papers produced by the association will be made
    freely available, with the exception of internal IXP operational issues.
    
    The initiating (charter) members are inviting all prospecting IXPs to
    join Euro-IX as founder members in signing a Letter of Intent (LOI)
    before 31.5.2001.  The proposed charter/articles of the association,
    which will be established in The Netherlands (Amsterdam), will be
    circulated to all founder members (22.5.2001) for review with a deadline
    for comments (31.5.2001).  All input will be considered and a final
    charter will be published shortly thereafter.  All founder members
    having made comments and who could finally not agree with the published
    charter may then withdraw their membership within one week without
    beeing charged any membership fee.
    
    Joining the Euro-IX association is of course also possible at any later
    stage for any IXP.  The first general assembly will take place either
    close to the Prague RIPE meeting (October 2001) or at latest close to
    the next Amsterdam RIPE meeting (January 2002).  For that meeting all
    members are invited to suggest board members and to elect the board.  In
    the meantime the function of the board is performed jointly by the
    initiating (charter) members, who may be contacted at:
    
    board@localhost
    
    or individually:
    
    Magnus Andersson, Netnod  magnus@localhost
    Pascal Delmoitie, BNIX    pascal@localhost
    Arnold Nipper, DE-CIX     <arnold.nipper@localhost
    Christian Panigl, VIX     panigl@localhost
    Valeria Rossi, MIX        <valeria.rossi@localhost
    John Souter, LINX         john@localhost
    Job Witteman, AMS-IX      <job.witteman@localhost