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RIPE 80 Programme Committee Meeting

Friday, 15 May 2020
Zoom Meeting

Present:

PC Chair: Franziska Lichtblau
PC Members: Alexander Azimov, Maria Isabel Gandía Carriedo, Peter Hessler, Jelte Jansen, Dmitry Kohmanyuk, Brian Nisbet, Wolfgang Tremmel, Alireza Vaziri, Jan Žorž
RIPE Chair: Hans Petter Holen
RIPE NCC Staff: Martina de Mas, Mirjam Kuehne, Marita Phelan, Fergal Cunningham
Minutes: Martina de Mas

1. Welcome
2. Feedback from the NonCom liason
3. PC elections
4. Observations from RIPE 80
5. Review: Plenary organisation/CfP
6. Technical issues: PCSS, presentation system, etc
7. State of RIPE 81
8. AOB

1. Welcome 

Attendees were welcomed.

2. Feedback from the NonCom liason

Recent concerns about the relationship between RIPE NCC staff and the NomCom (and RIPE Chair candidates) were discussed.

3. PC elections

There were six candidates in total and 289 unique voters in the election.

Successful candidates were Wolfgang Tremmel and Peter Hessler (for a second term). 

4. Observations from RIPE 80

The meeting had gone well under the circumstances. Virtual Q&As had some positive aspects and a more diverse crowd had asked questions during the meeting. However, this was difficult to manage and some attendees missed the interactive discussions typical of a regular RIPE Meeting.

Social interaction and "hallway conversations" were highly impacted by the virtual meeting format. It was hard to communicate with presenters and to make sure they were organised, time-keeping was also an issue. The livestream was a lower quality than Zoom.

5. Review: Plenary organisation/Call for Presentation

The shorter 45-minute slots seemed to make the plenary sessions rushed. Most presenters preferred to have a 25-minute presentation with five minutes for questions. Presenters could have been better-informed about the time they had available.

It was noted that this had been the first virtual RIPE Meeting and the PC would have more time to prepare next time. The PC may consider offering different options in terms of long/medium/short talks.

The PC will ask for feedback from presenters.

6. Technical issues: PCSS, presentation system, etc

The RIPE NCC will look at adding a field in the PC Submission System for presenters to indicate the time they need for their talk.

It was noted that the RIPE NCC had tested the live transcription feature in Zoom before the RIPE Meeting. This hadn't worked well, and the best option had been to have the steongraphy on a dedicated page on the RIPE 80 website.

7. State of RIPE 81

A decision on RIPE 81 is expected before the end of June.

8. AOB

The PC will discuss whether a host representative should be on the PC for virtual meetings.

The PC noted the discussion on ripe-list about virtual RIPE Meetings becoming a permanent (additional) feature after COVID-19 is no longer a concern. There were concerns about the extra workload this would create for the PC.