Celebrating 25 Years of the RIPE NCC

The formation of the RIPE NCC came when the early members of the RIPE community realised that the Internet would not remain a small experiment for very long, and a more dedicated structure would be needed to help coordinate activities in Europe.

The opening sentence of ripe-19, "RIPE Network Coordination Center", states: "Experience in the RIPE community, and in the Internet community at large, has shown that certain information and coordination services are needed for the proper functioning of the Internet."

The RIPE NCC has been providing these services for 25 years. Having existed legally at first within what is now GEANT, the RIPE NCC began formal operations at the High Energy Physics Institute (NIKHEF) in Amsterdam on 1 April 1992, with Daniel Karrenberg as RIPE NCC Manager.

This year, the RIPE NCC will celebrate those 25 years with the members who are the lifeblood of the organisation as well as the wider Internet community, which we are proud to serve and to be part of.

Throughout the year, we will be looking back on our beginnings as well as reflecting on our experiences through the years and the progress we've made since 1992. To kick things off, Rene Wilhelm has published a RIPE Labs article that looks at the development of the RIPE NCC membership and trends in resource allocations since 1992.

We'll share more articles that trace the development of the RIPE NCC and its activities, with contributions from many who played their part in the RIPE NCC's history, and we hope you'll feel free to add your own memories and reflections as comments to those articles.