[ipv6-wg] Proposal for new charter

All,

At the RIPE meeting in Lisbon, I agreed to draft a proposed new charter
for the IPv6 working group. Here it is:

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IPv6 is the next-generation IP protocol. The IPv6 working group exists
to further IPv6 adoption. 

The working group activities may be anything useful in helping people
deploy IPv6. These activities include:

* Outreach
* Co-operation 
* Education
  
The IPv4 Internet will continue for a long time. The IPv6 working group
is also concerned with IPv4/IPv6 co-existence.
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Please use this mailing list for discussion.

We would like to have a new charter in place before the next RIPE
meeting. 


How this proposed charter was made:

I looked at all of the other RIPE charters, and decided I wanted to keep
this short and simple.

I had a lunch meeting with David Kessens, Denesh Bhabuta, Carlos
Friacas, Marco Hogewoning, Bernard Tuy, Lance Wright, and Jan Zorz. We
discussed the new charter, although the above text has not been reviewed
by them or anyone else. I thank them all!


For those interested, here are some thoughts that went into the proposed
charter:

Background
----------
The current IPv6 working group charter is out-of-date:

    The IPv6 working group follows the progress of specification and
    implementation of the new IP version. It coordinates
    implementations in Europe and is going to create testbeds.

It comes from a time when IPv6 was immature; the focus was keeping
track of technological advances and working on experimental networks.
That time is over, and the IPv6 working group needs an updated
charter.


Goal
----
The goal of creating a new charter is to do more than simply to update
the text.

We have almost finished allocating all IPv4 addresses. IPv6 is still
only used by a small fraction of network traffic, many devices do not
support IPv6 at all, and most organizations have no plans for IPv6
adoption.

RIPE is a unique community, and should do what it can to help make the
migration to IPv6 as easy as possible. A new charter is just the first
step.


Commentary
----------
The proposed new charter lists some activities:

* Outreach
* Co-operation 
* Education
  
Outreach involves getting people, organisations, and groups to begin
or continue IPv6 adoption. This includes vendors, governments, and
developers. It also includes groups which are traditionally
unrepresented, like gamers or content creators. Outreach means both
going to other venues and inviting people from outside the RIPE
community to visiting RIPE activities.

Co-operation is working within the networking industry and without, to
share resources and combine efforts. There are a large number of
organisations and projects, and we should work with them whenever
possible, so that IPv6 can fit in with their goals. This also includes
co-operation with the many IPv6 efforts that exist worldwide.

Education means all methods of increasing IPv6 knowledge. Note that
the RIPE NCC is not able to do very much in terms of education, since
it cannot compete with its members. However, the RIPE IPv6 working
group can and should educate.

--
Shane