RIPE TLD-WG Action List

On Sat, 20 Sep 1997, Hank Nussbacher wrote:

> >	There was unanimous agreement by the participants that RIPE should
> >	nominate a European candidate to fill an iPOC seat.
> >
> >This action item thus originates not in an attempt to impose a "European"
> >agenda, but from what was understood as an invitation to become more
> >involved.
> 
> Which I think is what IAB resolved by appointing Patrik.

I think I, and some other people, have been afraid when hearing that
"Europe want a European candidate", that people in Europe want, and will,
create the same kind of EU-Centric view on things as "we in Europe" think
is bad with the US. Is the next step that people in Asia will look as bad
on us in Europe as we look at the US? 

No, I think, and see in what is written in this thread, that the important
thing is to get people from _non_-US. Unfortunately, it is so easy to
generalize people and their opinions from where they live, and just
because so many global solutions designed in the US has through history
been very very local people think that _all_ people from the US think like
that, still (people on POC don't!).

So, a couple of remarks:

+ POC/PAB/CORE are global organizations, like IETF, IAB, ISOC, ITU, WIPO
  etc
+ The representatives from global organizations is representing that
  organization to 100%, which means that the person have to have a global
  view on things
+ I think/hope people in RIPE are saying that we need non-US people
  active and not only people from the US (for historical reasons)

I _hope_ that the view from RIPE is not to push especially European
interests, but truly global interests.

I personally think RIPE and many others want these organizations, ISOC,
IAB, IANA etc to show explicitely that they really are international, by
electing people that can have a global view, which means of course stating
explicitely that some US-centric things have to be stopped.

I.e. I think this is a lack of confidence that these organizations are
global.

This is solved by having these organizations electing people which are not
from the US, i.e. for example me.

So, I do represent IAB, as is Rob, so I neither represent RIPE or EU, but
I live here in Europe, I am used to work with an ISO-3166 country-code
TLD, and I have been working a lot with the problems we have in Sweden
because "com" et.al. exists, and I do know about the problems and benefits
from working in something like the EU.

> Not I.  Perhaps Patrik.   I am just an outsie observer at this
> point :-)

I am coming to the RIPE meeting on thursday. I'll remind you though that
there will be an open meeting with POC in Europe in late november, so this
will _not_ be the "presentation of POC and gTLDs" you might ask for. A lot
of things are happening as we type regarding starting operations so see
the visit on thursday as one occation when I come to RIPE to listen to
your concerns. 

>>>(Don't
>>>forget the WIPO and ITU reps who live and work in Geneva who also sit
>>>on the iPOC - and you get to a total of 4 resident Europeans currently
>>>on the iPOC - a number way out of proportion to Europe's size)
>>
>>I really think this is a red herring.  Residency is not the issue.
> 
>I don't think it is a red herring.  If someone carries an EU passport,
>pays taxes in an EU country and has lived in an EU country for 12 years
>doesn't that qualify him/her to represent European interests?

If not residency and knowledge is the issue, then what is it? Why should
the EU have an explicit representative? As an inhabitant of a country in
the EU, I don't want the EU, or representatives from the EU, behave like
people from the US did some 20 years ago. We should have learned and
should behave better. Especially on the Internet which is a truly global
way of communicating. The same thing for RIPE (as RIPE and EU have
different countries as member nations).

I also, as a last point, think it is bad if RIPE want representatives from
"Europe" as RIPE is covering also large parts of Africa and Asia. I.e.
representatives from RIPE is one thing, but European membership is
something different.

>>The same, and very sincerely.  I have a feeling that we may be involved
>>here in the beginning of what I have sometimes heard called "a violent
>>agreement".
> 
> I enjoy every minute.   -Hank

  Yeah, is not this fun?

     Regards, Patrik




-------- Logged at  Sun Sep 21 10:09:02 MET DST 1997  ---------