The RIPE 55 Meeting took place from 22-26 October, 2007 at the Hotel Krasnapolsky, Amsterdam.
There were 375 attendees from 40 countries, including representatives from AfriNIC, APNIC, ARIN, LACNIC and ICANN, making it the most well attended RIPE Meeting ever held.
Following discussion in several RIPE Working Groups, the RIPE community agreed to issue a statement on IPv4 depletion and the deployment of IPv6. This statement, "RIPE Community Resolution on IPv4 Depletion and Deployment of IPv6", was developed by consensus and will be used as the community's formal position regarding IPv4 depletion.
The statement was presented in the Closing Plenary by the Address Policy Working Group Co-Chair, Sander Steffann (Computel Standby).
On Tuesday afternoon, the dedicated IPv4 Depletion session took place, which included a lively discussion. The webcast of this session can be viewed online.
The Enhanced Cooperation Task Force held its first meeting during RIPE 55. Discussion about the task force's focus, approach and member-selection process took place. Ideas were then presented to the community during the Closing Plenary.
An election took place during the EIX Working Group to select a new Co-Chair. Chrisian Panigl (UniVie/ACOnet/VIX) stepped down from his position and was thanked for his support over the years. The working group welcomed Cara Mascini (AMS-IX) into the role of Co-Chair.
The RIPE Address Policy Working Group asked the RIPE NCC to begin preparations for the implementation of proposal 2007-01, "Direct Internet Resource Assignments to End Users from the RIPE NCC" if it is subsequently approved by the community on the Address Policy mailing list.
Kurtis Lindquist (Netnod), RIPE NCC Services Working Group Co-Chair, presented the RIPE Policy Development Process (PDP) Appeals Process on behalf of all the Working Group Chairs.
RIPE 55 closed in an unusual way with a performance of "The Day The Routers Died" by attendee Gary Feldman (Thus PLC t/a Demon Internet). Since the meeting, his performance has had over 193,200 hits online.
We would like to thank AMS-IX, Global Crossing, Netnod and Virtu for their support during the meeting. We would also like to thank all presenters, attendees and remote participants for their contribution to another successful meeting.
RIPE 56 will be held in Berlin, Germany in May 2008.