The NomCom gives all nominees the opportunity to post statements here for the community to see. This is Rob’s:
I love the communities that make the Internet work.
I have been fortunate enough, especially in earlier parts of my career and to some extent before travel changed in 2020, to
participate in quite a few of them — UKNOF, the IETF, occasional
APNIC, APRICOT and APAN meetings, Internet2 (US research and education networking) meetings, TNC (European R&E Neworking conference), and of course RIPE. I’ve also, like many of us, spent many hours in colo setting up routers and switches, or before that in the labs and tunnels of a University setting up rows of workstations or replacing a FDDI network with an ATM backbone (yes, I still bear the scars).
I have volunteered to help where I can — programme committees for several of the above, contributing talks if I feel I can offer
something, co-chairing working groups, and also, when it comes to RIPE meetings, being a Trusted Contact before the new Code of Conduct team was in place — the first that wasn’t a member of RIPE NCC staff.
The spirit of collaboration in the RIPE community, and in many of the bodies that form part of the ‘multistakeholder model’ of the Internet, is a testament to how the technical community of network operators was able to shape the Internet, especially the underlying Internet infrastructure rather than the services that are provided over it.
That collaboration is more important now than ever. We all have jobs to do that can make participation difficult. Many of us work in
environments where the management do not always see the benefits of that participation. Sometimes the working groups can struggle to get discussion on policy proposals or other work items.
As I see it, the role of the RIPE Chair Team has several aspects. One
is of facilitation, another is of communication, and a third is of
ensuring the community is listening to all the viewpoints. One of
‘nudge’ theory perhaps, but not limited to that. There are times when a light touch is needed, there are times when a slightly firmer hand may be required. One of taking a step back to make sure all the bits and pieces are fitting together. We rightly have occasionally heated debates about some of the minutiae, and indeed some of the big pictures, but largely we are all here to achieve the same goal — delivering an Internet that serves our users or customers whilst taking into account the regulatory environment that we work in, which can vary widely across both the RIPE NCC’s service region and the global reach of the RIPE community. We do that by sharing ideas, and by working together to shape the policies that we work in.
Those policies can be under scrutiny from bodies that were perhaps not always though of as being part of the same community, but are nonetheless crucial for its continued operation. Unless we are seen to be looking after our governance, we risk others stepping in to take it over. We need to communicate what we’re doing, otherwise it might be believed that we are doing nothing.
I hope that I can offer something to help us achieve that, working
with the RIPE Chair to help us do what we do.