Proposed Workplan for the Cooperation Working Group (Coop-WG)

The description of the Coop-WG can be found here:

In line with this description and mission of the Coop-WG we suggest the following process forward.

The co-chairs discussed, and agreed that the mission of the Coop-WG could be briefly summarized as follows. We believe that this short-form mission is useful in focusing our work to achieve the greatest impact.

Mission: To improve decision-making and mutual understanding by providing technical expertise to policy makers and the non-technical public. To inform the RIPE community on relevant public policy-related developments and governance processes.

Topics for engagement, and modes of engagement

To make the best use of limited time and resources, we suggest focusing on a select number of technical topics that are currently important within a number of policy debates. Note that this suggestion is not meant as a limitation: the focus topics will shift, and change, and any RIPE community member eager to engage another topic is invited to do so. The Coop-WG mailing list will will, of course, remain open and welcoming of lively debate.

As a starting point, we have provided a list of topics that we recognize to be important and within the scope of RIPE community expertise. We would like your feedback. Some of the topics are already discussed in other working groups, but we believe it useful to have these discussions brought to the Coop-WG as well. We ask you to consider the following questions while reviewing the proposed topic list:

1. What are your thoughts on the proposed topics?

2. Where are you seeing these (or other proposed topics) discussed?

3. Per topic, what are your ideas on specific modes of engagement to have maximum impact?

Suggested topics:

1. IP Interconnection (soon to have an established RIPE WG)
This topic is of increasing political interest and therefore we think that these steps might be useful, in cooperation with the proposed Interconnection-WG.
Defining and explaining its technical functioning and underlying business logic.

a. What is sending/calling party pays? What is the difference and how do they relate to current standards and practices?

b. What are IXPs and why are they important for the functioning of the Internet?

c. What is an ideal peering ecosystem, and why? What are the ways this can go wrong?

2. Security and Privacy of Networks (is this discussed in some other WG?)
This topic is of an increasing political interest therefore we think that these steps might be useful, in cooperation with other relevant WG:s.

a. How and why does infrastructure and network policy impact security and privacy?

b. What would a secure network look like? What are the gaps between a secure network and what we have now?

c. How can security and privacy be enhanced in the short-term (practical steps)? What are the long term efforts underway to enhance security and privacy?

3. Characteristics of the global Internet

a. How does routing, addressing, etc. work?

b. What are the dangers of attempting to create bounded (in many cases national) “Internets”?

4. Interrelationships of physical infrastructure

a. What are the different physical-layer technologies that make up “the Internet” as we know it? For example, what is the difference between fiber, coax, et al.? What is the impact of e.g. deploying fiber if last mile networks still have only copper, or cable (etc.)?

5. IPv6 (already discussed in the IPv6 WG)

a. Why does it really matter that it gets deployed? What are the technical issues related to IPv6? What impact does it make on e-government and e-society development?

b. What is the risk of deploying CGNs

6. Roles and responsibilities for intermediaries

Proposed guidelines for engagement to best fulfil this mission:

Concrete steps the Coop-WG can engage in to move forward:

● Assemble technical experts on a variety of important topics, upon request. These would be volunteers from the community, and they would be asked to engage with governments, regulatory bodies, policy-making bodies, international organisations, NGOs and others that request or could benefit from a better understanding of the technical details of a given topic. The Coop-WG would provide a bridge between these experts and those who can benefit from their counsel. Coop-WG should also offer expertise in the policy-making field to other WGs in RIPE as well as the RIPE NCC.

● Explain technology, but avoid taking positions on specific policies/regulation (or other politicized topics). The Coop-WG is not a lobbying organization. The focus should be on illuminating how the technology works and highlight discussions and fact-based concerns raised in the Coop-WG. This approach allows the Coop-WG to engage a large community hailing from separate sectors, some of whom disagree with each other. It also allows the Coop-WG to remain credible, and provide clear factual information to those who can use it to improve the content of policy and regulation.

● Develop an understanding of areas where RIPE’s expertise can add value.

○ What are the policy areas that governments, policy makers, and others doing advocacy work are currently working on, and on which of those areas could we assist to improve their technical understanding? With the RIPE community, we should continually work to gather questions and topics of interest to which we can contribute.

○ Work with the RIPE NCC and the RIPE community to understand the policy areas relevant to the RIPE community. The Coop-WG can be a useful forum for the RIPE community to share information on trends and developments in government policy – especially those that affect the operational community.

○ The Coop-WG can support RIPE NCC to prepare position statements or papers for public consultations and general white papers that increase knowledge on technologies/operational procedures relevant to the RIPE community.