ARIN board accountability to network operators (was: RE: [arin-ppml] [arin-discuss] Term Limit Proposal)

Fri Mar 28 02:04:30 UTC 2014

On Mar 28, 2014, at 6:04 AM, Randy Bush <randy at psg.com> wrote:
> i will refrain from characterizing the ppml list.  needless to say, i do
> not subscribe.
> 
> my point is that what arin does should be of interest to nanog
> subscribers.  in theory, the ops are the arin community, the registry
> serves operations.  if it is not of interest to ops, it is not serving
> the community.

I fully agree, but also respect that this community has made some 
conscience decisions regarding having ARIN be quite registry focused 
and letting NANOG evolve as as a forum of the operators in the region.  
I believe that several of the initiatives that you noted from the RIPE 
region could easily be viewed as falling under either organization.   

This community should not be disadvantaged by the structure of having 
a distinct registry and distinct operator forum, but it does mean that
we need to be able to sort out _what_ the operators want and then where 
it gets done.

Internet routing registries are a fine example; one could argue that 
it should be integrated with the number resource registry, but we also 
have examples of independent routing registries in active use (and I
can see some potential reasons why operators might even want there to
be a healthy separation between those functions.)

If the community has one mind of what routing registry capabilities is
wants here, including how it wants it governed and operated, I am quite 
certain that ARIN will support the direction, regardless of where it ends 
up being operated and how it ends up being governed.  The lack I have 
noted over the years is lack of clear direction from the community, but 
that should not be something "ARIN" jumps in and tries to bring about - 
it needs to be of interest to (and led by) the operators on this list.

We agree that ARIN needs to be relevant to the ops community, and I am
very open minded to any suggestions you have, but don't exactly think 
that your examples from RIPE are necessarily where we want ARIN to go 
as much as things we want to have happen, whether that's ARIN, NANOG, 
or other associated organizations.  On the other hand, your governance 
examples from RIPE (e.g. "wg for discussing what services the ncc 
offers") are directly on target, and I will share them on some other 
lists that may defy characterization by you.

> [ get out of s'pore yet?  drc got delayed a day with a missing part for
>  his plane! ]

(Getting closer... the last plane was a fail due to fuel pump issues; 
my dearest friends at United seemed have rerouted me through Hong Kong 
but omitted a flight onward.  Oh well.)

Thanks!
/John