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RIPE CENTR Proposal
Paul Ridley
Document: ripe-177
Status
This document is in draft from and is open to com-
ments.
Scope
The intended audience for this document is the the
RIPE area National (ISO 3166) Top Level Domain
administrators and any other interested parties.
Comments to the author are welcome.
1. Introduction
This document aims to propose goals of and a struc-
ture for the RIPE Council of European National Top
level domain Registries (RIPE CENTR), if such an
organisation should be started. The reasoning behind
starting RIPE CENTR was outlined in the tld-wg task
force proposal (http://www.ripe.net/wg/tld/task-
force/ripe-centr-1.1.html) and is not the subject of
this document.
This document will firstly explore the goals of RIPE
CENTR and following this a proposed structure for
the organisation will be detailed. Finally a transi-
tion path from the present situation to the final
organisational structure will be described. This
transition path will describe the initial setting up
of RIPE CENTR as a project, with the full step to a
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seperate independant organisation taking place after
a period of approximately eighteen months.
2. Goals of RIPE CENTR
The goals of an organisation although being its
guiding light are not fixed in stone. The future
membership of RIPE CENTR would follow, amend or dis-
card and initial goals set. The initial goals of the
organisation will be taken from the discusssions of
the tld-wg. The individual goals are listed below
but they all fit into the general framework of act-
ing as a link between IANA and the individual RIPE
area n-tlds in the bottom-up structure of top level
domain hierarchy, and improving coordination and
cooperation between individual RIPE area n-tlds.
The proposed goals are:
* Fund and be involved in IANA goverence as part
of the global Internet hierarchy
* Act as a channel for nTLD liaison with other
external parties
* Give regular reports to members of developments
in TLD area
* Carry out activities as approved by the mem-
bers. It is proposed that the initial activi-
ties are those defined by the tld-wg. These
activities are listed and prioritised in the
tld-wg Workplan
(http://www.ripe.net/wg/tld/workplan.html). At
present the workplan item with the highest pri-
ority is the documentation of individual nTLD
policies and pricing models. Once documented
this data, in addition to being a useful public
information source, could be used to recommend
best practices and pricing models.
3. Proposed organisational structure
Two guiding principles determine the organisational
structure of RIPE CENTR. One principle is that the
structure should support bottom-up governence, i.e.
that the members are the ones who govern the organi-
sation and determine the policies. The second prin-
ciple is the scope of the membership. All national
(ISO 3166) top level domain registires that fall
within the RIPE area should be members of the RIPE
CENTR.
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The principles behind RIPE CENTR and its role are
very similar to those of the RIPE NCC, the only main
difference being that the members of the RIPE NCC
have a common interest in IP numbers, whereas the
members of RIPE CENTR have a common interest in
domain names. Since its inception in 1992 the RIPE
NCC has evolved into a structure that successfully
supports a bottom-up hierarchy. Thus due to the sim-
ilarities and to avoid reinventing a well working
wheel it would seem sensible to base the structure
of RIPE CENTR on that of RIPE NCC. Following this
course of action would mean that RIPE CENTR would
have the following key organisational elements:
* It should be a not for profit association with
three organisational bodies; the general assem-
bly; and the executive board; and the manage-
ment.
* All members are in the general assembly and it
is this body that has the final say in all mat-
ters.
* The executive board is chosen by the general
assembly. It is responsible for day-to-day gov-
ernence of RIPE CENTR.
* The management reports directly to the execu-
tive board and ultimately to the general assem-
bly. It is responsible for all day-to-day oper-
ational matters.
* Policy of RIPE CENTR is ultimately decided by
the general assembly, who meet at least once a
year, and continuously discuss via e-mail.
* All funding for RIPE CENTR comes from the mem-
bers, and not from other external parties.
4. Transition path
It is essential that the final RIPE CENTR structure
be stable and have overwhelming consensus. This pro-
cess will not happen overnight and many areas are
still open. There may even be individual n-tld reg-
istries who do not yet see then need for RIPE CENTR.
However this does not mean that a voluntary interim
activity cannot be set up. There are many potential
activities of RIPE CENTR that would be better served
if work started on them in the short term as opposed
to waiting until full consensus and preparation work
is completed.
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With the above in mind, it is proposed that an
interim RIPE CENTR project be started. This project
could start on various identified activities. As
well as the benefit of having these activites
started earlier without rushing the formal set up of
RIPE CENTR, an interim project would give more
insight as to the needs of the future formal organi-
sation, and may well convince the undecided people
of the benefit gained from such an organisation.
Various aspects of starting such a project need
attention. The most critical aspects are detailed
below with a proposal of how they should be tackled.
4.1. Contributors
In the same way as the formal organisation, the RIPE
CENTR project needs to be bottom-up in structure.
Therefore it needs contributors to guide and fund
it. The scope of contributors for the project
should be same as that of members for the final
organisation, i.e. all RIPE area national (ISO 3166)
top level domain registries. Contribution should be
on a voluntary basis. Contribution would involve the
signing of a contrct with RIPE NCC for the support
of RIPE CENTR. By signing such a contract the con-
tributor would not become a member of RIPE NCC.
If RIPE CENTR shoudl terminate being a RIPE NCC pro-
ject then any remaining funds would be proportion-
ately returned to the contributors or could be given
to any follow-up organisation.
4.2. Funding
Funding for the project will be exclusively found
from the members. The level of funding will depend
upon the scope of the project and the number of mem-
bers. In general though the funding will have to
meet two costs; the partial funding of IANA; and the
covering of costs incurred in the execution of the
activities defined by the members.
A draft budget can be found at Appendix A.
4.3. Location
The choosing of a location to house the RIPE CENTR
project is not necessarily the same as the choosing
of a location for the future RIPE CENTR organisa-
tion. This proposal only discusses the location of
the RIPE CENTR project.
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It is proposed that the RIPE NCC host the RIPE CENTR
project. The reasons for choosing the RIPE NCC as
opposed to another location are varied, but the most
important ones are:
* For this project to succeed it has to be seen
as totally impartial and be able to immediately
have credibility. By being hosted by RIPE NCC,
which has built up a well known and respected
position of impartiality within the Internet
governence hierarchy over the last six years,
and using certain RIPE NCC resources, the RIPE
CENTR project will immediately have a head-
start.
* The RIPE NCC has also gained a lot of experi-
ence in the managing of a bottom-up structure
accross an identicel geographical area which
will be of benefit to the RIPE CENTR project.
* If hosted by the RIPE NCC initial communication
with IANA will be easier since communication
channels and contacts are already in use.
* The RIPE NCC administration is already handling
an similar membership fee budgeting and charg-
ing system, thus the addition of the RIPE CENTR
activities would not be disruptive and could be
easily accomodated.
* The RIPE NCC has experience of successfully
nuturing projects e.g. the PRIDE project, which
once mature enough become independant.
4.4. Staff
It is proposed that the staffing of the RIPE CENTR
project be kept to a minimum until the future of the
project is guaranteed. The initial staffing would be
one full-time RIPE NCC employee (RIPE CENTR Manager)
for project management, liasion, and activity coor-
dination, and various other RIPE NCC employees or
consultants on an ad-hoc basis as their skills were
needed.
Please note that this is the initial staffing level.
If then workload increases or new activities are
taken on then of course the staffing levels can,
after approval of the project contributors and RIPE
NCC, be raised.
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4.5. Operations
The activities of RIPE CENTR will be carried out by
the RIPE NCC, in the form of those staff members
allocated to this project. The RIPE CENTR Manager
will, after consultation with the project contribu-
tors and the tld-wg, propose an activity plan to the
contributors for their approval. Only once approved
by the contributors and by RIPE NCC (as the legally
responsible body) will an activity plan be executed.
Communication between the contributors and the staff
would take place via a RIPE NCC maintained mailing
list (seperate from the tld-wg list). The RIPE CENTR
project would publish all documents and project
results on the RIPE NCC web site.
4.6. Time Frame
The following time frame is proposed for the cre-
ation of the RIPE CENTR project and the future RIPE
CENTR organisation.
28 Jan 98 (RIPE 29, Amsterdam)
* RIPE CENTR project proposal presented to the
tld-wg for discussion.
* The Proposal is simultaneously sent to all
potential members.
Feb 98
* Principle consensus is reached that the project
will be hosted by the RIPE NCC, and the what
structure the project will take.
Mar 98
* Based upon consensus reached in February opera-
tional plans and budgets and funding require-
ments for the RIPE CENTR project are published.
Mar-Apr 98
* RIPE area ISO 3166 top level domain registries
volunteer to be contributors of the RIPE CENTR
project and fund the project.
20 May 98 (RIPE 30, Stockholm)
* The final structure of the RIPE CENTR project
is presented along with the initial list of
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contributors.
* The initial group of contributors have the
first meeting to decide on activity priorities.
Jun 98
* The RIPE CENTR project becomes operational.
Jun 99
* The RIPE CENTR project is assessed by its con-
tributors as to whether it should continue. If
it is seen to be successful plans should be
made to create the independant RIPE CENTR
organisation.
2000
* The independant RIPE CENTR organisation is
established.
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Appendix A - Draft budget for RIPE CENTR
This draft budget is based upon the staffing and
activity levels as detailed in this proposal. If
extra activities are added then this budget will
also be subject to change. The budget is activity
based.
This budget is prudently forecast using the most up
to date information available. The period budgetted
for is June 1998 to June 1999.
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Activity Cost (ECU) |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Workplan (Documentation and analysis of polices and charging) 124500 |
|Liaison 29000 |
|IANA support 81500 |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|TOTAL 235000 |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
The budget shown above will be funded solely by the
RIPE CENTR contributors. Within the RIPE area there
are 100 seperate ISO 3166 top level domains, some of
which have a lot of business and some of which do
not yet have a registry running them. The table
below shows the contributions that would be needed
if various numbers of tld contributed to RIPE CENTR
and all of them paid an equal contribution.
+---------------------------------------------------+
|Number of contributors Annual contribution (ECU) |
+---------------------------------------------------+
| 100 2350 |
| 50 4700 |
| 40 5875 |
| 30 7835 |
| 20 11750 |
| 10 23500 |
+---------------------------------------------------+
It is not known have many nTLDs will fund RIPE CENTR
and thus no fixed contribution rate can be set.
Therefore it will be left up to individual nTLD reg-
istries to determine what they wish to contribute to
RIPE CENTR. The only limit set is that the contri-
bution must be at least ECU 2350. It would be appre-
ciated if some pioneer nTLD registries volunteered
to contribute a sizeable amount so as to ensure the
initial stability of RIPE CENTR.
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