Agenda Review & Introduction to PDP
 


00:00 Seun Ojedeji: And that is the one that we ought to discuss after the tea break, which is the one that talks about the AFRINIC service guideline. The author has written a withdrawal statement. So she's withdrawing that policy so we won't be discussing that particular policy again in this meeting. Because I'm sure you must have been passed... You must have received the agenda paper, so you might want to strike out the second item for session two as we won't be doing it. We won't be discussing it again. So we move to the second item, second session, and after the second session where we will just be discussing the Out-Of-Region Use of AFRINIC Internet Number Resource, I think we'll have enough time to discuss that since we won't be doing the second proposal again.

01:15 Seun Ojedeji: And session three, we will be looking at the proposal for The reservation of resource for internet exchange point. We will also look at the resource policy manual starters. We've started this process for long now for some of you who have been following, I think it's going to two years now, and it will be good to know how... To hear the progress that we've made so far. We will hear from Madvi, later in the day about staff policy implementation report. And for the fourth session, we will have the election of the new Co-Chair and also the floor will be open for general remarks in relation to policy development. With me is Ernest. Ernest will be handling some of the presentations items in the agenda. And I also have Marco from RIPE NCC. I think when it's time, Ernest will do the introduction.

02:50 Seun Ojedeji: Alright, so we'll go straight into the first session. Basically what we are gonna be doing this session, is to look at the PDP. So the PDP was defined... The oppression of the PDP can be found from the URL that is on your screen, and that is what actually defines and describes how we'll actually operate the policy development, how policies are presented, how policies are discussed, and how policies are ratified and ultimately implemented. The policy development process is based on three key principles being; Openness, transparency and fairness. Any member of the community and by member means that you are a human being not a...

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06:39 Seun Ojedeji: Of a new draft to the list. However, for current existing draft which are actually being updated, there's just a one week requirement. So, we then discuss at the public policy meeting and just like what we're having right now. So you would want to know that the policies we have right now that we'll be discussing are the ones that actually have met the requirements of one week of no editing, deadline of no more editing and four weeks at least of discussion on the policy mailing list.

07:28 Seun Ojedeji: So, if during this discussion, physical discussion, there is support for the policy, or there is support with exception or with concession on what needs to be changed, and if the author agrees to change those things, we remove the policy to last call. However, we recognize the fact that not everyone is participating in this face-to-face, so we still give an opportunity for people who are remote, to actually still give their view about the policy. So... And that is what the last call period is about.

08:14 Seun Ojedeji: Last call period gives the opportunity to actually present the draft again to the... I'll say global community now because it depends, anybody can subscribe to that list. So when... So, it then depends on the outcome of that discussion and based on the one we had on the previous face-to-face that will help the Co-Chairs to then decide whether there is full consensus to move the policy to the next stage. The next stage being writing to the board, and recommending that the policy be ratified. So, the way it is, the board of AFRINIC are the ones who ratify policies, we the Co-Chairs only recommend ratifications to them.

09:15 Seun Ojedeji: So after that, the board... After ratification, the board then empowers the CEO... The AFRINIC staff to actually get the job done in implementing the policy. Policy implementation vary, depending on the actual policy, and it is for staff to work on those implementations. There are deadline that has been set, that specific time frame that is required, that has been set to ensure that policy implementations are not delayed beyond normal, and to also ensure that Board ratification also are not delayed beyond normal.

10:19 Seun Ojedeji: So, this is basically what I've said before. The RPD list, that is the URL, you can easily go there and subscribe yourself to it, communicate in the language that you think you feel comfortable with. Feel free to actually raise your view. The view is not wrong until you actually write it. So, if you don't raise your view, then your view will not me known, and then we will go... We may be going in the direction that you may think is wrong. But again, if you don't raise your view, nobody will know that the direction is wrong.

11:06 Seun Ojedeji: So, you can actually also follow the history of the discussion by going to the archive of the RPD. It's open, it's public, you don't actually need to subscribe to the list to actually read the archive. There are past discussions in the archive, and you can follow-up. So, that is the definition of members, it's just for those who participate and not necessarily tied to a specific requirements. Myself and Adam, are the ones who are serving as the Co-Chairs. Like I told you, Adam recently sent his resignation to the list, due to exchange in job which has actually kept him away from this region and not to be able to attend the meetings.

12:07 Seun Ojedeji: My time is expiring at this meeting and that of Adam normally will expire next year. Here's the process to submitting a proposal, so AFRINIC staff, whenever you actually... When we talk about who actually looks at the proposal at the AFRINIC site, it is Ernest, so you can after this meeting, if you have more questions about how these things are received and processed, you can always see Ernest and he will be... I'm sure he'll be glad to explain further.

12:50 Seun Ojedeji: Yeah, so all these I have already touched. All the publishing will be done on the website and then I believe for four weeks, and then changes. Okay, so that is changes must be made based on discussion, and if there's no editing of it, there's no update on the proposal, it expires after one year. Yeah, so this is the process we use in placing a proposal on the agenda, and the two weeks requirement before the meeting. And then if you also look at the guideline, you will also see that there's also a one week timeframe for the author to actually be able to edit the content of the proposal. So that is what we'll do during the last call. There was consensus and then we'll go to the approval process as earlier explained. Here's what the implementation takes. I explained that there's a timeline that is set for implementation and that is six months after the last call.

14:20 Seun Ojedeji: Yeah, we understand that there could be some disagreements about the decision. Perhaps about the decision on the Co-Chairs on a particular policy. By the way, decision of Co-Chairs are not just their own decisions, they are based on their observation of the discussions and it's based on that, that they make decision. However, we understand that there could be some different view, and there's always a room to make such requests and then known, and there are process defined for that. The Co-Chairs have the privilege to actually vary the process depending on the issues at hand.

15:12 Seun Ojedeji: So, at this point I think that ends the introduction, everything about the policy development process. It's as simple as that, just a few slides. And so, it's my hope that many of you here who have not joined the RPD list, will at least join and start seeing some of those mails come in and before you then decide to start posting something. It's a good thing to be part of this development, Africa is growing and as it has been repeated several times in this meeting, the next one billion internet users is most likely coming from this region, and we actually need to be very ready in ensuring that our policies are strong, and our policies are sustainable for the future.

16:07 Seun Ojedeji: At this point, I will call on Ernest, to come and give updates on the rest. Thank you.