In message <[email protected]>, at 18:34:31
on Wed, 11 Dec 2013, Gordon Lennox <[email protected]> writes
I seem to remember that early roundtables were organised at Schipol to
make it as easy as possible for government people to attend. When even
that was seen to have its limits then the Roundtables were organised in
Brussels.
That makes it sound like all of them are now Brussels-based but in fact
they appear to be alternating, with one each in Brussels and Amsterdam
each year. 2014 will be the third year.
From what I have heard that works. Not only do people from the
Commission attend but also people from other states who either work in
Brussels or travel in for the day. And by the way, picking up on
Roland's point, it is probably more the familiarity of Brussels as a
destination than allows people from out of town to attend rather than
the issue of expenses. They can also add in some side meetings which
adds value. So all in all the Roundtables are appreciated and working.
Yes, looking at the records (on the RIPE NCC website) the attendance
from out-of-town has been maintained and the Commission has risen from
typically one or two attendees (in Amsterdam) to between six and eleven
(in Brussels).
I think though that it is recognised that there is a problem with small
groups of people or even individuals going to Brussels and claiming to
represent the WG - unless of course there has been discussion and
consensus on the message to be passed. Maybe other people think
otherwise. Maybe we need to discuss this
If the material presented is simply "this is what the WG does, these are
its working methods, some of the topics discussed recently and how to
get involved", then I don't think that should be a problem.
In the past the Roundtables have had presentations about the proceedings
of the RIPE 'Policy' workgroups.
I also have a variety of problems with the notion of "free
consultancy". I won't try to cover them all here and now.
But the Commission spends a lot of money on acquiring information: from
research projects, to studies, to workshops, to consultation processes.
Feeding into consultations, either in writing or much better by
attending hearings, is a very good way to "get involved" in the flow of
information.
--
Roland Perry
