Hi Cooperation WG community – I'm Collin Anderson, an independent network researcher based out of Washington, D.C. I had reached out to Meredith about the possibility of more active participation previously but had suspected this introduction would arise in Copenhagen, so I apologize then for not reaching out through the list first to make a case for myself.
I have attended the last four RIPE Meetings, presented at two of those meetings in the Coop WG [1][2], been a supportive resource in the planning of three of those sessions, and have an earlier history of interacting with the RIPE Atlas platform in pursuit of public interest issues [3]. Those presentations and papers are representative of my background and involvements (cda.io) – the nexus of the Internet, its architecture and public policy, with an interest in accessibility and security. A substantial portion of my time is dedicated to Measurement Lab, however, I also collaborate with a broader range of NGOs and academic institutions on producing research on these issues in Europe and the United States. Hence Coop WG is interesting to me because it is where all of the issues that RIPE maintains expertise in comes into more uncertain questions of external application (from my perspective at least). Outside of this, the question of how I would make an informative and generative resource for the RIPE community is particularly relevant. I'm specifically interested in the Coop WG being a mechanism of inclusion for local communities – by the virtue of the rotation of the meetings across the region there is an opportunity to bring in representatives of the NGO and public sector that wouldn't otherwise have the means or awareness to come to RIPE. So more local presence outside of generous sponsorships of much needed coffee baristas. My research has always attempted to support the pairing of technical expertise with local impact and local communities that wouldn't otherwise have access to those resources, and I believe that this principle would be a mechanism for Coop WG to fulfill its mission. So, my ambition would be to support conversations like the eID thread that seems to be the most active discussion on Coop-WG in a year, but also to bring in people that wouldn't otherwise have access to this community – but who should interact and will be novel to form connections with. I would be a generative resource because I happen to have some of these relationships by virtue of my mode of operation professionally, but also because I am personally motivated toward that objective. I would be happy to answer any questions here (on-thread or off-thread) or in Denmark in a couple of weeks, and my apologies again for the misstep. Cordially, Collin Anderson [1] https://ripe69.ripe.net/archives/video/10079/ [2] https://ripe71.ripe.net/archives/video/1176/ [3] https://www.usenix.org/conference/foci14/workshop-program/presentation/anderson
