I was nominated for a seat on the ARIN Advisory Council (AC) this week. I am very excited about this and am hopeful that I will be elected. ARIN [wikipedia] has a very organized election process, part of which is a questionnaire that all candidates must answer to serve as their campaign statement and bio. The responses to these questions will be posted for all eligible candidates on September 11, I will post the link at that time. Until then, here is a sneak peak of mine:
* Why do you want to serve on the AC?
I want to serve on the ARIN Advisory Counsel for a number of reasons. Most of which directly revolve around my passion for the Internet itself. This passion is based on what the Internet provides and also what it represents. I believe that the modern global Internet is a resource unlike any the world has seen before. For the first time in history, knowledge is no longer in the hands solely of the powerful and wealthy. Authors, artists and philosophers have the ability to reach out to much of the world (and to each other) on a scale unimaginable just a few decades ago. You now have the power to seek multiple sources of information, to expose yourself to a plethora of views, slants and takes on almost every topic, both current and historical. We are quite possibly experiencing the dawn of a golden age, another renaissance; a digital awakening to a cultural dialogue. ARIN not only facilitates this through its primary task of number resource management, they also foster it with educational programs and information dissemination. Even more important to me is the manner in which ARIN does this; grassroots, consensus based policy developed and approved directly by the community it serves. To me, the what and how combine into something that I can not ignore, something that I want to be a part of. I want to serve on the AC in order to help maintain and promote this wonderful thing we call the Internet in a way that benefits the entire community.
* What goals do you want to accomplish as an AC member?
I want to do all that I can to support and strengthen ARIN and the community it serves. My primary goal is to help maintain and strengthen the current consensus based system. I have no specific agenda beyond serving the community as best I can.
* Describe how your professional goals and experiences are relevant.
My primary professional goal is to be an integral part of the further growth and development of the Internet. This goal is a large part of my wanting to become an AC member. This desire is backed by over 6 years of professional experience with large and small Internet service providers. I have worked on network development and design, network implementation and network operation projects and teams. I have worked in service provider, telecommunications and enterprise environments. I have developed and documented organizational standards, policies and procedures. I have also played key roles in creating both for profit and not for profit businesses/organizations from the ground up. As a further note on experience, I have worked in roles that required me to request resources from ARIN – experience that I feel is very important to being part of the AC.
* Describe your technical (especially IP) and professional qualifications for filling an AC seat.
I am an extremely competent IP network engineer with management experience. My primary technical expertise lies in modern routing protocols such as BGP, MPLS, OSPF, IS-IS, etc. but I also have a solid understanding of most routed protocols as well (TCP, UDP, HTTP(S), FTP, SSH, RTP, etc, etc). I am also a skilled project and team manager in addition to being adept at technical and procedural documentation.
* Do you foresee any possible conflicts of interest? Please explain.
I do not foresee any potential conflicts of Interest.
* Do you think IPv6 needs bootstrapping and if so, what should ARIN do?
Due to many organizations current negative or heedless attitude towards IPv6 and the looming exhaustion of free IPv4 addresses, I do believe that IPv6 needs some form of bootstrapping. I further believe that as an Internet steward, ARIN should redouble its efforts to promote IPv6 adoption. In this regard, I am for an increase in IPv6 education and outreach and am open to other ideas, such as helping with an IPv6 bug-tracker, an IPv6 help forum (helping to link experts with those in need) and possibly even IPv6 deployment requirements for future IPv4 allocations and other IPv6 related incentives.
* If at some point in the future IPv6 becomes the predominant protocol and a small number of large allocations satisfy the addressing needs of most Internet participants, do you foresee a change to ARIN’s role? If so, what?
I do not see a real change to ARIN’s role but more of a potential shift in priorities. While IP resource allocation will likely slow over the next ten to twenty years, that is not ARIN’s only task. Education and outreach will likely become the primary role as resource allocation slows. Another possibility is that ARIN takes a slightly more oversight based role at that point, using the already established consensus based policy process to help the community combat problems that arise.
* Given that we are nearing the end of the unallocated IPv4 address pool, do you have a strong position as to whether ARIN ought to take specific action to advance or retard runout, for example, fee-based IPv4 transfer policies?
I believe that a comprehensive soft-landing strategy is needed as we near free-pool exhaustion. Such a strategy should include a number of policies. Some policies that I would consider along these lines are 2007-17, 2007-14, 2008-5 and the now abandoned 2007-27. More specifically, I was initially strongly against a fee-based transfer policy, mainly because the mechanism for an organization to return unused space is already in place and such a transfer policy encourages what I would call ‘bad behavior’ in the community. It also has the potential to slow IPv6 adoption by those who wish to believe the need is not there. Currently I am open to such a transfer policy but still need some convincing before I would whole-heartedly support one. I will say that at this moment I am more inclined to support a policy along the lines of Bill Darte’s “Emergency Transfer Policy for IPv4 Addresses” than the original 2008-2 because I feel that if we are going to create a legit path for these transfers, we should make it easy enough that (almost) everyone takes that path. What we do not want to have is a transfer policy that is ignored and a black market continuing or growing after its adoption.
* What new ideas do you have to promote participation among members and others in the Internet community?
While I do not believe that it is a new idea, I feel that the best way to promote participation is through education, such as providing speakers and materials to local organizations and events. This is happening now but should be maintained and enhanced. Improving the ability for remote participation at the meetings is something else that is already underway and should help. Perhaps ARIN could also arrange to provide informational sessions at member organizations, I assume that many companies and schools would welcome the opportunity to have their employees and/or students ‘trained’ on IP resources by a representative from the regional authority. Also, adding a subnet calculator and/or other IP related tools to the ARIN website could help drive some traffic that way.
* Please provide a brief biography of recent experience, associations, and affiliations (national and international) relevant to serving on the AC. Describe positions held and your specific duties, including the names of organizations served and dates of service.
/* On the questionnaire I responded to this but here I will simply point you to my LinkedIn profile which contains all of this information if you are interested. */
