Introduction

Major problem of RIPE community and RIPE NCC is low engagement of some regions, and countries. This can be solved by creating a network of ambassadors, that will be responsible for particular region, or country, or city. Ambassadors will be responsible for keeping community engaged, and informed about RIPE NCC activities, and RIPE community activities, and will be responsible for collecting feedback from community, and providing it to RIPE NCC. Ambassadors will be volunteers, and will be selected by RIPE NCC, or by community members, or by other ambassadors. Ambassadors will be rewarded with some benefits. Being RIPE Ambassador can be a good line in CV, and can be useful for future career, and honorary title.

Common problems

Each country, even sometimes region might have his own problems. I can underline several common problems that need to be solved:

• Language translations of RIPE materials, articles, and news, software, and RIPE tools.
• Spreading information about local professional news, events, meetups, and conferences, regulatory changes, and other important information. VERY IMPORTANT: keep the community engaged in RIPE NCC workgroups, mailing lists, and other activities, especially budget discussions, and other important topics.
• Promoting RIPE NCC services and tools, especially how they can be useful for local network operators
• Promoting RIPE NCC training courses and webinars (this might require small local budget/sponsorship or assistance with finding sponsors)
• Promoting RIPE NCC membership and LIR registration not only for IPv4 waiting list but also for IPv6-only networks
• Coordinating volunteers, how they can help RIPE community, RIPE NCC, and worldwide Internet community, from local initiatives to global projects(software development, translation, etc)
• If situation and resources allow, get in touch with local academic institutions, and promote RIPE NCC, and RIPE community, their funding programs, how they can contribute and benefit from RIPE NCC, and RIPE community
• A bit far fetching: RIPE NCC together with ambassadors can be enormous source of educational information for universities, schools, colleges, providing them guidance on how to teach up to date networking, can contribute to curriculum, and provide training materials, and other resources. Majority of children are not aware about history of internet development, role of RIRs and other organizations, students - not aware about importance of IPv6. This can be solved by RIPE NCC, and ambassadors. Regional ISPs can participate in such programs, promoting available resources (training materials, documentation) to their local educational institutions, provide coordinated opportunities for internships, employment.

Local problems

There is also local, community-specific problems that can be solved by local ambassadors too.

• Promoting IPv6, RPKI deployment in the region in particular regions where it is low
• Coordinating in matter of communication, payments, and other issues with RIPE NCC
• Promoting local IXPs, and other local initiatives

Feedback channel

There is also return feedback channel from community to RIPE NCC, where ambassadors can collect feedback, and provide it to RIPE NCC.

• Aggregating feedback from local communities and providing it to RIPE NCC
• Legal, regulatory, and other issues, if knowledge of such is useful for RIPE NCC, or they might even help to solve some problems.
• Emerging problems, and trends in the region, that might be useful for RIPE NCC, and community, for example surge in DDoS attacks in particular region, region-wide disruptions, and other problems.

Inter-Ambassador communication

Additionally there is:

• Inter-amabassador communication, where they can share their experience, and best practices, create joint projects, and initiatives, and help each other.

Responsibilities

• Keep open all popular in region communication channels, whatsapp groups, telegram channels, facebook groups. To save time, setup proper notifications and filters
• Don’t post too much, but post regularly, and keep the community engaged. You need to have certain engagement metrics to have visibility
• Avoid any topics that might split the community, extingush any conflicts, and keep the community united
• Make a notes what resources each member might have, and how they can be useful for RIPE NCC, and community. For example some of members might have access to local media, or have connections for venues, or provide connectivity

Requirements

• Ambassadors should not have conflicts of interest that will cause harm or isolation of part of the community they take care of. Community members should be able to report such conflicts to RIPE NCC anonymously but with solid proof.
• Ambassadors should not have any criminal record or CoC violations, and should not have any other issues that might harm RIPE NCC reputation

Benefits

• Active ambassadors program can serve as a university for future RIPE NCC Working Group members, Board members, where they can learn how to work with the community, get visibility, understand RIPE better.
• Ambassadors can be rewarded with some benefits, like free training courses, free tickets to RIPE meetings, and other benefits
• Being RIPE Ambassador can be a good line in CV, and can be useful for future career, and honorary title

Career path

There is also possible to have multiple ambassadors for region, if we have volunteers, and they can work together, or have different responsibilities. In future, if economic situation allows, we can have some budget, awards, and other incentives for ambassadors.

Roadmap

• Create a list of countries, regions, and cities where we need ambassadors, especially countries with low engagement
• Create a list of responsibilities, and requirements for ambassadors
• Create a list of benefits/incentives for ambassadors, roadmap, and career path
• Assist with a list of communication channels, and tools that can be used by ambassadors in particular region
• Keep timely communication with ambassadors, and provide them with necessary information, and support

Selection process

• Ambassadors should be active in RIPE community, and have good reputation
• Ambassadors should have good communication skills, and be able to keep community engaged, it is important to be “people person”
• Ambassadors should have good knowledge of local language, and English
• Ambassadors should have good knowledge of local community, and local problems, regulatory framework, and other issues
• Ambassadors should be fluent in using social media, and other communication tools personally, not just having PR manager “talking head”, but be able to communicate personally and keep feedback loop with community

Ambassadors can be selected by voting, or by RIPE NCC staff, or by community members, or by other ambassadors. Most likely initially, due low engagement of communities, and lack of experience(from all sides), multiple candidates can be selected, and by schedule they have to show how well their engagement strategy works and how satisfied community is with their work. Then, based on feedback, and performance, some of them can be selected as permanent ambassadors.