Roland's Work
For five years up to November 2010, Roland was contracted as RIPE NCC's Public Affairs Officer. His primary objective was to engage and develop new relationships with governments and key organisations. RIPE NCC now has a successful outreach programme, has established good strategic relationships and regularly sends attendees to meetings of International organisations.
Previously, Roland was Director of Public Policy for the London Internet Exchange (LINX).
Work completed for RIPE NCC
RIPE NCC Round Table Meetings - The RIPE NCC facilitates Roundtable Meetings to discuss Internet management issues relevant to governments and regulators. These meetings explain how to participate in IP address management policy-making and discuss technical topics such as IP address space management, IPv6 deployment and IPv4 depletion. A total of over 120 individuals from the government sector, representing 25 countries within the service area, attended seven meetings from 2005 to 2010. In addition, I was involved in the formation and delivery of the bi-annual RIPE Cooperation Working Group meetings.
European Commission - The RIPE NCC operates under European law and therefore I followed developments in several Directorates of the European Commission, and in the European Parliament, related to the Telecoms Framework, Data Retention and Disclosure, Filtering and Blocking, Network Neutrality, Internet Governance and Data Protection. I attended a series of annual IPv6 adoption workshops organized by the Commission and facilitated input to their IPv6 Communication in 2008.
Intergovernmental Organisations - I was the primary participant in RIPE NCC's outreach to organisations such as ECOSOC and the CSTD within the United Nations, also the Council of Europe, OECD and the ITU. I attended the WTPF (Lisbon 2009), WTDC (Hyderabad 2010) and ITU Telecom World (Geneva 2009).
After the OECD's Seoul Ministerial in 2008, the RIPE NCC became one of the founder members of the new OECD Internet Technical Advisory Committee (ITAC), under whose auspices I attended meetings of the Working Party on Communication Infrastructure and Services Policy (CISP) and Committee for Information, Computers and Communications Policy (ICCP). Topics under discussion included the Internet Economy, IPv6 Deployment and Liability of Internet Intermediaries.
Law Enforcement - I worked with a number of Law Enforcement/Industry liaison initiatives, including the Council of Europe's Octopus Conference, the European Financial Coalition against Child Sexual Exploitation and the London Action Plan. Assisted by the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) senior practitioners from 25 countries around the world attended an RIR/LEA meeting in London in February 2010. This led to the formation of a Cybercrime Working Party (CCWP) tasked with building trust and developing a better working relationship between LEAs and the Internet industry.
Multistakeholder Internet Governance Bodies - I have participated in seven ICANN meetings over the last three years, with particular focus on the Government Advisory Committee (GAC) sessions. I have attended every preparation and taking stock session of the IGF for five years, and all five main meetings. In Sharm-el-Sheikh I organized a merged IPv6 workshop with the ITU and sat on a Cybercrime Panel.
During the preparations for the fifth IGF in Vilnius I advised on enhancing the remote participation capability. In addition, I have attended all three EuroDIG (European IGF) meetings and the UK IGF.
E-Victims.Org - In my personal capacity I devised a charitable website helping members of the public who had become victims of online fraud and harassment, engaging with a range of law enforcement bodies, regulators and other support charities. In this role I was a member of ICANN's anti-abuse working group during 2009.
Previous Activity
Internet Crime Forum
This organisation, set up in 1997, promoted an effective working relationship between industry, government and law enforcement. I was elected as Industry Vice Chairman and also operated the secretariat - preparing and holding quarterly meetings in London and running a collaborative website.
Internet Watch Foundation
This industry-funded co-regulatory body, established in 1996, accepts reports from the public and issues take down notices to ISPs for illegal material. I was a member of the Funding Council and subsequently elected to be a member of the Main Board.
Home Secretary's Task Force for Child Protection on the Internet
Was set up in March 2001, in response to an earlier report, which I co-wrote, by the Internet Crime Forum, that made a number of recommendations for improved supervision of online Chat Rooms. My special interests were police training, public awareness and industry codes of conduct.
G8 High-tech crime meetings
I was asked by the UK Government to select and lead the UK Industry delegation to three consecutive meetings in Paris, Berlin and Tokyo. These meetings discussed combating high-tech crime and the criminal exploitation of the Internet and explored possible solutions to enhance the public interest, including the protection of public safety, privacy and other social values.
Telecommunications and other Groups
I represented the Internet Industry on the working group which established the voluntary Telecoms Ombudsman. In addition, I sat on the Government's Emergency Telecoms Committee which co-ordinates contingency plans for Civil and National Emergencies, and worked closely with UK and EU legislators on a number of Internet-related measures such as the Electronic Commerce and Privacy Directives.
I was a Council Member of EuroISPA and was a member of ISPA-UK's working groups on Data Protection, Law Enforcement and Content liability issues. I also spoke for ISPs on the ACPO Police and Telecommunications Industry Strategy Group.