Updated: Thu Apr 13 15:30:49 UTC 2017
PeeringDB Board of Directors Election April 15th through 29th 2017 UTC
Bylaws at http://docs.peeringdb.com/gov/legaldocs/2015-12-08_PeeringDB_Bylaws.pdf define Membership:
"A corporation, limited liability company, partnership or other legal business entity may be a Member of the Corporation. Membership is determined by having both an active PeeringDB.com account and an individual representative or role subscription to the PeeringDB Governance mailing list: http://lists.peeringdb.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pdb-gov"
Each Member may submit one ballot. We are employing Single Transferable Vote (STV) as the voting system. This means that you rank your candidate preferences from most preferred to least preferred. You do not need to rank all the candidates. A later ballot from a representative of a Member will replace a previous ballot from the same Member.
There are 5 positions of the Board of Directors, 3 of which are up for election this year. A Director term is 2 years.
The following schedule applies to Board elections:
Through April 14th 23:59:59 UTC 2017: Candidates may submit their candidacy and maximum 300 word statement, as determined by POSIX "LANG=en_US.UTF-8 wc -w" command, or revisions to their statement, to secretary@peeringdb.com.
April 15th 2017: Ballots, with candidate statements, will be submitted to the PeeringDB Governance mailing list (pdb-gov@lists.peeringdb.com).
April 15th through 29th 23:59 UTC 2017: Voting. (Registrations received after April 28th UTC are not guaranteed to be processed in time for the April 29th 23:59 UTC voting deadline.)
List of Candidates:
Candidate Statements:
Mehmet Akcin
Peering is essential part of my day to day job. PeeringDB has made peering easy, effective and organized. I believe there are many more things peeringdb can achieve under strong leadership. I would like to devote my time to drive peeringdb in the areas its members see needs improvement while driving new business ideas to ensure peeringdb and its members are satisfied with service.
I work fulltime at Yahoo as Director of Infrastructure Planning and Acquisition responsible for XXX M annual opex budget including Interconnection strategy and operations. Prior to that I have handled peering for Microsoft and L-Root.
Thank you for the opportunity and consideration.
Kate Gerry
As both a user and admin of PeeringDB, I believe that I can work with the team to improve PeeringDB 2.0’s already strong foundation.
Thank you for your consideration.
Patrick W. Gilmore
I have been involved in PeeringDB since its inception. My approach has been to keep the PeeringDB viciously agnostic, and guarantee each member has absolute control over their own record. I honestly believe these guiding principals are the reason so many people in so many places use and trust the system. My primary goal in running for the board is to ensure these principals continue to be followed as we transition from a few volunteers helping when we can to a funded corporation.
Obviously the PeeringDB needs to be financially stable, highly secure, and stable for the long term. This is why we became a 501(c)(6) non-profit corporation and are seeking funding. Adding features such as anti-abuse and perhaps information sharing with other organizations are worthy objectives to do or at least consider. But everything should be done with the primary goals in mind - fairness and member control.
If you feel the same, then I will be a strong advocate for your views.
Finally, I have been involved in multiple non-profit organizations, including transitioning NANOG from Merit to its own non-profit corporation. I am confident I have experience which is useful to the PeeringDB. Combined with my tenure at the PeeringDB, I believe this makes me a good candidate for the Board.
In conclusion, I would like to thank each of you for using the PeeringDB. The PeeringDB is only as useful as the members make it, and you have made it the most important repository of peering information on the Internet. It is truly humbling to have been involved in what I consider to be the canonical example of a grass-roots community effort showing value and bringing everyone together.
Nick Harland
PeeringDB is a great example of how on the Internet, a few engineers can recognize a need for something, create it, and rally the entire industry around it. Everyone reading this page and voting in the election understands how invaluable PeeringDB has become to the interconnection ecosystem.
In my current role at Microsoft, I run a multidisciplinary team that acquires data, develops tools, and provides analysis that support our datacenter and network planning, acquisition, & interconnection activities. I’m very familiar with what it takes to operate a web/api based data service that Network Planners, Engineers, and Operations depend on to do their job, because that’s my job.
My primary goal as a board member would be to support the core mission of providing a service that answers the question of who’s peering where, will they peer with you, and here is the data you need to configure your router programmatically.
I’d also like to work on improving the quality of our user submitted data where we can. An example of this would be our location data, the last time I attempted to place every facility in PeeringDB on a map, I was only able to achieve a 70% success rate with address based geocoding. We can fix that with validation, and if we did, we might even consider offering our users and members a map view.
Thank you for your consideration. I would be truly honored for the opportunity to apply my passion for data that defines our Internet to PeeringDB.
Arnold Nipper
I'm running again for the PeeringDB Board to be an advocate for users of the platform. Now that PDB2.0 is out for little more than one year we see how beneficial it is and how much support is still needed. We also have an opportunity to make the platform more automated and user-friendly. The new governance framework is in place and we were able to get PeeringDB well funded via a couple of generous sponsors.
I've been a PeeringDB Admin for more than nine years. I've already worked in the nooks and crannies of the platform, and know where we can improve it. I've been very closely involved in the support functions of PeeringDB, supporting queries for customer care. We need a reliable and responsive support desk.
As a member of the Board, I'd focus on making 2.0 a stable platform, ensuring that we have all the features and data that our users need to run their daily business. Moreover I would also continue my work in the PDB Product Committee.
PeeringDB will be a primary source - globally - for accurate, updated and standardized data about networks, IXPs, data centers, colocation providers and more. I've been driving this process forward with all relevant parties, and I'll work diligently to ensure all IXPs globally develop their IXPA interface to make this a useful tool for the worldwide community.
I bring more than 26 years of experience and expertise in the ISP and IXP industry. I'm co-founder and after 15 years as CTO/COO now an evangelist of DE-CIX. I have a close eye on the global interconnection industry regularly attending NANOG, RIPE, APRICOT and other key global fora.
I love what I do, and I'd like to continue to serve this awesome industry as a member of the PeeringDB Board.
Bijal Sanghani
I’d like your support to become a PeeringDB Board member, and here’s why;
When I joined Euro-IX I started to maintain and develop our public IXP database. Being the lead on the IXP database, I’ve expanded its reach from Europe to South America, Asia and Africa and in doing so look to create a tool that benefits regions across the globe. Imagine the additional positive impact closer interaction between PeeringDB and the IXPDB/IXPs would have.
I started using PeeringDB back in 2005 when I was running the AS15412 network for FLAG Telecom. It was then and is even more now one of the most important and used tools for interconnection.
I’ve learned how important good leadership and project management skills are to ensure that we are not just talking about change but driving it forward. I've experience supporting the community via various programme committees and my role as co-chair of the RIPE NCC Services working group for 10 years.
As a regular attendee of NOGs and Peering forums, I have the experience of working with the community and bringing groups of people with diverse interests and ambitions together.
If elected to the PeeringDB board I would use my technical knowledge and stakeholder engagement skills to build bridges and share knowledge across the IXP community by:
1. Ensuring there is closer interaction between PeeringDB and the IXP Associations (the members of IX-F)
2. Build on the work done in both communities to ensure there is better communication, understanding and promote co-operation between these two complimentary databases
3. Promote data quality, accuracy and completeness to future proof the tool
4. Expand and enhance the data, develop tools and improve APIs that can help drive automation for the community.
Thank you for your support.