Dear all,

I'd like to conclude the issue surrounding the testing of CONFER at the last policy SIG meeting in Ho Chi Minh City, that caused a complaint to be raised at the AGM and on this mailing list, particularly in relation to the discussion on prop-118.

APNIC has reviewed the CONFER server logs during the time of that discussion. In that period, 14 CONFER users with “qq.com” email addresses connected to the service from a single IP address registered to a data centre operator in USA. We don't intend to pursue this any further, but it is clear that the ease of participating in CONFER has raised doubts about the quality of its results.

If CONFER is to be used in future, it seems that some improvements will be needed, and the APNIC Secretariat would be glad to hear the advice of the community on that.

But again, as Masato has kindly reminded us all, reaching consensus isn't about seeking majority of 'support/strongly support'. It's also about making sure that major objections of a policy proposal get aired, discussed, and resolved. Sumon has announced the return of prop-118 for discussion on the mailing list, before another consensus call is made.

Regarding the other events which were raised on the sig-policy mailing list, the APNIC Secretariat has considered all accounts and I wish to note the following:

• APNIC staff announced to the room that the CONFER system was not being used in good faith. No direct accusation was made nor intended.
• A decision was made by the SIG chairs to disregard CONFER’s result. The fact that this decision was made during the prop-118 discussion had no bearing on the outcome of the consensus call.
• Immediately after the session, two of APNIC’s policy staff were approached by a Member who expressed regret that this CONFER incident may have reflected badly on the proposal’s authors. APNIC Secretariat has not found any evidence that substantiate this, and asks the community to make no such inference.
• The APNIC Secretariat believes that the SIG Chairs and APNIC’s policy staff diligently carried out the responsibilities of their roles under unexpected conditions, and made their decisions in what they believed to be in the best interests of the community.
• APNIC has redacted an individual’s name from the March archive of the Policy SIG mailing list.

In moving forward please remember that we're all here to work together for a better Internet, and difference of opinions are to be expected, and discussed in an open, respectful debate.

Thank you!

Sanjaya

Deputy Director General, APNIC

https://www.apnic.net