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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#000000" vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Dear Hisham,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Thank you for this detailed recap.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Having worked closely with you and Chafic on some of our regional projects, and having served (and continue to serve) on the MENOG PC and SC, I know how much efforts you and the RIPE NCC colleagues have injected into the region since the Dubai office was inaugurated, and I applaud you all for that.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>I look forward to continuing our successful partnerships for a better Internet ecosystem in our region.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Thank you,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Fahd<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> menog-bounces@lists.menog.org [mailto:menog-bounces@lists.menog.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Hisham Ibrahim<br><b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, June 08, 2016 2:31 PM<br><b>To:</b> menog@menog.org<br><b>Subject:</b> [menog] RIPE NCC Dubai Regional Office in Operation - Second year recap<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'>Dear friends and colleagues,<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'>First allow me to wish you a blessed Ramadan full of peace and harmony to you and all your loved ones.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'>On behalf of the RIPE NCC Dubai office, I would like to recap our second year of operations with you now as we expect things to slow down from now until the end of July.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'>In 2016, we continued to put a lot of effort into our engagement strategy on a national level by visiting as many Middle Eastern countries as we could. Our aim was to strengthen our relationship with our members and work with them on enhancing our services and meeting their needs. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'>* Community Engagement<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'>Member Lunches <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'>Member lunches have been a big part of our member engagement strategy. We noticed that our membership has shifted from the traditional telecom and operator base to a broader base that includes different sectors like banking, academic and enterprise. We wanted to make sure we understood the needs of each sector to help us better meet their needs. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'>We organised seven member lunches so far and plan to host two more before the end of the year.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'><b>2014:</b> Yemen<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'><b>2015:</b> Iran, Saudi Arabia<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'><b>Q1/Q2 2016</b>: Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Syria (the SY member lunch was held during the RIPE NCC Levant Regional Meeting)<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'><b>Planned for 2016</b>: Jordan and Oman<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'>Academic Engagement<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'>We received feedback from the academic community that they wanted the RIPE NCC to get more involved in helping the students and researchers better understand how the Internet works.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'>We organised a half-day session with the students of the American University in Beirut to discuss how the Internet works and the organisations that support it. The session was well received and the RIPE NCC has been invited to conduct similar sessions later this year in Saudi Arabia (Dammam, Riyadh and Jeddah), UAE as well as a second session in Beirut with all the Lebanese universities. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'>RACI <sup>[1] </sup>(the RIPE Academic Cooperation Initiative) provided students and researchers with a chance to travel to the MENOG meeting and present to the technical community their work.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'>Banks<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'>We noticed an increase in membership from the banking sector. The RIPE NCC organised meetings with banks in Bahrain, Lebanon, Qatar and Saudi Arabia to understand how the RIPE NCC can help them. The RIPE NCC and the MENOG technical community is in a position to help with a number of issues raised by the banks we met with and we plan to start working with them this year in Bahrain and Qatar. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'>National IPv6 Working Groups<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'>IPv6 deployment in the region varies drastically to say the least. We are helping set up national taskforces and awareness meetings in Lebanon, Qatar and the UAE. We are also seeing others like the Saudi Arabian IPv6 task force that feel that they have serviced their propose after eight years of raising awareness within the local community and see it is time to move on to discuss other topics.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'>Over the past two years we organised or participated in national IPv6 efforts including:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'><b>2015</b>: Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Yemen<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'><b>2016:<u> </u></b>Saudi Arabia and UAE<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'><b>Planned for 2016: </b>Qatar<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'>** Capacity Building<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'>IPv6 Roadshows <sup>[2]</sup><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'>The IPv6 Roadshow launched in 2011 as a joint initiative of the RIPE NCC and the Middle East Network Operators Group (MENOG). Since then, 36 IPv6 Roadshow events have been held in ten countries across the Arab region, providing instruction to roughly a thousand participants.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'><b>2014:</b> Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia (Riyadh and Al-Khobar) and UAE<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'><b>2015:<u> </u></b> Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, UAE (twice) and Yemen (held in Jordan)<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'><b>2016:<u> </u></b>Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'><b>Planned for 2016: </b>Jordan, Kuwait and Oman.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'>Train the Trainer<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'>In 2015, the IPv6 Roadshow launched the "Train the Trainer" (TTT) programme. This spin-off programme is aimed at building a diverse pool of highly-skilled Middle Eastern instructors capable of delivering future IPv6 Roadshows, ensuring that the project can continue to evolve and scale to meet the growing demand for this kind of training. We have had three TTT participants co-train six of the IPv6 Roadshows since the launch of the programme.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'>***Regional Meetings <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'>Levant Regional Meeting in Lebanon <sup>[3]</sup><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'>The RIPE NCC Levant Regional Meeting was held in Beirut, Lebanon. A total of 140 people from five countries (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Iraq) attended the meeting. The community raised key regional issues and Oregro, the Lebanese incumbent, pledged to deploy IPv6 before the end of the year. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'>MENOG<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'>MENOG 15 <sup>[4] </sup>took place in Dubai, UAE in April 2015. The main themes of the plenary covered peering the in Middle East region, domain name operations and securing online banking. 195 participants attended the meeting from thirty-two different countries.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'>MENOG 16 <sup>[5]</sup> took place in Istanbul, Turkey in March 2016. Despite the unfortunate circumstances that happened during the meeting week in both Istanbul and Brussels, the meeting was still a success with 150 attendees from fifteen different countries participating. The main themes of the plenary revolved heavily around security and Internet Exchange Points.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'>We are excited to continue working with the technical community and the other stakeholders in the region. We feel all the hard work we have put into the region over the past two years has helped us figure out a formula that works well with the needs and expectations of the region and we expect to yield huge, tangible results in the near future.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'>We thank you all for your support and ask you to continue guiding us to better support our region.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'>Kind Regards<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'>Hisham Ibrahim<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'>Regional Programme Manager<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'>RIPE NCC<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'> -------------<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'>Useful links:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'>[1] RACI: <a href="https://www.ripe.net/participate/ripe/raci">https://www.ripe.net/participate/ripe/raci</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'>[2] IPv6 Roadshows: <a href="http://www.menog.org/ipv6-roadshow/">http://www.menog.org/ipv6-roadshow/</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'> [3] Levant Regional Meeting: <a href="https://www.ripe.net/participate/meetings/regional-meetings/ripe-ncc-levant-regional-meeting/meeting-report">https://www.ripe.net/participate/meetings/regional-meetings/ripe-ncc-levant-regional-meeting/meeting-report</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span class=MsoHyperlink>[4] MENOG 15: <a href="http://www.menog.org/meetings/previous/menog-15/"><u><span style='color:blue'>http://www.menog.org/meetings/previous/menog-15/</span></u></a></span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:justify'>[5] MENOG 16: <a href="http://www.menog.org/meetings/menog-16/"><u><span style='color:blue'>http://www.menog.org/meetings/menog-16/</span></u></a><o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>