040.90: RARE News by Klaus Ullmann Josefien Bersee At the moment a number of important developments are taking place within RARE, the European association of research networking organizations and their users. In the first place the formation of an Operational Unit for the management of pan-European networking services for the research and education community is being finalized. This Operational Unit will take over services which are now provided by the COSINE Project, such as IXI (International X.25 Infrastructure) and the CONCISE Information Server. It will also incorporate other existing services such as EARN's NJE and new networking services such as the RIPE NCC (Reseaux IP Europeens Networking Coordination Centre). Possible shareholders of the new Unit had their first meeting on April 10th. The first part of a major restructuring with regard to the execution of RARE's technical activities has now been realized: the appointment of members of the RARE Technical Committee (RTC). Under the chairmanship of the RARE Secretary-General this new body will manage the technical work done by task forces and working groups in the framework of RARE's technical programme. The first RTC has an interim status and has been appointed for one year. RARE is involved in a new European initiative, the European Consultative Forum on Research Networking (ECFRN). This initiative was the result of factors such as the fact that the COSINE project will be finished by the end of 1992, as well as the requirements for higher speed networking in Europe. ECFRN is in the first place a politically oriented initiative: its main task is to increase awareness amongst European policy-makers of the importance of research networking for the future of Europe. A steering group is analyzing immediate and future requirements, problems and issues of attaining these, and threats, challenges and opportunities that could impact changes. Recently three new European technical projects started with direct involvement and support from RARE: [bullet, indent] The European Multiprotocol Pilot (EMPP) will provide for interim 2 Mbps connectivity in Europe until the IXI Production Service provides the same functionality. The project will be managed by the COSINE Project Management Unit. [bullet, indent] A task force has been formed to define the aims of an ATM Pilot Project, following a recommendation in the final report of the European Engineering and Planning Group (published May 1991). [bullet, indent] Ebone (standing for "European Backbone") is a European international network backbone offering connectivity between research network providers in Europe and from Europe to the United States Internets. It will offer an Internet IP (level 3) production service and an ISO-CLNS (level 3) pilot service. Ebone complements other European activities such as the IXI service and the EMPP Pilot mentioned above. In addition to the technical and other activities, two administrative changes will take place in May this year. These are a new Executive Committee and changes in the RARE Statutes. The new RARE Executive Committee will start its two year term from May 1st. It consists of: Kees Neggers (SURFnet, NL) as President, Howard Davies (University of Exeter, UK) as Vice- President, Paul Van Binst (University of Brussels, Belgium) as Treasurer, and Lars Backstrom (University of Helsinki, Finland) and Peter Bakonyi (Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary) as ordinary members. The Executive Committee is responsible for the day-to-day management of the RARE Association. Secondly a change in the RARE Statutes will be implemented during the RARE Council of Administration Meeting in Innsbruck, Austria, just after the 3rd Joint European Networking Conference. This change will allow all countries in Europe to apply for Full National Membership of the Association (voting membership) instead of the 20 countries formerly mentioned in the statutes.