LINX London IXManchester IXScotland LINX NoVA Home | Public Affairs | Member Area Remember Me Forgotten password The ethos of mutuality at LINX E-mail this to a friend Print this page Introduction LINX is a mutual organisation, and the ethos of LINX derives from our mutual status. What follows is a more detailed explanation as to how the ethos of LINX guides and influences the everyday life of our exchange. Democracy LINX is ultimately a democratic institution, even though much of the operation of the exchange is now overseen by a management team and an elected Board. The democratic nature of LINX is characterised in the following ways (i.e. things for which we seek a specific vote of member approval): Agreement of the annual budget Prior approval of price rises Election of the Board Changes to the MoU or Memorandum & Articles of Association In addition, we use a member vote to resolve significant issues of policy or direction. Consultation Related to the more formal democratic approach is our extensive use of consultation to ensure that we are acting in a way that members support. There are two broad dimensions to this: Formalised consultation approach It is fairly deeply ingrained that we should consult our membership semi-formally on issues that we intend to bring forward for a more formal vote. This is primarily done by a long established policy of - wherever possible - using one member meeting to consult on an issue prior to bringing it forward for a more formal vote at the subsequent meeting. Informal consultation We extensively practice more general consultation on less formal issues. Included in the scope of this are: Engineering development and policy - where we almost always expose our future plans to members, both to gain their understanding and agreement, and also to take advantage of the extensive knowledge and experience of our membership base. Commercial policy - where we discuss alternative approaches that we might use (such as pricing) prior to finalising them. New services and sites Public affairs - where there is a fairly constant interaction with members over how we should serve and represent their interests in this ever changing environment. An important corollary of practicing consultation is that we should and do listen to our members, to ensure that we understand their views and position on issues. Not for profit An important consequence of LINX's not for profit status (which goes hand in hand with our mutual status) is that we plough any financial surpluses back into either development of the exchange, lower prices, or both. Working for the best interests of our members This manifests itself in various ways: Equality of treatment of members (and specifically our fair pricing policy, see below) Not competing with our members (except where understood and agreed) Seeking to actively support peering (route servers and social aspects) Public affairs work & commitment Ethical marketing (see separate section below) Not open to capture (so members can rely on us being there to support them) A further manifestation of this is our strong commitment to achieving economies of scale, with the following intended member benefits: Reduction in prices, by spreading the relatively fixed costs of exchange maintenance and staffing across a broader membership base Increase in peering benefits, by recruiting more networks into membership so that existing members have new peering opportunities Ethical marketing There are a couple of dimensions to this: LINX seeks to recruit members who will obtain benefit by joining the exchange - with the important corollary that if we believe that an enquirer or applicant will not gain benefit, we will attempt to make them aware of this, and explore the resultant issues, before taking things too far. This has the positive side effect of ensuring that the vast majority of new members stay at the exchange, rather than there being an underlying transient churn (which some companies experience). LINX seeks to recruit members that will enrich the exchange, from the point of view of the overall membership. This means that we look for networks to join who will add to route diversity etc. Welcoming member contributions The mutual ethos should and does encourage members to make contributions in various ways. Some are formalised (Board role, LPC, BCP development), but there are many more informal ones: Speaking at member meetings, to share experience and ideas Mailing list discussions Contributions to knowledge base (usually specific things such as device configuration guides) which are placed within our web site It is fairly clear that our mutual ethos does encourage member contributions, and does it in a way that distinguishes us from what might happen in a strictly commercial environment. Campaigning on behalf of our members A well established part of LINX's activities is to campaign on behalf of our members on matters of public policy. In the past, this was built on a platform of BCPs developed using member expertise, but in more recent times it has evolved towards the following activities: Educating legislators (at both national and EU level), and more latterly extending this to non legislative but nevertheless influential bodies such as IGF, ICANN etc. Protecting the interests of members, by intervention in various ways in public policy development Promoting the interests of members, by seeking to get ahead of opinion and promoting the open ethos of the Internet Delivering value to our members We have this as a clear goal, and it manifests itself in a number of ways: Fair pricing policy (so that even the smallest members can get benefit) 'No surprises' pricing policy, whereby we attempt to mitigate any price rises that a fair pricing policy might indicate Progressive reduction in prices Delivery of splendid service (especially responsiveness to member support requests) A flexible and understanding approach to billing issues A wide range of intangible benefits - probably the most important being the way we continue to foster a sense of community, which members can benefit from About Contact us History of LINX Affiliations Vacancies Partners LINX Council Member List Join LINX Joining Procedure Joining FAQ Application Form LINX from Anywhere ConneXions 100GigE FAQs Services Public Peering Private Peering Additional Services Service Fees Technical Info & Help Traffic Stats Network Topology Looking Glass Members by IP/ASN Website help Publicity and Press Corporate ID Guide Press Releases Biographies Press Cuttings HotLINX LINX Award Meeting Sponsorship Good of the Internet Training BCPs Associate Members Hosted Services Governance Articles of Association M o U Services & Fees Partner Programme Associate Agreement Public Affairs Service Public Affairs News Justice secretary supports debate on criminalisation of “revenge porn” Weatherley wants to jail persistent pirates Farr: GCHQ may legally intercept many social media communications without individual warrant