This morning (Dec 18, 2013), I saw this petition for “IT professionals worldwide: Turn off the Legacy IP Protocol (IPv4) for the day of 06th June 2014.” From the page:
We, the undersigned,
Commit to completely turning IPv4 protocol off on all the devices we ourselves use, as the consumers of the Internet, during the day of 06th June 2014, 00:01, to 23:59, as measured by the local times of our main residences.
If turning IPv4 off results in inability to perform our job for our employers, we tell them the reason and take a day off.
If turning IPv4 off results in inability to communicate with our loved ones for one day – we tell them the reason and ask for their forgiveness.
If turning IPv4 off results in inability to buy in the online shops – we do not buy anything that day and tell the reason later.
We commit to walk the New Internet with no crutches for a day.
It may not be easy.
Join us.
p.s. It goes without saying that we commit to NOT breaking the Internet for unsuspecting users by turning the legacy IP off for them, unless they explicitly agree to participate in this action together with us.
It’s all voluntary – you can turn off IPv4 on your own devices, but no one will be turning off IPv4 for anyone else. It’s an interesting experiment, for sure. Why 6 June? It’s the second anniversary of World IPv6 Launch, of course! On 6 June 2012, major Internet service providers (ISPs), home networking equipment manufacturers, and web companies from around the world permanently enabled IPv6 for their products and services.
We’ve seen IPv6 traffic double each year since 2011, so this test of end-user devices is coming at a good time. What’s working and what’s still broken? How far do we have to go until we get full, global IPv6 deployment?
Now is a good time to make sure all your services are available over IPv6. If you need help getting IPv6 up and running between now and June, you’ve come to the right place. Check out all our IPv6 resources and let us know if you see any gaps you think we should fill in. We’re here to help you get IPv6 deployed.
UPDATE, June 1, 2014: As there has been some confusion in some online forums, please note that this “Turn Off IPv4 for a day” activity is NOT an official activity of the Internet Society but rather an independent initiative by a group of IT professionals who are advocates of IPv6. We think it is an interesting idea, which is why we wrote about it here on our blog. For our part, we are going to be celebrating this week of the second World IPv6 “Launchiversary” by:
- publishing a whole series of IPv6 case studies showing how people are making the move to IPv6
- publishing blog posts relating to IPv6 tools, statistics and case studies
- promoting IPv6-related links and info across various social networks (can you please help us share those links and spread them widely?)
UPDATE, June 6, 2014: Whatever you choose to do, we encourage you to please take some kind of action today to help accelerate the deployment of IPv6!