[afnog] Workshops and meetings in Dar es Salaam, June 21-23

[Bill Woodcock]

I just wanted to make sure that anyone who hadn't already heard about the
meetings in Dar later this month had a chance to before the last moment.

The important one is the ARIN meeting on the 23rd.  There will be a lot of
discussion of the transition mechanism, how folks in sub-Saharan Africa
will move from ARIN to AfriNIC membership, what that will mean, what kinds
of pricing and policy changes can be expected, and so forth.  There will
probably also be a bit of wrap-up discussion on the policy you guys got
through last winter's ARIN meeting, on less-restrictive minimum
allocations and lower pricing for African organizations.  And there will
probably be a bit of new discussion of the similar AS-number price
reductions which we (the ARIN board) are trying to get membership support
for.  This may seem moot in the face of AfriNIC going live very soon, but
it's still an issue for people who need their ASNs now, rather than in a
few months, and it's probably good for the folks in sub-Saharan Africa to
spend a little bit of time talking about pricing issues now, since the
price harmonization with the generally higher fees that ex-RIPE members
will have been paying may be a happier thing for the latter than the
former.

    http://www.arin.net/membership/meetings/regional/index.html

Before the ARIN meeting, there will be a one-day DNS operations workshop,
aimed mostly at ccTLD and ISP DNS administrators (on Monday the 21st) and
a one-day Internet exchange point and ISP operations workshop, aimed
mostly at ISP operations and executive folks (on Tuesday the 22nd).

    http://www.pch.net/about/news/events/04-06-21-Dar-es-Salaam/

I hope some of you can make it.  There aren't any attendance fees for any
of the meetings or workshops, and Dar isn't a terribly expensive place.
I know intra-African travel can be pretty prohibitive, though.

                                -Bill