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Re: The AfriNIC Business Plan V.0
Brian,
here are my review of the plan based on your observations. in all, i think
its a reasonable effort from the ground and we should support it. try to
adopt a version of it and proceed. plans do get revised.
1. pricing for service: at incubation in ripe, the immediately accessible
lir's will be the existing customers of ripe who are already gaining service
at those prices. hence the wise plan is start with those prices and explore
ways to lower service prices with new membership, efficiency, allocation
strategy etc. seeking grants and support are not a healthy way to develop a
self-sustaining registry. in anycase, i have lobbyied in many fora for help
but i am yet to see the ready funding from the major players you anticipate.
one cannot build a business on verbal commitments. i recommend we try to do
it ourselves and when we get help we do more. the tables show a plan to
modestly source $25K+ a year from multilateral agencies and other donors so
this might not be a big issue ie. if we raise $100K we expand accordingly. i
have a feeling that raising the proposed $25K may not be as easy as it
seems.
Sponsorship
multilateral 20000 30000 35000
OtherS 5000 12000 15000
2. meetings: the plan promised an annual general meeting and one outreach
meeting. that seems enough for year. we may ask the operators if they
planned it yearly or only those meetings in the three years. looking at
their budget there is allocation of $30K+ each year for meetings suggesting
that if all providers paid their own way (or found own funding from other
sources) to meetings there could indeed be > 2 outreach meetings (AGM,
outreach, others) a year.
Yr1 Yr2 Yr3
Office 0 0 0
Connectivity 0 15000 20000
Tech staff 60000 90000 120000
Mgt staff 25000 50000 75000
Meetings 30000 30000 35000
3. colocating with afnog: its agreed that there are other activities aside
afnog for outreach i dont see that these are excluded. afnog is an annual
event and there had been an additional outreach meeting planned. so which
other event would you want the second planned meeting to colocate? give a
suggestion and its inclusive. infact, a meetings committee of the BoT may
recommend those opportune outreach events each year but that doesn't seem to
change the plan fundamentally.
4. train 10 people at lome afnog workshop in march as helpers: i suspect
this is different from LIRs training for members. this sounds an interesting
idea to have a few more potential hostmasters on the continent. you never
know, some could assist with phone coverage during operation, be backups of
sorts or would simply increase the quality of debates on afrinic issues. any
opportunity to training more african in this area is a welcome for me.
afrinic must also have LIR training an usual.
5. select a manager to put it all together: it may be ok to hire a business
manager "into" a business plan. you normally hire a consultant to develop
business plans?
6. process of communication: its well defined at the afrinic website. maybe
there is more to add but should not slow anything down.
regards,
nii
----- Original Message -----
From: Brian Longwe <blongwe at psg.com>
To: Clement Dzidonu <dzidonu at ghana.com>
Cc: <afnog at afnog.org>; <africann at lists.gh>; <afrinic-discuss at afrinic.org>;
<committee at afrinic.org>
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2001 10:20 AM
Subject: Re: The AfriNIC Business Plan V.0
>
> Thanks Clement, for sending this round. I have reserved my comments until
I saw the actual draft, in order to be more constructive.
>
> Further comments follow:
>
> On Fri, 28 Sep 2001 07:59:18 +0000
> Clement Dzidonu <dzidonu at ghana.com> wrote:
>
> > *******************************************************************
> > AfriNIC Corporate Business Plan V.0 (Bare-Bones Version)
> > *******************************************************************
> > ----------------
> > 1.0 Introduction
> > ----------------
> >
> > AfriNIC an Address Registry the overall strategy is to start service
> > with same quality and price as is pertained in other operating RIRs with
> > the
> > intention to explore ways to provide cheaper quality service.
> >
>
> I object to this, the prices that the other RIRs charge are well beyond
the reach of most African ISPs. And unless we want AFRINIC to be an elitist
club, the rates need to be set at a level that reflects the very low income
levels, internet penetration, and gross revenues that characterise the
Internet in Africa.
>
> > In order to allow training and effective initial operations, the
> > incubation
> > of AfriNIC is proposed to start at RIPE headquarters. AfriNIC develops
> > the
> > service for existing LIRs located in the region AfriNIC covers. An
> > important
> > element of the corporate plan to start incubation of AfriNIC technical
> > operations as quickly and earn revenues.
> >
>
> agreed
>
> > The reasons the price needs to stay this high initially are:
> >
> > o it will start in amsterdam, i.e. have the same cost structure
> > o expenses for the crew to visit home, attend ripe meetings, etc
> > o overhead costs, manager, systems, ... amortized over fewer lirs
> > o cost of local african meetings not amortized over rich folk as ripe
> > is
> > o it will need to build a cushion
> >
>
> sorry, this doesn't hold water. We should set the rates at an "affordable"
level and then seek support in the form of grants/support from the
International donor community for the initial/startup phase. Working towards
sustainability within 2-3 years.
>
> We must remain aware that there are significant funds available to support
these kinds of efforts on the African continent. We have already had verbal
commitments of funding from the major players. And please, BoT, don't
pretend that you don't know about this!
>
> >
> > ---------------
> > 2.0 Objectives
> > ---------------
> >
> > Full AfriNIC function of address allocations will be realized in the
> > first
> > three years of operation during which several technical staff would be
> > trained, operations incubated and migrated to destination host country.
> > During this period multilingual training centers for AfriNIC LIRs will
> > be
> > established and a host of helper hostmasters will be trained. Senior
> > technical resources will also be identified and included in the
> > management
> > of AfriNIC as well as their participation in ASO technical policy
> > development.
> >
>
> agreed...in part...the part about choosing/identifying the host country
(and the process of doing this) has been left out (conveniently or not)
>
> >
> > --------------------------
> > 3.0 Financial Plan (3 yrs)
> > --------------------------
> >
> > The revenues will be derived from sponsorships and subscriptions for
> > AfriNIC
> > services. expenditure will comprise technical and administrative staff,
> > office space, equipment and connectivity. AfriNIC is negotiating with
> > ripe on services to be provided during the incubation period. The host
> > country is also expected to provide some of these services at the
> > permanent location of AfriNIC.
> >
>
> ...I'll leave the budgetary/financial projections to those of us who are
mote gifted in that area ;-)
>
> > -----------------------
> > 4.0 Human Resource Plan
> > -----------------------
> >
> > - select a manager to put it all together, negotiate, plan, deal with
> > business issues and organizing the operations in cooperation with ripe.
> >
>
> isn't this what the BoT was doing in appointing a Business Manager ;-)
>
> > - select 2 for training at ripe
>
> 1 - sysadmin/hostmaster
> 1 - webmaster/hostmaster
>
> >
> > - look for opportunities for further training from arin, apnic
> > scholarships
> >
>
> agreed
>
> > - train 10 people at lome afnog workshop in march as helpers
> >
>
> what is the rationale behind this? Other RIR's hold regular training for
their LIRs, why doesn't AFRINIC simply hold LIR training. Speaking of which
I didn't see much in the plan for an outreach programme.
>
> > ------------------------------------
> > 5.0 Marketing and Communication Plan
> > ------------------------------------
> >
> > - target operators
> > - membership drives
> > - adapt services eg smaller allocation policies
> > - meetings
> > o 1XAGM
> > o 1Xmidyear BoT meeting
> > o 1X outreach meetings per year
>
> 1 outreach meeting a year is too little. We should move away from the
meeting mentality and focus on coming up with a detailed outreach plan that
will encompass the entire continent. Simply building a database of operators
or even better, working together with an organisation like afrISPA which
should have a relatively complete list of African ISPs would achieve a lot
more.
>
> Again there is the whole concept of educating the operator community on
why AFRINIC? Why become an LIR? etc...this has to be a focused, ongoing and
consistent effort.
>
>
> > o colocate an AfriNIC meeting with Afnog workshop, more to get
> > consensus
> > among operators on issues and to expose folk in various regions.
>
> agreed, but AfNOG is not the only setting where operators show up.
Representation at all the relevant fora/conferences is key to getting the
right exposure.
>
> >
> > -------------------
> > 6.0 Technical Plan
> > ------------------
> >
> > - setup the services at ripe and do the registrations for african LIR's
> > o january 1, 2002
> >
> > - Start setting up equipment and Internet connection and start
> > migrating
> > the database and services to host country
> > o december 15, 2003
> >
> >
> > -----------------------------
> > 7.0 Policy and Operation Plan
> > -----------------------------
> >
> > - afrinic address policy has been agreed in working groups and will be
> > used
> > in providing services while at ripe. proposals for change in the policy
> > would come from workings groups and consensus of the members.
> >
>
> the process of communication with the members and the stakeholder
community needs to be clearly defined and documented for the public. The
constitution of the working groups needs to be clearly defined and
documented for the public.
>
> > - adopt RIPE Membership Agreement
>
> ? - the RIPE membership agreement is a little *too* restrictive e.g. you
cannot get an AS number unless you are (paid-up) RIPE LIR - that can hinder
the many ongoing initiatives to implement Internet Exchange points across
the continent.
>
> > - Utilize RIPE Membership Charging Scheme
> >
>
> please note, previous comment RE: rates/charges
>
> > - use the agreed afrinic financial model to evolve from the RIPE model
> >
>
> In conclusion I will put in what I regard as some (vital) omissions,
>
> - The ICANN MoU - this *has* to be signed prior to any operations
commencing - part of the signing is the presentation of a detailed plan of
operation (which, I hope this document constitutes) - Andrew, please clarify
if I've misunderstood the process
>
> - Who selects the staff? What is the process? Obviously the BoT appoints
the Manager/Chief Executive. Then the Manager/Chief Executive should be
responsible for carrying out the recruitment exercise. I cannot understate
the importance that this is done in an open and transparent manner. This is
Africa, and we are characteristically prone to "cutting corners" and taking
shortcuts. In realisation of this, let us make double sure that we keep our
noses clean.
>
> - Host country selection: ideally, this should be one of the main jobs
that the Manager/Chief Executive undertakes while the incubation is ongoing.
There are so many factors that influence the choice of host country, as well
as so many different ways to incorporate based on different country's laws.
The ideal fit/solution will take some time to find.
>
> Thanks
>
> Brian Longwe
>
> Brian Longwe | http://www.ispkenya.com/ | Stress is when you wake
> CTO | email:cto at nbi.ispkenya.com| up screaming and you
> ISPKenya Ltd | Tel: +254 (2) 445959 | realize you haven't
> Nairobi, Kenya | Fax: +254 (2) 446772 | fallen asleep yet.
>
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