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North American Network Operators Group Date Prev | Date Next | Date Index | Thread Index | Author Index | Historical Re: My InfoWorld Column About NANOG
So, Mr. Metcalfe: Is it the case that anyone who disagrees with you is a flamer? Tisk tisk.... DT On Fri, 21 Jun 1996, Bob Metcalfe wrote: > > Dear NANOG List, > > Thanks for your critiques of my NANOG meeting critique column in InfoWorld. > > Below is a copy of a draft (before editing) of the offending column, just > in case some of you have been reading only one another's critiques instead > of the column itself. Of course I stand by it. > > Some of you guys/gals are very good at ad hominem attacks. Flaming is > alive and well on the Internet. Tisk tisk. But then I asked for it. > Anyway, the attention is flattering. Thank you. > > A few of you missed one point at least. I am NOT suggesting that any of > YOU start wearing suits, especially if you find them uncomfortable, or that > they make a statement you are not willing to make -- none of that, no -- > good engineers are too valuable to overdress. I am suggesting that more of > the kind of people who ALREADY wear suits should start paying attention to > the important work NANOG is attempting and start attending your meetings so > they can pitch in on the non-engineering aspects of operating the Internet. > Is that clearer now? > > By the way, there are reports from two days ago that 400,000 people lost > their Internet access for 13 hours. Sounds like an outage approaching > "collapse." Was that just a Netcom thing that NANOG has no interest in? > Netcom is not talking very much about what happened. Any clues/facts out > there? Were any NAPs involved? > > /Bob Metcalfe, InfoWorld > > ---------------------- > > InfoWorld / From the Ether / Bob Metcalfe > > NANOG Meeting Column > > DRAFT TWO > > The North American Network Operations Group (NANOG) remains our best bet > for managing through the Internet's coming collapses. Problem is, like the > Internet, NANOG itself is struggling to scale up. > I've just been among the 350 mostly engineers attending NANOG's May > meeting at George Washington University. It's clear now, even if they hate > the idea, that if NANOG is to lead us toward an industrial-strength > Internet, then it must now urgently attract the active participation of > many more men and women who routinely wear suits. > Here, on April Fool's Day, I nominated NANOG as that organization best > positioned to lift the Internet out of its current, disfunctional > operations anarchy. I then incorrectly identified NANOG as part of the > Internet Society's Internet Engineering and Planning Group (IEPG), a > seemingly defunct sister of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). > Turns out I was wrong about what I'd read on the Web at > http://info.isoc.org:80/adopsec. > For the next two weeks postings on NANOG's message archive flamed me > for not knowing that NANOG is moderated by the Merit Network at the > University of Michigan (http://www.merit.edu). NANOG, I was told, has > nothing to do with the Internet Society. And further, the Internet Society > has nothing to do anymore with the IETF. > Checking with a pal at the Society, I was told that IETF has been > arguing about disassociating from the Internet Society, and, oh by the way, > Merit is "irrelevant." > Yes, I found pettiness and bureaucratic infighting among the groups I > had hoped would be pulling the Internet together. I stand corrected, but > not reassured. > Back at NANOG, I was surrounded by people whose life is about "running > code." I twiddled as these mostly engineers, unaccustomed as they are to > public speaking, stood up one by one in front of 350 people without having > ever tried their slides on GWU's projection system. We all waited while > Windows booted. If you have running code, it seems, you don't have to > respect your audience by checking your slides at least once in advance. Or > by wearing a suit. > NANOG's opening presentations on "The State of the Internet" were given > by the four Network Access Points (NAPs). Pacific Bell > (http://www.PacBell.COM/Products/NAP), Sprint > (http://www.sprintlink.net/SPLK/HB21.html), Ameritech > (http://www.ameritech.com/products/data/nap), and MFS Datanet > (http://www.mfsdatanet.com/) each showed how very connected they are to > various of the big Internet Service Providers (ISPs). They are installing > new equipment to meet ramping demand, are operating well below capacity, > and are not losing even a single Internet packet ever, they said. > Then came the three large Network Service Providers (NSPs). Sprint, > ANS (http://www.ans.net), and MCI (http://www.mci.com/resources) each > showed, after some Macintosh booting, that they are installing new > equipment to meet ramping demand, are operating well below capacity, and > are not losing even a single Internet packet ever, they said. > Then the fit hit the shan. Various earnest young speakers from Merit > stood up one by one to report "alarming" statistics from the Internet -- > rapidly increasing packet loss rates and routing instabilities > (http://nic.merit.edu/routing.arbiter/RA/statistics). They asked the NAPs > and NSPs, "Where are so many packets being lost?" > "Somewhere else," came the denial. > Then followed an afternoon and another morning of pleadings. For > standards on traffic measurements. For regular outage reporting. For > cooperation on gathering topological information to use in Internet > operations management. For streamlining multilateral "peering agreements" > among ISPs. For systematic use of an Internet Routing Registry. And, from > an actual Internet user, pleadings for cooperation on end-to-end service > measurements. > Sadly, there was nobody at NANOG with the organizational sophistication > to grab hold of these pleadings and accelerate them toward action. So, > hey, I've got an idea, let's ask the business executives to whom current > attendees of NANOG report to buy some T-shirts and take over. The Internet > needs more than running code. > Now, what would happen if some of NANOG's big university, NAP, and NSP > regulars showed up among the many small commercial ISPs expected August > 8-10 at ONE ISPCON in San Francisco? I'll be summarizing there. See > www.boardwatch.com or call 800-933-6038. > > END > > > ______________________________________________ > ______________________________________________ > > Dr. Robert M. ("Bob") Metcalfe > Executive Correspondent, InfoWorld and > VP Technology, International Data Group > > Internet Messages: [email protected] > Voice Messages: 617-534-1215 > > Conference Chairman for > ACM97: The Next 50 Years of Computing > San Jose Convention Center > March 1-5, 1997 > ______________________________________________ > ______________________________________________ > > > > > > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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