[bcc'd to nanog@nanog.org]
Call for Community Participation
The NANOG Steering Committee is interested in hearing feedback from
the community about the following topic. Private comments may be sent
to steering@nanog.org. Public discussion is encouraged, and should
take place on the nanog-futures mailing list.
For information about subscription to the nanog-futures mailing list,
see <http://www.nanog.org/email.html>.
Commentary on Current Events on the NANOG List
Many threads on NANOG begin with a bare reference to some article
published elsewhere (e.g. a blog, or a news organisation web site).
While some of these threads have undoubted relevance to network
operations, others are certainly off-topic.
Some participants of the NANOG list have expressed frustration at the
perceived off-topic chatter on the list resulting from these threads.
Other participants have commented that they welcome the content.
There is no clear majority opinion known to the NANOG Steering
Committee.
A common medium for distribution of information such as those
contained in these NANOG threads is the weblog. Blogs have
established mechanisms for facilitating follow-up commentary from
readers, and are also readily syndicated through RSS or e-mail.
Two notable such blogs already exist:
Fergie's Tech Blog <http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/>, an individual
initiative of long-time NANOG contributor Paul Fergusson
Merit's SlashNOG <http://slashnog.merit.edu/>, a proof-of-concept
discussion forum styled after Slashdot
The NANOG Steering Committee is interested in hearing the opinions of
the community on this topic. For example:
1. Should current events/news bulletin-style threads be declared
universally off-topic for the NANOG mailing list?
2. Should NANOG encourage, facilitate, or otherwise support a blog or
similar forum for this content?
Please follow-up to the nanog-futures mailing list <http://
www.nanog.org/email.html> or send private commentary to the NANOG
Steering Committee at <steering@nanog.org>.
Joe Abley
(for the NANOG SC)