Opinions wanted re blog-style NANOG list content

Thu Sep 8 07:37:55 UTC 2005

[bcc'd to nanog at 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 at 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 at nanog.org>.

Joe Abley
(for the NANOG SC)