Wanted: volunteers with bandwidth/storage to help save climate data

Tue Dec 20 16:08:26 UTC 2016

n Sat, Dec 17, 2016 at 6:15 PM, Doug Barton <dougb at dougbarton.us> wrote:
> On 12/16/2016 1:48 PM, Hugo Slabbert wrote:
>>
>> This started as a technical appeal, but:
>>
>> https://www.nanog.org/list
>>
>> 1. Discussion will focus on Internet operational and technical issues as
>> described in the charter of NANOG.
>
> Hard to see how the OP has anything to do with either of the above.

Actually, it's not that hard ... *if* we can control ourselves from
making them partisan, and focus instead on the operational aspects.
(Admittedly, that's pretty hard!)

The OP's query was a logical combination of two concepts:

- First, from the charter (emphasis mine): "NANOG provides a forum
where people from the network research community, the network operator
community and the network vendor community can come together *to
identify and solve the problems that arise in operating and growing
the Internet*."

- Second, from John Gilmore: "The Net interprets censorship as damage
and routes around it."

The OP appears to be managing risk associated with a (perhaps low)
chance of future censorship. Was the OP asking a straight question
about BGP or SFPs or CDNs? Of course not. But should doctors only talk
about surgical technique -- and not about, say, the need for a living
will? Of course not.

IMO, *operational, politics-free* discussion of items like these would
also be on topic for NANOG:

- Some *operational* workarounds for country-wide blocking of
Facebook, Whatsapp, and Twitter [1], or Signal [2]

- The *operational* challenges of replicating the Internet Archive to Canada [3]

Each operator has to make such risk calculations for themselves. Some
may see the "NA" in NANOG as insurance that such censorship could
never happen here. Others -- especially those who came from other
countries -- may feel differently.

Put another way:

Everyone has a line at which "I don't care what's in the pipes, I just
work here" changes into something more actionable. Being
*operationally* ready for that day seems like a good idea to me.

Royce

1. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/12/20/turkey-blocks-access-facebook-twitter-whatsapp-following-ambassadors/
2. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/12/20/world/middleeast/ap-ml-egypt-app-blocked.html
3. https://blog.archive.org/2016/11/29/help-us-keep-the-archive-free-accessible-and-private/