[sdnog] Utilizing Sudan' Resources

[Nishal Goburdhan]

Samir S. Omer wrote:
> Dear Gael
> 
> good to hear from you again.
> 
> I agree with you, unless we can bring together all the stakeholders
> and have an open inclusive dialogue, we cannot achieve what we are
> aiming for, that should be our focus.

yes, and no.
in as much as you want to engage stakeholders, you also want to show that you know what you are doing, and can prove it.  since this is an operator's list, i'll restrict myself to talking about operator stuff only, but, simple things like :
* where can i find metrics to show me network performance for the different ISPs ?
* where can i find smart, local talent that can help me with project X
* where can i discuss interesting things on technology Y
...these are key things that you - technical people - can fix without "engaging stakeholders".

not everything comes from policy;  and you might be pleasantly surprised to find that if you can show that you are doing something properly, and can show it, that policy folk might be inclined to leave you alone to continue to do this (my IXPs in ZA are a great example of this).

i liked your earlier post about BGP tools.  wouldn't it be great if you could get all the ISPs to do something simple like that?


> I like the idea of starting
> with projects such as the mirroring of GNU/Linux distribution, we
> could also reach out to Google for hosting a local mirror

my suggestion to you would be to focus on content creation.  not consumption. that's the path to sustainability.
hosting FOSS mirrors are good, not because you have the content locally, but because using FOSS causes folks to think more about creating and contributing.  

suggestion: at the upcoming sdnog, have a workshop on content creation, using FOSS tools.

--n.