AfNOG-9 and AfriNIC-8: Meetings May 24 - June 6, 2008

The African Network Operators' Group (AfNOG) and the African Network Information Centre (AfriNIC) are pleased to announce that the 9th AfNOG Meeting and the AfriNIC-8 Meeting will be held in Rabat, Morocco, in May/June 2008.

About the Entire Event

AfNOG and AfriNIC are jointly organizing a two-week event that includes the AfNOG Workshop on Network Technology (offering advanced training in a week-long hands-on workshop), several full-day Advanced Tutorials, a one-day AfNOG Meeting, and a two-day AfriNIC Meeting.

In addition, several side meetings and workshops will be hosted in collaboration with other organizations such as the AAU and ISOC.

Additional information about the event may be found at http://www.afnog.org/afnog2008/ and http://www.afrinic.net/meeting/.

Click on linked items below for detailed schedules.

Timetable

Unix Boot Camp 24 - 25 May 2008 (Saturday - Sunday)
AfNOG Workshop 26 - 30 May 2008 (Monday - Friday)
AfriNIC IPv6 Workshop 31 May - 1 June 2008 (Saturday - Sunday)
AfREN Meeting 31 May - 1 June 2008 (Saturday - Sunday)
AfNOG Tutorials 1 - 2 June 2008 (Sunday - Monday)
AfriNIC LIR Workshop 2 June 2008 (Monday)
AfNOG Meeting 3 June 2008 (Tuesday)
AfriNIC-8 Meeting 4 - 6 June 2008 (Wednesday - Friday)
Africa INET Day 6 June 2008 (Friday)

Venue

The Workshop, Tutorials, AfREN Forum, IPv6, LIR (24 May - 2nd June 2008) will be held at Mohammadia Engineering Institute, Rabat (http://www.emi.ac.ma). All Conferences (3 - 6 June 2008) will be held at the Golden Tulip Farah, Rabat, Morocco (http://www.goldentulipfarahrabat.com).

Hotel & Conferences

GOLDEN TULIP FARAH, Rabat has been selected as the hotel for AfriNIC-8/AfNOG 2008 Event. Rooms have also been blocked for meeting attendees on first come first served basis.

The Golden Tulip Hotel is located near the city centre in Rabat and about 3 km from the train station. It has 185 rooms and 8 suites equipped with all the essential elements. The hotel offers many services including a business center a fitness club hairdressing salons 3 restaurants with various specialities.

Golden Tulip is close to Mohamed V museum, Hassan tower and about 3 km from the train station.

Further information on the hotel is at http://www.goldentulipfarahrabat.com

About AfNOG

AfNOG (see <http://www.afnog.org/>) is a forum for cooperation and the exchange of technical information between operators of Internet-connected networks in Africa. AfNOG has organized an event like this one every year since 2000.

About AfriNIC

AfriNIC (see <http://www.afrinic.net/>) is a Regional Internet Registry (RIR), responsible for Internet Number resources Mangement in the Africa region. AfriNIC organizes two Public Policy meetings every year (see < http://www.afrinic.net/meeting/>).

AfNOG Workshop on Network Technology

The AfNOG Workshop on Network Technology aims to offer advanced training to people who are in the process of developing and enhancing an Internet-connected network with regional and international connectivity. The target audience includes senior and mid-level technical staff of commercial Internet service providers (ISPs), academic networks, government networks, or NGO networks.

This workshop builds on the experience of previous AfNOG workshops held annually from 2000 to 2007 in eight different African countries, and also the Internet Society's INET workshops, held annually from 1993 to 2000 at eight locations around the world. The workshop's instructors are an international team with many years of experience operating large networks and teaching about network operations.

The workshop is divided into four parallel tracks:

  • SA-E - Unix System Administration (in English), focused on using a Unix-like operating system as a platform for delivery of Internet services.
  • SS-E - Scalable Internet Services (in English), focused on the design and operation of email, web, and other Internet services, in ways that can scale to handle large numbers of end users.
  • SI-E - Scalable Network Infrastructure (in English), focused on the design and operation of networks using routers and switches, in ways that can scale to handle large numbers of interconnected sites.
  • SI-F - Infrastructure Reseaux IP (en francais), similar to track E2, but given in French.
Further information and application forms for the workshop are available at <http://www.afnog.org/afnog2008/workshop/>

AfREN Meeting

The Africa Research and Education Networking community will be holding a two-day meeting on 31 May and 1 June. The meeting will discuss issues of interest to the NREN community such as coordination on activites in the region, advocacy, bandwidth consortia, regional RENs etc.

For additional information about AfREN 2008 see: <http://www.aau.org/renu/ws/afren08/intro.htm>

AfNOG Tutorials

AfNOG will offer 1 to 2 full-day(s) tutorials on advanced topics.

Tutorials take place in a classroom-style environment, and may include a hands-on practical component. Tutorials are non-commercial in nature, and most are technically oriented. They are intended to offer advanced training on technology already deployed or soon to be deployed on networking and related services provisioning for ISP operations.

For additional information and the Tutorial schedule see: <http://www.afnog.org/afnog2008/tutorial/>

9th AfNOG Meeting

The 9th AfNOG meeting will be held in Rabat, Morocco, on 3 June 2008. AfNOG conferences provide a forum for the coordination and dissemination of technical information related to backbone/enterprise networking technologies and operational practices. The meetings are informal, with an emphasis on relevance to current and future African backbone engineering practices. The AfNOG 2007 conference in Abuja, Nigeria, drew over 165 participants, mainly consisting of network engineering staff from national service providers, and members of the research and education community.

For additional information and the Conference schedule see: <http://www.afnog.org/afnog2008/conference/>

AfriNIC-8 Meeting

The AfriNIC-8 meeting will be held in Rabat, Morocco, on 4 and 5 June 2008. AfriNIC Meetings are open to everyone and provide an excellent opportunity to take part in Internet policy discussions. These policies, which describe how Internet Number Resources should be managed and distributed, are developed by the community. The meeting will include tutorials, presentations, update on the various working groups and the AfriNIC Public Policy Meeting. The two day meeting will be preceeded by a two-day IPv6 training. The meeting will focus on the IPv6 protocol and its deployment, especially in Africa and the issue of the exhaustion of the IPv4 pool of address space. There will be an opportunity to discuss the challenges which our region will be facing with the exhaustion.

Further information is available at <http://www.afrinic.net/meeting/>.

ISOC - INET Africa Conference

The Internet Society will be organizing an INET Africa Conference on 6 June 2008 in conjunction with the AfriNIC 8 and AfNOG 9 meetings in Rabat, Morocco. This years INET day theme is "*African Interconnection - The value proposition*". It will discuss about the situation of the Internet Interconnection in Africa, the challenges as well as the solutions, including Internet Exchange Points.

The meeting agenda is available at <http://www.isoc.org/isoc/conferences/inet/08/>

Visa Requirements

The following countries do not need a visa for visits of up to 90 days.

Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Congo (Brazzaville), Côte.d'ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guinea, Hong-kong(30 days), Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Latvia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mali, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, Niger, Norway, Oman, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Singapore (30 days), Slovaquie, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Philippines, The United Kingdom, The United States of America, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, New Zealand.

All other visitors must apply for a visa. For more information, please see http://arabwebsite.com/moroccanembassiesintheworld.htm or http://www.learn4good.com/travel/morocco_visa.htm

Health

There are no special inoculations needed for a trip to Morocco; however, for those who wish to be on the safe side you might want to consider vaccinations for hepatitis A and rabies. Malaria is present in the coastal areas in the north but is not a major problem. Consult with a doctor and take anti-malarial medication if you are concerned.

Diarrhoea is one of the most common complaints for visitors, but a trip to the local pharmacy will usually suffice. Bottled water is widely available everywhere so avoid drinking tap water (check that the cap is sealed). Cooked food is usually safe to eat but make sure it is prepared after you order it. Don't eat fruit or vegetables that you can't peel.

Toilets often don't have toilet paper so it's a good idea to keep some with you. Heatstroke and dehydration is another potential concern, especially inland around the desert areas. Make sure you consume plenty of water and apply sunscreen frequently.

Airport

Transportation: from the airport, the only way to get to the city centre is by grand taxis, which will be readily waiting for you in front of the terminal. Make sure your driver activates their meter though, as most of them will try to get cheeky by telling you the fare when you are already in front of your hotel's door.