[afnog] Introducing Southern Africa Network Operators Group - SAFNOG

[Kevin Chege]

Some clarifications are in order and maybe also some reasons why localisation is a good thing for AfNOG. Firstly, I am helping SAFNOG in a volunteer capacity hoping to see another NOG in Africa localise the work that goes on at AfNOG and improve AfNOG further. Let me also share a good example of how localisation has helped AfNOG:

As you may all know, the Track Zero course (basic Unix/Linux) used to be offered at the main AfNOG meeting until 2008. This was then localized and offered at the country level via several training workshops in a training program titled "AfNOG Localization" organised by the in country NOGs and other stand alone workshops. These trainings were mainly supported by NSRC and ISOC. Since 2008, more than 1,000 students have been trained on basic Unix via the NOGs and localisation workshops. These are 1,000 students who would have been competing for the limited slots at AfNOG (AfNOG per year does 100-200 trainees per year). Also with the Track Zero being moved out, the trainers could cover something a bit more advanced/challenging and so a new topic was introduced at the main AfNOG training - Network Monitoring and Management NM-E/F.
The students who went through the localized NOG trainings were/are able to apply for AfNOG on the basis of having done the foundation course and therefore applied (and continue to apply) for the more advanced courses like SS-E and NM-E.
So these localisation efforts do not weaken AfNOG in any way rather they make AfNOG stronger. They help increase AfNOG's impact and visibility in the region (materials used in the workshops are branded AfNOG from here http://ws.afnog.org), increase capacity levels in Africa, allow AfNOGs reach to scale to a wider audience (e.g. 1,000 students via localisation plus those who went to the yearly AfNOG meeting since 2008) , and allow AfNOG to offer courses catering to a better trained student/trainee with more demands. NOGs also allow more focus on topics that would be relevant in a specific region but not relevant to everyone.

SAFNOG is currently being supported by volunteers and not any entity/company/organization as was previously clarified by Nishal and Mark and is only conferences and discussion level topics. Hope that makes it clearer

Regards


Kevin


From: Seun Ojedeji <seun.ojedeji at gmail.com<mailto:seun.ojedeji at gmail.com>>
Date: Tuesday, January 28, 2014 8:23 PM
To: Mark Tinka <mark.tinka at seacom.mu<mailto:mark.tinka at seacom.mu>>
Cc: Nishal Goburdhan <ndg at ieee.org<mailto:ndg at ieee.org>>, "safnog at safnog.org<mailto:safnog at safnog.org>" <safnog at safnog.org<mailto:safnog at safnog.org>>, "afnog at afnog.org<mailto:afnog at afnog.org>" <afnog at afnog.org<mailto:afnog at afnog.org>>
Subject: Re: [afnog] Introducing Southern Africa Network Operators Group - SAFNOG


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On 28 Jan 2014 16:48, "Mark Tinka" <mark.tinka at seacom.mu<mailto:mark.tinka at seacom.mu>> wrote:
>
> On Tuesday, January 28, 2014 05:32:14 PM Seun Ojedeji wrote:
>
> > Well SANOG will also grow to that, just that it would
> > have been more productive if it were expanding locally.
>
> Just to be pedantic, it is SAFNOG.
>
Yeah I meant SAFNOG apologies for forgetting the "F"

>
> Also, SAFNOG will remain a pure conference-only event,
> lasting 2x to 3x days, and no longer.
>
Hmmm...pure conference for a technical group(with no tutorial). I look forward to quote you on this in future ;) although that day may come later especially if there is enough funding/resources sources at the moment.

> Hope this clarifies.
>
Time will tell ;)

Cheers!
> Cheers,
>
> Mark.
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