I'm thinking about forming a Cisco Users Group (CUG) in Auckland, and modelling it after other CUGs such as http://www.cisco-users.org/. I know I will have the support of Cisco Systems, and Cisco's distributors. What I'm not sure about is how much interest there is out there for such an idea among the Cisco populous. I'm not aware of anything like this currently in NZ. Is anyone else aware of such a usergroup? I would like the CUG to be for engineering people, not sales people. Based on other CUGs, common things that the CUG would do are: * Technology presentations (e,g. Understanding IPSec, Queueing Options, etc) * Study groups, for people seeking Cisco Qualifications * Solutions that people have found to problems that take more than 30s to describe * Discussion groups (perhaps IP in NZ, peering, APE, etc). * Demos of new products (the kind where your allowed to touch the boxs). I would like the meetings to be once a month, and I'll probably ask a different distributor/Cisco/vendor/reseller to sponsor coke/beer/pizza each time. I can probably manage to do a lot of presentations myself to get things going, but I don't profess to being an expert in every field, and I'd hate to think I was preaching to people who knew more than myself (which I would be if no one offered me any support). So what do you think. Would I be wasting my time? Philip D'Ath, BCMS, MCP, CCNA, CCDA. http://www.ifm.net.nz/
On Sun, Jun 30, 2002 at 01:20:11AM +1200, Philip D'Ath wrote:
I'm thinking about forming a Cisco Users Group (CUG) in Auckland, and modelling it after other CUGs such as http://www.cisco-users.org/.
Just out of interest, if you were going to the effort of organising something like this, why would you make it vendor-specific? Joe - To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz where the body of your message reads: unsubscribe nznog
On Sat, 29 Jun 2002, Joe Abley wrote:
Just out of interest, if you were going to the effort of organising something like this, why would you make it vendor-specific?
There can be only one? -- Juha Saarinen - To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz where the body of your message reads: unsubscribe nznog
On Sat, Jun 29, 2002 at 11:55:18AM -0400, Joe Abley wrote:
Just out of interest, if you were going to the effort of organising something like this, why would you make it vendor-specific?
You do have to wonder. You would probably get a larger turnout if you made it vendor-neutral. Afterall, of all the large core networks deployed in NZ over the last 2 years, lets count how many have been purely Cisco? Being Multivendor is now an advantage. You never know. Not nailing it down to Cisco might mean that peoples horizons get extended a bit. And you have more than one Vendor to hit up for Beer money. I have just as large an expense account as the Cisco engineers, but you're never seeing any of it if it's Cisco only. =) =) =) Then again you might just want this to be a Cisco club. Thats ok, just wanted to show another side. It would be a shame if a country, with as few Network Engineers as NZ, had to have so many little cliques. CUG JUG (Notice the cool beer connotation here =) ) NUG LUG etc, etc, etc Just lets have one, make it the best you can and then everyone benefits from it. Dean (Never say I didn't want to play with the other kids) - To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz where the body of your message reads: unsubscribe nznog
Because I'm passionate about Cisco networking equipment, and I think I can get a good sized crowd coming along. If I made it a NUG (Network Users Group), then it could swell it be something huge. I have good contacts at Cisco, and the Cisco distributors. I can arrange to get demo equipment for a night to show people, and to let people touch. I have Cisco qualifications, and can help to get study groups going. -----Original Message----- On Sun, Jun 30, 2002 at 01:20:11AM +1200, Philip D'Ath wrote:
I'm thinking about forming a Cisco Users Group (CUG) in Auckland, and modelling it after other CUGs such as http://www.cisco-users.org/.
Just out of interest, if you were going to the effort of organising something like this, why would you make it vendor-specific? - To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz where the body of your message reads: unsubscribe nznog
On Saturday, June 29, 2002, at 06:55 , Philip D'Ath wrote:
Because I'm passionate about Cisco networking equipment, and I think I can get a good sized crowd coming along. If I made it a NUG (Network Users Group), then it could swell it be something huge.
I have good contacts at Cisco, and the Cisco distributors. I can arrange to get demo equipment for a night to show people, and to let people touch.
I have Cisco qualifications, and can help to get study groups going.
Ah, ok -- it's a cisco sales channel. Now I understand. - To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz where the body of your message reads: unsubscribe nznog
On Sat, Jun 29, 2002 at 07:24:36PM -0400, Joe Abley wrote:
I have good contacts at Cisco, and the Cisco distributors. I can arrange to get demo equipment for a night to show people, and to let people touch.
I have Cisco qualifications, and can help to get study groups going.
Ah, ok -- it's a cisco sales channel. Now I understand.
Thats ok; We already have a venue where people with MultiVendor networks can get together and talk/learn from each other. It's called ThursdayNightCurry.com =) Seriously though. There seems to be a huge duplication of effort just around the corner here. So now if people want to arrange a Juniper Certification study group then they have to create their own group etc. Such a shame in a country where everyone in the industry almost knows each other by sight. Everyone who has replied in favour of this user group has said that they would like it MultiVendor. I'm pleased with that. It shows that people are seeing whats actually happening in the world of networking in NZ. So good luck with the user group. If you ever want a Juniper involvement then be sure to give me a yell. Dean - To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz where the body of your message reads: unsubscribe nznog
I actually agree the multi-vendor thing is sensible, but there is also value in focussing on each of our equipment at appropriate times. If we have a Cisco night, then we can do it at the Cisco office, we can use all the gear in our labs, have multiple Cisco and Partner engineers there, and can do it at no cost. Next month do it at some other vendor, and the next another, then whoever has the skill and interest can lead it. The only issue is whether other Vendors are welcome to other vendor nights, which I would expect is a no. These shouldn't be selling nights, and should be focussed around the engineering issues the attendees have. NZNOG already provides a vendor neutral environment, and if we choose to have an interworking night, where we play around with some inter-vendor stuff then that's cool too, but we have little room in NZNOG for a group to talk about issues regarding one vendor (other than slamming them for some issue or other). Maybe this would allow a little more useful education in specific areas and technologies of interest to the members. Just an opinion Arron Scott Cisco NZ -----Original Message----- From: owner-nznog(a)list.waikato.ac.nz [mailto:owner-nznog(a)list.waikato.ac.nz]On Behalf Of Dean Pemberton Sent: Sunday, 30 June 2002 10:41 p.m. To: Joe Abley Cc: Philip D'Ath; nznog(a)list.waikato.ac.nz Subject: Re: CUG On Sat, Jun 29, 2002 at 07:24:36PM -0400, Joe Abley wrote:
I have good contacts at Cisco, and the Cisco distributors. I can arrange to get demo equipment for a night to show people, and to let people touch.
I have Cisco qualifications, and can help to get study groups going.
Ah, ok -- it's a cisco sales channel. Now I understand.
Thats ok; We already have a venue where people with MultiVendor networks can get together and talk/learn from each other. It's called ThursdayNightCurry.com =) Seriously though. There seems to be a huge duplication of effort just around the corner here. So now if people want to arrange a Juniper Certification study group then they have to create their own group etc. Such a shame in a country where everyone in the industry almost knows each other by sight. Everyone who has replied in favour of this user group has said that they would like it MultiVendor. I'm pleased with that. It shows that people are seeing whats actually happening in the world of networking in NZ. So good luck with the user group. If you ever want a Juniper involvement then be sure to give me a yell. Dean - To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz where the body of your message reads: unsubscribe nznog - To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz where the body of your message reads: unsubscribe nznog
On Mon, 2002-07-01 at 10:16, Arron Scott wrote:
I actually agree the multi-vendor thing is sensible, but there is also value in focussing on each of our equipment at appropriate times. If we have a Cisco night, then we can do it at the Cisco office, we can use all the gear in our labs, have multiple Cisco and Partner engineers there, and can do it at no cost.
You're right. Infact it would be hard to do it any other way. But.... I do have a point here - read on.
Next month do it at some other vendor, and the next another, then whoever has the skill and interest can lead it. The only issue is whether other Vendors are welcome to other vendor nights, which I would expect is a no.
Why on earth not? I know that Cisco in the past has had a closed door approach to this sort of thing. But remember that this is not a sales opportunity. There should be no reason why other vendors should not attend. Infact I'd love to have an opportunity to learn more about the latest Cisco gear, and I'd certainly invite you to any VendorX presentation I was giving.
These shouldn't be selling nights, and should be focussed around the engineering issues the attendees have.
All the more reason why people should not be excluded. If there was a night at the Cisco offices, then I'm hardly going to be standing up professing to know more about Cisco routers am I. Nor am I going to be standing there all night saying "Oh but VendorX does it this way" Because that would make me look like a Moron(tm). You act like a guest in someone elses house, not like a pest.
NZNOG already provides a vendor neutral environment, and if we choose to have an interworking night, where we play around with some inter-vendor stuff then that's cool too, but we have little room in NZNOG for a group to talk about issues regarding one vendor (other than slamming them for some issue or other). Maybe this would allow a little more useful education in specific areas and technologies of interest to the members.
No one was talking about using a mailing list to facilitate these discussions. That would just be impractical. And this brings me to my point. If you call this thing the Cisco User Group, with an agenda to provide Cisco support/discussion and Cisco cert study, then thats all it will ever be. You will never be able to get useful content from any other vendor, no matter how much interest there is in the membership. This will force people to become members of a multiple number of groups. I suggest that you call it the Network Users Group, or something similar. And have the mandate to be MultiVendor. You can then have Cisco sponsor every meeting if thats what the members want. But at least you will be able to request help from other vendors should your members be interested in their equipment. Narrowing the focus is really doing your members a disservice. It would be like an IT consulting company who only offered solutions as long as they were from a single vendor, ignoring any other solution. You should offer your clients/members the freedom to choose. Remember - every reply has said MultiVendor is a good thing. At some stage in the future, they are going to want to look at another box. Dean - To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz where the body of your message reads: unsubscribe nznog
As a closet engineer, my only value in the process is showing up with the beer. Which as far as I can garner from this list, appears to have some value, unless you live in Canada..... 2 speights worth..... R Arron Scott wrote:
I actually agree the multi-vendor thing is sensible, but there is also value in focussing on each of our equipment at appropriate times. If we have a Cisco night, then we can do it at the Cisco office, we can use all the gear in our labs, have multiple Cisco and Partner engineers there, and can do it at no cost.
Next month do it at some other vendor, and the next another, then whoever has the skill and interest can lead it. The only issue is whether other Vendors are welcome to other vendor nights, which I would expect is a no.
These shouldn't be selling nights, and should be focussed around the engineering issues the attendees have.
NZNOG already provides a vendor neutral environment, and if we choose to have an interworking night, where we play around with some inter-vendor stuff then that's cool too, but we have little room in NZNOG for a group to talk about issues regarding one vendor (other than slamming them for some issue or other). Maybe this would allow a little more useful education in specific areas and technologies of interest to the members.
Just an opinion Arron Scott Cisco NZ
-----Original Message----- From: owner-nznog(a)list.waikato.ac.nz [mailto:owner-nznog(a)list.waikato.ac.nz]On Behalf Of Dean Pemberton Sent: Sunday, 30 June 2002 10:41 p.m. To: Joe Abley Cc: Philip D'Ath; nznog(a)list.waikato.ac.nz Subject: Re: CUG
On Sat, Jun 29, 2002 at 07:24:36PM -0400, Joe Abley wrote:
I have good contacts at Cisco, and the Cisco distributors. I can arrange to get demo equipment for a night to show people, and to let people touch.
I have Cisco qualifications, and can help to get study groups going.
Ah, ok -- it's a cisco sales channel. Now I understand.
Thats ok;
We already have a venue where people with MultiVendor networks can get together and talk/learn from each other.
It's called ThursdayNightCurry.com =)
Seriously though.
There seems to be a huge duplication of effort just around the corner here. So now if people want to arrange a Juniper Certification study group then they have to create their own group etc. Such a shame in a country where everyone in the industry almost knows each other by sight.
Everyone who has replied in favour of this user group has said that they would like it MultiVendor. I'm pleased with that. It shows that people are seeing whats actually happening in the world of networking in NZ.
So good luck with the user group. If you ever want a Juniper involvement then be sure to give me a yell.
Dean - To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz where the body of your message reads: unsubscribe nznog
- To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz where the body of your message reads: unsubscribe nznog
-- \_ Roger De Salis rdesalis(a)cisco.com
On Mon, 1 Jul 2002, Roger De Salis wrote:
As a closet engineer, my only value in the process is showing up with the beer. Which as far as I can garner from this list, appears to have some value, unless you live in Canada.....
I find it difficult to believe that if you showed up in Canada with beer that Joe would turn you away. - To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz where the body of your message reads: unsubscribe nznog
On Sunday, June 30, 2002, at 07:21 , Andy Linton wrote:
On Mon, 1 Jul 2002, Roger De Salis wrote:
As a closet engineer, my only value in the process is showing up with the beer. Which as far as I can garner from this list, appears to have some value, unless you live in Canada.....
I find it difficult to believe that if you showed up in Canada with beer that Joe would turn you away.
As he should surely know, Roger is very welcome to visit any time, with beer or without :) - To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz where the body of your message reads: unsubscribe nznog
On Sun, 30 Jun 2002, Philip D'Ath wrote:
Because I'm passionate about Cisco networking equipment, and I think I can get a good sized crowd coming along. If I made it a NUG (Network Users Group), then it could swell it be something huge.
And the problem being? Chris -- - To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz where the body of your message reads: unsubscribe nznog
At 11:37 30/06/2002 +1200, you wrote:
On Sun, 30 Jun 2002, Philip D'Ath wrote:
Because I'm passionate about Cisco networking equipment, and I think I can get a good sized crowd coming along. If I made it a NUG (Network Users Group), then it could swell it be something huge.
And the problem being?
He doesnt want to bite off more than he can chew ? ;) Im definately interested in upskilling in this area so Id be in - but id be somewhat cautious if the people coordinating an event were so pro-one-manufacturer that they wound up being anti-the-others, you end up with a rather narrow field of expertise... (Shadows of MCSE? Or is that inappropriate? :P) Im all for it, but id prefer a vendor-neutral concept. Of course theres no reason why Cisco cant feature in a big way - but lets not close the idea off to other vendors. Otherwise anyone who wishes to retain a broader view, needs to find multiple training/user group sources instead of just one. (Slackware Users Group? Debian Users Group? Instead of Linux Users Group? I know where id prefer to be.) - To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz where the body of your message reads: unsubscribe nznog
Well regardless of what it maybe.... I register my interest. :o) Felix - To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz where the body of your message reads: unsubscribe nznog
Exactly. Organising meetings for a group of 20 is easier. I can find venues, speakers and refreshments easier. With a group of 50, I'd probably have to hire a venue, pay people for presentations, and charge people to attend. I'd prefer not to involve money at this stage. If after 3 to 6 months it was a roaring success, and people wanted more, and were prepared to pay a membership fee, then we could look at it. -----Original Message-----
Because I'm passionate about Cisco networking equipment, and I think I can get a good sized crowd coming along. If I made it a NUG (Network Users Group), then it could swell
it
be something huge.
And the problem being?
He doesnt want to bite off more than he can chew ? ;) - To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz where the body of your message reads: unsubscribe nznog
Because I'm passionate about Cisco networking equipment, and I think I can get a good sized crowd coming along. If I made it a NUG (Network Users Group), then it could swell
it
be something huge. ... Im definately interested in upskilling in this area so Id be in - but id be somewhat cautious if the people coordinating an event were so
The problem I face is that I would need to invest a lot of time initially to make it a success. Once it is running, other people would probably step forward to assist. Ideally SIGs (special interest groups) would form off the main club. I have a lot of experience with Cisco equipment, so I can provide the skills required to make it work. I can't make it happen if people bring along questions about 5 different vendors equipment. -----Original Message----- pro-one-manufacturer that they wound up being anti-the-others, you end up with a rather narrow field of expertise... (Shadows of MCSE? Or is that inappropriate? :P) Im all for it, but id prefer a vendor-neutral concept. Of course theres no reason why Cisco cant feature in a big way - but lets not close the idea off to other vendors. Otherwise anyone who wishes to retain a broader view, needs to find multiple training/user group sources instead of just one. - To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz where the body of your message reads: unsubscribe nznog
On Sun, 30 Jun 2002, Philip D'Ath wrote:
I would like the CUG to be for engineering people, not sales people.
So Roger de can't join? ;-)
I would like the meetings to be once a month, and I'll probably ask a different distributor/Cisco/vendor/reseller to sponsor coke/beer/pizza each time.
Ooohhh...
I can probably manage to do a lot of presentations myself to get things going, but I don't profess to being an expert in every field, and I'd hate to think I was preaching to people who knew more than myself (which I would be if no one offered me any support).
So what do you think. Would I be wasting my time?
I'd be interested. -- Juha Saarinen - To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz where the body of your message reads: unsubscribe nznog
One idea is to have a discussion session (BOF) at the uniforum conference if you are going to it and see whether there's others of like mind there If you want such a thing, contact Martin Kealey to be slotted in regards Lin On Sun, 30 Jun 2002, Philip D'Ath wrote:
I'm thinking about forming a Cisco Users Group (CUG) in Auckland, and modelling it after other CUGs such as http://www.cisco-users.org/. I know I will have the support of Cisco Systems, and Cisco's distributors. What I'm not sure about is how much interest there is out there for such an idea among the Cisco populous.
I'm not aware of anything like this currently in NZ. Is anyone else aware of such a usergroup?
I would like the CUG to be for engineering people, not sales people. Based on other CUGs, common things that the CUG would do are: * Technology presentations (e,g. Understanding IPSec, Queueing Options, etc) * Study groups, for people seeking Cisco Qualifications * Solutions that people have found to problems that take more than 30s to describe * Discussion groups (perhaps IP in NZ, peering, APE, etc). * Demos of new products (the kind where your allowed to touch the boxs).
I would like the meetings to be once a month, and I'll probably ask a different distributor/Cisco/vendor/reseller to sponsor coke/beer/pizza each time.
I can probably manage to do a lot of presentations myself to get things going, but I don't profess to being an expert in every field, and I'd hate to think I was preaching to people who knew more than myself (which I would be if no one offered me any support).
So what do you think. Would I be wasting my time?
Philip D'Ath, BCMS, MCP, CCNA, CCDA. http://www.ifm.net.nz/
- To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz where the body of your message reads: unsubscribe nznog
participants (11)
-
Andy Linton -
Arron Scott -
Chris Hellberg -
Dean Pemberton -
Felix Tsang -
Joe Abley -
Juha Saarinen -
Lin Nah -
Mark Foster -
Philip D'Ath -
Roger De Salis