I want to keep open - _if people are interested_ - the option of doing things which would not be appropriate for the mailing list. Most obviously, tutorials at a level too introductory for the content to belong here. Whether that's "What is BGP and why is it not used in Chinese cooking?" or whatever.

All I'm suggesting is that before you do the Field of Dreams thing is get some sort of agenda together and float it past this list. If you organise a conference (and I'd really rather it was a meeting) called the NZNOG 'thingy', book a venue, get the catering arranged, arrange a conference dinner and then hope to get a good tecnical program, you may find that "they don't come". The idea of an NZNOG face to face in itself isn't worth pursuing unless there's a strong technical program that's worth organising it for.

I'm not sure that the format follows the programme. For one thing, we do have the option of bringing in an international speaker of some stature, but doing that would have an effect on the cost. We have had

Do we 'need' to bring in an international speaker and put up the cost? Will an overseas speaker be able to talk specifics about the issues facing NZ operators?

nine offers so far to be or provide speakers. I believe that what we do about that number depends on the format chosen - one day one stream will not allow that many. (That's one reason I haven't yet got back to those people.) Choosing a more ambitious style of event allows (requires?) us more actively to solicit contributions. So decisions about the format may well drive decisions about the content.

I've offered to speak. I'll give up some of my time to contribute to the success of the venture but I really want there to be a quality agenda first and foremost to make it worth my while turning up.

More complex still, the decision about whether to run a demo network or how large it should be is both a format and a content decision. It has a lot to do with venue, too.

I don't see how with the very limited resources NZNOG has available you build a network that's useful for demo purposes. The meeting needs an operational wireless network that attendees can use to send/recv email. There's an opportunity for a vendor of radio kit here to be on hand with a box of PC cards and a credit card zapper offering a 'rent to buy' option on the cards.

So far, what feedback to the list there has been on format suggests that we're looking for a two-day residential event. If that is some sort of consensus, then I agree that it's time to think about content, but I'd like a more general organising group rather than merely a program committee, since decisions do need to be made about things like the venue and the price. Right now, I'd like more feedback to allow us to judge whether that is indeed a consensus view.

Well if that's the consensus view that what we want is a two-day residential event and given Roger de Salis's insights into organising something of this scale for Uniforum then we'll be lucky to get it running until the end of the year. If that's the case why don't we all agree to go to the Uniforum conference in July - they've already done the work setting all that up. If enough of us agree to go, we can arrange with them to provide a separate room to run a Network stream in and piggy back on everything they've already organised. That way we get to focus on content. - To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz where the body of your message reads: unsubscribe nznog