[AfriNIC-rpd] Open Policy hour for AfriNIC - just an idea.

[Owen DeLong]

On Apr 19, 2012, at 3:15 AM, SM wrote:

> Hi Owen,
> At 21:29 18-04-2012, Owen DeLong wrote:
>> +1 for OPH for AfriNIC. It is a tool that has worked very well in the ARIN
>> region and I think the benefits would also be applicable to AfriNIC.
> 
> It seems to me that the point raised by Maye Diop ( https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/rpd/2012/002077.html ) was misunderstood.  The AfriNIC service region is different from the ARIN service region.  In the ARIN service region, there are approximately two countries.  The AfriNIC service region covers a continent comprising over 50 countries.  There are significant hurdles in the AfriNIC service region (some ARIN folks have been very understanding about that).  Here's a list of people who spoke during the last meeting:
> 

If by approximately 2, you mean more than 20, then, sure. Yes, it's well below 50, but I'm not completely sure that is a particularly relevant detail.

>  Dr Paulos Nyirenda
>  Timothy McGinnis
>  Mukom Akong T
>  Alain Aina
>  Adiel Akplogan
>  Sofia Silva
>  Louise Flynn
>  Hisham Ibrahim
>  Paul Andersen
> 

Wouldn't it be nice to try and encourage more participation by AfriNIC constituents? Of the people on that list, the number that I see which are not AfriNIC staff or representatives of other RIRs is very small. The open policy hour could, actually, help improve that.

> 127 messages have been posted to this list since the beginning of the year by 28 people.  That includes announcements posted by AfriNIC.
> 
> The only benefits I see for Open Policy Hour is to discuss the two recent proposals.
> 

Actually, the open policy hour as implemented in the ARIN region specifically rules out discussing active policy proposals and is, instead, an open forum for people to discuss ideas for future policy proposals and/or things about current policy which are not working for them or which they would like to see modified.

It is an opportunity to educate new policy authors and bring the community together in a less formal discussion to help in formulating new policy proposals.

I do not think that I misunderstood Maye's message, but, rather that the Open Policy Hour could very much help address the issues he raised in his message if attendees chose to participate in it.

Owen