[AfriNIC-rpd] Definitions of LIR versus End User

[Owen DeLong]

On Jul 23, 2012, at 12:12 AM, Guy Antony Halse wrote:

> On Mon 2012-07-23 (08:16), Jackson Muthili wrote:
>> When looking at students as customers of an university, it does not
>> matter anymore, a university is a LIR! All schools and colleges are
>> LIR!
> 
> This is tangential, but I have a problem with the idea of "looking at
> students as customers of a university".
> 
> The problem is that there are very few (traditional) universities that view
> their students as mere customers.  Anyone who does has a naïve understanding
> of the pedagogy of higher education.
> 

Regardless, from an LIR or not perspective, I find it very hard to distinguish
between the type of service offered to students/faculties residing within
institutional housing and getting their internet access in said housing
from the institution vs. a typical cable MSO or DSL or Metro-E subscriber
in the outside world.

The rest isn't particularly relevant to the discussion of RIR policy.

> So, in our world, where our students are not customers but an inherent part
> of our identity, it becomes easier to argue that a university is not an LIR. 
> However, as Duncan Martin has pointed out, nobody would be debating the
> definitions if it wasn't for fees...

That all sounds wonderful on a billboard or in a brochure, but at the end of
the day, when it comes to the internet access they receive in their
institutional housing, they are giving the university money and the
university is providing access services to connect their residential
networks to the internet.

Owen