[AfriNIC-rpd] Definitions of LIR versus End User

[Guy Antony Halse]

On Mon 2012-07-23 (15:58), Jackson Muthili wrote:
>    So, since students are not part of the organization of a university. If
>    you give their network device IP address, you are no longer End User.

The argument that "students are not part of the organization of a
university" keeps coming up, and is fundamentally and pedagogically flawed. 
Students *are* part of university; the two are inseparable, since students
are actively involved in the process of knowledge creation.  There is lots
of literature to support this position.  If you want a (probably over
simple) business analogy, think of students as interns rather than customers.

If we keep trying to define a university, this debate will continue to go in
circles.

However, as has been repeatedly pointed out, this isn't the real issue.  The
real issue is about money, plain and simple.  The only reason anyone (myself
included) has been trying to argue whether or not universities are end-users
or LIRs boils down to a difference in fees that's substantive enough to
radically change what universities currently do -- as I've pointed out
previously, it'd completely kill our community outreach activities.

So I'd like to propose that we stop focusing on universities, and instead
focus on non-profit organisations as the general case.  Public universities
are essentially just a special case of those, and we're more likely to find
consensus on the definition of an NPO.

- Guy
-- 
Systems Manager, IT Division, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa
Email: G.Halse at ru.ac.za   Web: http://mombe.org/  IRC: rm-rf at irc.atrum.org
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