<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=iso-8859-1"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><blockquote type="cite"><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; font-size: 14px; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "><span id="OLK_SRC_BODY_SECTION"><div class="hmmessage"><div dir="ltr">3. in many other cases we have been addressing HEI together with Research Institutes (RI), example RENs e.g TERNET in .TZ, why on this discussion are we pulling out HEI from the combined HEI and RI category ? <br></div></div></span><div><br></div><div>Firstly I don't think we are really pulling HEI's out from a collective, as the current policies actually refer to academic institutions and if you are referring to the fee discounts, applied equally to individual institutions and NREN's, both LIR's and PI users. This policy focuses on end users for a few reasons as I see it. Firstly, before an LIR can allocate end user space, it needs to be able to see that the end user can justify that space requirement. While there are some NREN's that are in a position to evaluate such requests (KENET, TENET as examples, but these are not the only one), many of the NREN's are still fledgling organisations and the evaluation of such requests would be challenging. Secondly, if you look at the audit reports against modern universities from external auditors, more and more one of the requirements is backup of critical systems (I can demonstrate at least 3 audit reports where the auditors have demanded offsite hot standby on critical IT systems). The next evolution of this and we're already seeing it, is backup Internet connectivity from a second provider, due to the criticality of the service. This is in no way detrimental to the national academic networks, it is merely sane strategy for any University who relies on its connectivity to function. In order to do proper multi-homing as we see in many institutions around the world, PI space and an ASN is a requirement. As such, the end users (the Universities) need their own space to implement such a strategy.</div></div></blockquote><div><br></div>Andrew,</div><div><br></div><div>In the latest draft of your proposal, you specifically used the term Higher Education Institutions rather than accept the suggestion from several people to use the term Academic Institutions (which to my mind would encompass HEI, RI, and some others).</div><div><br></div><div>I respectfully suggest that the best way to address point 3 is by modifying your proposal to refer to Academic institutions rather than HEI as I think the use of the term HEI is causing confusion and unnecessary opposition while simultaneously adding useless limitations to the applicability of your proposal.</div><div><br></div><div>Owen</div><div><br></div><style><!--
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