Last few weeks went extremely busy. Feb + the first few days of Mar were spent in the Philippines for APRICOT 2023. This was the first time I spent close to 15 days at an APRICOT event due to involvement in workshops. Anyways, I enjoyed it. So far I have done this workshop on network automation twice (at SANOG 38 and APRICOT 2023) and both times I get attendees with a different sets of skillset.
This is my first and probably going to be the only blog post talking about a NOG i.e a Network Operator Group. I usually do not talk about that here because NOG is supposed to be facilitating the work of the network operator community and in itself should not be a topic to focus on or talk about. As a matter of fact, I find it a bit irritating when NOGs are presented as the end goal when parties are thrown in just to celebrate certain age of NOG when hours are wasted just telling stories about NOG planning etc.
Attending SANOG 34 in Kolkata and today Champika from ICANN mentioned about how they (LKNOG) is trying to promote local participation by keeping the event free for locals. That is great if they can manage that. As he finished, I went to the microphone and suggested that whether or not such NOG (Network Operator Group) events are free for local operators but they must be kept free for students. I was part of INNOG 2 which happened recently and we kept the event free for the students.
And it’s less than a week before the INNOG 2 i.e Indian Network Operators Group Conference 2. We (Indians) are little late to start a NOG but it’s finally working out and this is the 2nd event. First one happened last year.
Event website: www.innog.net
Why INNOG is important and why we should care? Well, having a functional NOG is as important for local community as a working Internet Exchange Point.