1. Norwegian NIX meeting February 2016

2. Network Operator Groups - What, Why, and How February 2016 | NIX Jan Zorz 2

3. Agenda | Network Operator Groups (NOGs) What are Network Operator Groups (NOGs)? Why are NOGs important? How are NOGs started & Who starts them? What can you do to sustain NOGs! Use Case – Slovenian NOG (SINOG)

4. What are Network Operator Groups? Network Operator Groups are groups that: Bring network operators, engineers, and other Internet community experts together to develop stronger technical expertise in a country or region Share information, operational experience, “know-how” and “what- not” Create learning and training opportunities Help engineers meet other engineers and talk to each other more openly and learn from each other Are neutral, non-commercial, and non-political by nature - but some create a key forum for operators to talk “business” on the side

5. What are Network Operator Groups? There are some large NOGs and there are smaller NOGs… some have 800+ people, some have less than 20… NOGs usually keep growing if leadership is motivated and enthusiastic and the community stays engaged It is not just about leadership – community is *the* key, and must keep momentum and discussions going. NOGs can be national, sub-regional or regional. There can be more than one NOG in a country. Primary NOG participants are mainly experienced technical operational people that design, build and operate networks for their organistions – operators, enterprises, universities, governments, etc… Of course, everybody interested can participate...

6. NOG’s SCOPE 6 Regional: The first NOG was NANOG (North American), but the discussions are broad as it has participants from all regionsNANOG Other regional NOGs (APRICOT, RIPE, AfNOG, LACNOG, SANOG, CaribNOG) came later – RIR communities are also some sort of a NOG.APRICOTAfNOGLACNOG, CaribNOG National and sub-regional NOGs are growing and they facilitate: Country and sub-region specific discussions and meetings A focus on local and sub-regional issues and experiences Use of local languages and are culturally specific Provide a “value-add” as participants can learn a great deal, do not have to travel far, but calibrate how much/how little they participate

7. Some Pics of Network Operator Groups

8. More Pics of Network Operator Groups?

9. Why are NOGs important? 9 Allow anyone to join at no (or low) cost and to learn more Create a peer-group of experts for exchange of information/knowledge & develop local tech capacity Facilitate training and technical meetings Build collaboration among NOGs and technical training (APRICOT, SANOG, BDNOG) Localize and scale capacity building needs nationally to reach more people Lower the costs of training by bringing trainings and expertise to the community

10. NOGs are Important Because They: 10 Facilitate more peering agreements Enable or help create IXPs Encourage local discussions on domestic issues Help with the deployment of new technologies Encourage knowledge sharing and problem solving among peers in the same community Encourage the use and deployment of current Best Practices and modern technologies Allow easy access to network engineers for people outside the tech community

11. How are NOGs started & Who Starts Them? 11 Local Internet Community and Technical Experts Start NOGs No special criteria | It is up to participants to decide on the focus Anyone in the Internet community can start them Network Engineers Internet Community Organizations University Students or National Research and Education Networks NOGs can be virtual groups with an online presence via mailing lists, website, etc. NOGs also organize face-to-face events within a calendar year to bring together the tech community and stakeholders.

12. NOG Events: Meetings and Workshops 12 Different formats based on community need: Key Training Workshops from Beginner to Advanced Networking | APRICOT, SANOG, AfNOG, CaribNOG Big Events & Networking | Include tutorials, training, keynote sessions, presentations and working group meetings (NANOG, LACNOG, RIPE, APRICOT) Social meetings | Usually small national NOGs where knowing each other and building a local community is the main objective Collaboration | NOGs sometimes receive generous contributions from sponsors (Internet organizations, operators, manufacturers, CDNs)

13. What can You do to Sustain a Local NOG? 13 Be an active participant in your NOG community Be helpful, respect others in the community Participate & suggest training opportunities Attend other NOG meetings in the region Become a trainer | NOGs are looking for experts around the globe Build an on-line forum Bring new operators to a NOG community Bring university students to learn and connect Sponsor your NOG’s events: provide connectivity or equipment Provide training or meeting venues for your NOG Encourage your peers to join the NOG

14. Sustaining your NOG NOGs are usually seen as a “natural” sponsoring opportunity by: Software and hardware vendors System Integrators HW/SW resellers Operators (because it’s cool to support a NOG) Other businesses that network operators are target group.

15. Why Do We Do This? 15 To strengthen local Internet technical communities To provide a forum for training To connect experts across regions To help Internet development at large To help to localize and scale capacity building efforts at the national or regional level To advocate and promote Best Current Operational Practices use & development

16. Is there a role for Governments in NOGs ? 16 Experiences from around the world show that the most successful NOGs are; Thrive on neutrality Highly technical and operational forums with limited policy discussions. Lack strong formal structures (loosely informal structures) and with non-binding resolutions. Despite the major differences in how they operate, Governments can support NOG activities by; Sponsoring the meeting or maybe a lunch/dinner or opening/closing reception for attendees Recognizing a NOG as equivalent stakeholder in local Internet ecosystem Encouraging their experienced/technical staff to participate in the NOG discussions amongst others. Remember – technical people usually want to focus on the technology and a lot less on policy and governance issues.

17. Note well NOG ≠ IGF IGF ≠ NOG

18. Use Case: Slovenian Network Operators Group

19. Use Case: SINOG Fist discussion started at 8 th Slovenian IPv6 summit on 22 nd October 2013 as a panel session to see if there is interest from the community (NONOG is here at this moment) We got 5 volunteers to draft a NOG charter Same people later volunteered for SINOG board

20. Use Case: SINOG SINOG0 was a founding meeting – 9 th December 2013 Approximately 50 people showed up… We (community) accepted: proposed chartercharter Members of SINOG board Ways of funding SINOG Go6 Institute as administrative home: Bureaucracy and administrativia Organizing meetings and events Funding (sponsors) Two very good presentations Benjamin Zwittnig – DNSsec at.si TLD Ivan Pepelnjak – Software Defined Networks

21. Use Case: SINOG SINOG1 and SINOG2 were attended by approx 130 people, we had very distinguished speakers on the agenda, such as Eric Vyncke, Frederic Donck, Ivan Pepelnjak, Ignas Bagdonas, Remco Van Mook and as well local Slovenian experts on different topics…

22. Use Case: SINOG 2 or more intermediate SINOG thematic workshops between “big” SINOG meetings Building wireless networks for operators (SINOG 1.5) AntiSpam and DDoS mitigation (SINOG 1.6) Datacenters (SINOG 2.1) Next one? Maybe MPLS/SDN/NFV ?

23. Use Case: SINOG – ways of communications Web site ( https://www.sinog.si/ )https://www.sinog.si/ Membership on nog@sinog.si mailing list is free (moderated joining to protect from joining emails like qwtgqevq3@yandex.ru) (currently 150 members)nog@sinog.si Membership in SINOG community is also free, but you need to fill in a short application form on https://www.sinog.si/clanstvo/pristopna-izjava/ just to indicate that you agree with SINOG charter and get the ability to vote/run for board and so on. https://www.sinog.si/clanstvo/pristopna-izjava/ List of SINOG members is on: https://www.sinog.si/clanstvo/seznam-clanov/ (currently 102 people signed the application form) https://www.sinog.si/clanstvo/seznam-clanov/

24. Use Case: SINOG – Activity and findings Dynamic mailing list – from time to time quiet, from time to time very active Topics like IPv6, DNSSEC, fiber optics, configurations, strange addresses in packet headers, BGP between operators, etc… Mixed membership on the mailing list – from operators, academics and students, enterprise IT people, government IT experts, integrators, etc... Recognised also by our government as important stakeholder in national Internet ecosystem and representatives are invited to some other Internet related meetings to express the “technical” view

25. Use Case: SINOG – meeting rules Presentations for the SINOG meetings *MUST* (RFC 2119 MUST) be technical and provide some value to technical community. Use cases welcome, “I had this problem and I fixed it this way and learned this and that” most welcome… Commercial presentations are refused for major part of agenda. Sponsors are well informed in advance that with sponsoring the SINOG meeting they are not buying themselves a speaking slot. They may propose a presentation and if it fits technically and it’s not (too) commercial they might get accepted. We do have “sponsors minutes” slot before lunch, where we give 5 minutes to each sponsor to do their commercial pitch and communicate this clearly to the community, that sponsors are making the event possible, so this type of slot is needed (but just one).

26. Use Case: SINOG – conclusions To create a vibrant and active community you need to: Start it completely bottom-up, grass-root effort. Enable good communications channels for discussion to start and bloom Get a good and active volunteers in the board to run it Find a good independent not-for-profit administrative home for your NOG. Community does not want to deal with administrativia, contracts, sponsors and organizing meetings… Keep a very delicate relation balance with your government – you want to be recognized and appreciated by your government and help them wherever possible, you want them to invite your people to other Internet related meetings, but keep in mind that government should not start and run your NOG.

27. Resources & Existing Network Operator Groups (NOGs) 27 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Network_Operators%27_Groups http://www.internetsociety.org/articles/internet-society-helps-convene-first-latin- american-network-operators-grouphttp://www.internetsociety.org/articles/internet-society-helps-convene-first-latin- american-network-operators-group http://www.internetsociety.org/history-timeline/first-meeting-african-network- operators%E2%80%99-group-afnoghttp://www.internetsociety.org/history-timeline/first-meeting-african-network- operators%E2%80%99-group-afnog http://wn.com/list_of_internet_network_operators_groups http://www.digplanet.com/wiki/Internet_Network_Operators%27_Groups http://www.caribnog.org/articles/2013/3/9/networking-the-internet-community http://www.linktionary.com/i/internet_organizations.html https://www.sinog.si/

28. The Internet Society | www.internetsociety.orgwww.internetsociety.org Deploy360 | www.internetsociety.org/deploy360/www.internetsociety.org/deploy360/ Jan Zorz | zorz@isoc.org 28 Thank you for your attention! Questions?