[IIU] Re: [ILUG] OT But esat unlimited has been scrapped

[Fergus McDonald]

In terms of ammo, would it be possible to focus on and specify any people /
rganisations that are deliberately trying to hinder or drag feet on the
introduction of these services, and how and why. It would be something the
media could latch on to.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Higgins" <chris.higgins at horizon.ie>
To: <iiu at taint.org>
Cc: "Ruairi Newman" <bofh at tech-mad.org>; "Chris Higgins"
<chris.higgins at horizon.ie>; "irish linux users group" <ilug at linux.ie>
Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2001 10:04 AM
Subject: Re: [IIU] Re: [ILUG] OT But esat unlimited has been scrapped


> > Perhaps IIU, or some of its people are interested in setting up a local
> > ISOC chapter? There is no operational Irish chapter at the moment (Alex
> > Gogan made a stab at setting on up a few years ago). ISOC carries much
> > international weight, and Ireland is one of the few civilized countries
not
> > to have a chapter.
> >
> > An ISOC UK rep will be in Dublin in a couple of weeks if anyone's
> > interested in meeting him to discuss.
> >
> > Alex.
>
> Alex,
> I think that it's important that we don't create 'representative' bodies
> without
> strong community support. Otherwise, everyone that's anyone will start
their
> own, and no-body will get anywhere.
>
> All that will happen, is the few people that are interested will end up on
> a 'committee', or will be 'the' committee... and we'll have the Irish ISOC
> chapter... and they'll go visit other ISOC chapters and talk about what
it's
> like in Ireland..
>
> But nothing will get done.. we'll have a tick in the box that says
> "Ireland has ISOC chapter"[1]. People will *want* to do something,
> but without real community support it will go nowhere..
>
> Look at the ".ie Usenet Committee", for years when he was in IEunet, Nick
> Hilliard ran the hierarchy, after he left I took over and I ran it for
> years, and now that I've left, Dave Rynne has got it... The last real
changes
> that were made to the hierarchy were made by Nick. Then along comes the
> Usenet committee, and there is loads of .ie needs a committee and we need
> to be able to say that we have a committee.... So a committee is created
> and now we have a committee, and the committee are the committee, and
> still nothing has happened... The www site is a joke, someone half
completed it
> and as far as I'm aware nothing else has happened... The people involved
> believe
> in the idea, but dont' have the time or the resources to do much with it..
and
> there is sod all community interest - so they aren't being pushed to do
much..
>
> At the moment without a strong community cry for an ISOC chapter, all that
will
> happen is that we'll get the same all over again.. A few people will put
> 'founder of Irish ISOC chapter' into their CV and go play politics in a
bigger
> field.
>
> What we need to tackle the broadband issue in Ireland is
> a/ Information
> b/ Ammo
> c/ Targets
>
> (a) Information :- We need to have every member of the IIU list, ILUG,
>     the IIA, all of the readers of ie.*, and everyone else we can get our
>     hands on to be aware of the issues.. Not just a few people who feel
>     strongly about it.. This has to get the attention of the larger
community.
> (b) We need all of them to be given the bare simple facts (this country
needs
>     local loop unbundling if we are to go beyond 56k)
>     What Eircom control, and why it needs to be pulled from their grip.
>
> (c) Everyone then needs to bombard their TD, MEP, the Telecoms Regulator,
> Eircom,
>     Esat and anyone else you can get your hands on with a simple request..
>     What are *you* going to progress with LLU.
>
> I believe that two faxes a day to the regulator from 'concerned citizens',
> asking where the ***k real LLU is, will have more effect than a single
petition
> signed any one group..
>
> Especially if you follow your fax up with a query two days later looking
for
> a response... Hmmm... hylafax and cron... :)
>
> See - that's where the ILUG could help... write the scripts and write a
FAQ on
> how to do it... we could even build an LDAP database of all the target
numbers
> and host it with the linux.ie WWW site... Then everyone's hylafax config
> (or efax, let's not get religious about it) could query the next number...
>
> We'd just have to make sure that is doesn't become distributed denial of
> service
> attack on the ODTR fax machine. 'cause that would just have the reverse
effect.
>
> Alternatively, we continue to do what we have always done - sit down and
take
> it.
>
>
> [1] Not too sure if we get a tick in the box marked 'civilised' though
>
>
> <DISCLAIMER> Comments are as usual my own, and do not reflect the policies
> of my employer (past or present)</DISCLAIMER>
>
>
> --
> ** Chris Higgins                         e: chris.higgins at horizon.ie **
> ** Technical Business Development        tel: +353-1-6204916            **
> ** Horizon Technology Group              fax: +353-1-6204949            **
>
>
>
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