AfNOG and AfriNIC Joint Announcement: Meetings in May 2006

7th AfNOG Meeting & AfriNIC-4 Meeting

The African Network Operators' Group (AfNOG) and the African Network Information Centre (AfriNIC) are pleased to announce that the 7th AfNOG Meeting and the AfriNIC-4 Meeting will be held Nairobi, Kenya, in May 2006.

About the Entire Event

AfNOG and AfriNIC are jointly organising a two-week event that includes the AfNOG Workshop on Network Technology (offering advanced training in a week-long hands-on workshop), several half-day Tutorials, a one-day AfNOG meeting, and a two-day AfriNIC meeting. Further information about the event may be found at www.afnog.org/2006 and www.afrinic.net/meeting.

Timetable

AfNOG Workshop 7 - 12 May 2006 (Sunday - Friday)
AfNOG Tutorials 14 May 2006 (Sunday)
AfNOG Meeting 15 May 2006 (Monday)
AfriNIC Meeting  16 - 17 May 2006 (Tuesday - Wednesday)

Venue

The event will be held in Nairobi, Kenya. The exact venue has not yet been finalised. Updated information will be made available at www.afnog.org/2006 and www.afrinic.net/meeting.

About AfNOG

AfNOG (see www.afnog.org) is a forum for cooperation and the exchange of technical information between operators of Internet-connected networks in Africa. AfNOG has organised an event like this one every year since 2000.

About AfriNIC

AfriNIC (see www.afrinic.net is a Regional Internet Registry (RIR), responsible for the registration and allocation of Internet number resources in Africa and parts of the Indian Ocean.

AfNOG Workshop on Network Technology

The AfNOG Workshop on Network Technology aims to offer advanced training to people who are in the process of developing and enhancing an Internet-connected network with regional and international connectivity. The target audience includes senior and mid-level technical staff of commercial Internet service providers (ISPs), academic networks, government networks, or NGO networks.

This workshop builds on the experience of previous AfNOG workshops held annually from 2000 to 2005 in six different African countries, and also the Internet Society's INET workshops, held annually from 1993 to 2000 at eight locations around the world. The workshop's instructors are an international team with many years of experience operating large networks and teaching about network operations.

The workshop is divided into four parallel tracks:

Track E0
Unix System Administration (in English), focused on using a Unix-like operating system as a platform for delivery of Internet services.
Track E1
Scalable Internet Services (in English), focused on the design and operation of email, web, and other Internet services, in ways that can scale to handle large numbers of end users.
Track E2
Scalable Network Infrastructure (in English), focused on the design and operation of networks using routers and switches, in ways that can scale to handle large numbers of interconnected sites.
Track F2
Infrastructure Réseaux IP (en français), similar to track E2, but given in French.

Further information and application forms are available at www.afnog.org/2006/online_application.html

AfNOG Tutorials

On 14 May 2006, the day before the AfNOG conference, several tutorials will be offered. Tutorials are typically half a day in duration (4 hours including a break).

Tutorials take place in a classroom-style environment, and may include a hands-on practical component. Tutorials are non-commercial in nature, and most are technically oriented. They are intended to highlight issues relating to technology already deployed or soon to be deployed on networking and related services provisioning for ISP operations.

People interested in presenting a tutorial are invited to submit a proposal, following the instructions at www.afnog.org/2006/callfor_ins.html

7th AfNOG Meeting

The 7th AfNOG meeting will be held in Nairobi, Kenya, on 15 May 2006. AfNOG conferences provide a forum for the coordination and dissemination of technical information related to backbone/enterprise networking technologies and operational practices. The meetings are informal, with an emphasis on relevance to current and future African backbone engineering practices. Previous AfNOG conferences have attracted over 200 participants, mainly consisting of engineering staff from network service providers, managers from IT enterprises, and members of the research and education community.

People interested in making a presentation or chairing a panel discussion at the AfNOG meeting are invited to to submit a proposal, following the instructions at http://www.afnog.org/2006/callfor_ins.html

AfriNIC-4 Meeting

The AfriNIC-4 meeting will be held in Nairobi, Kenya, on 16 and 17 May 2006. This meeting will be both a public policy meeting and an annual members meeting. The public policy part of the meeting will include discussion of proposed policies for how AfriNIC should manage resources such as IP addresses and AS numbers. The annual members meeting will include voting for Board members, and reporting on AfriNIC's activities.

Further information is available at www.afrinic.net/meeting.