Wow Bill, you're really one to sniff out controversy.... :-)

IMHO It is unfortunate to see such a harsh response sent to the whole world - I wonder ...... why overlook the very clear statement that the Forum WILL FOLLOW the other events. There was no attempt to claim that the Forum was the convenor of these events - in fact it was clearly pointed out that "AFNOG and AfriNIC are jointly organizing...." But having said that maybe it would have been better to seek consent from any named organisations before mentioning them in the announcement - a lesson for the future.

On the ISOC thing I don't see it as a conflict but as an opportunity for synergistic scheduling. We are already in discussions with the NEPAD Council who are having an event over the same period after they saw that our dates COINCIDE (not conflict) with theirs.... it's all a matter of point of view - 

.... is the cup half empty, or half full?

Anyway from past experience I know that this is probably a precursor to a power-play and possibly village politics that I think we need to steer clear of.... so let's get practical and make proactive proposals rather than start ripping each other's guts out.

Brian

On 6 Mar 2006, at 15:02, Bill Kagai wrote:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Nii Quaynor <quaynor@ghana.com>
Date: Mar 6, 2006 2:27 PM
Subject: [Idlelo2] Re: [afrinic-discuss] Africa 's Internet Community
to gather in Nairobi in May
To: eric@afrispa.org, AfriNIC Discuss <afrinic-discuss@afrinic.net>,
discuss@afrispa.org, committee@afrispa.org, afnog-admin@psg.com
Cc: africasource2-l@lists.tacticaltech.org, Kenya ICT Policy -
kictanet <kictanet@kictanet.or.ke>, En-ISPA_Team@afrispa.org,
tier@tier.cs.berkeley.edu, afix@afrispa.org, IDLELO
<idlelo2@fossfa.net>

The Forum will follow the Internet training workshops, tutorials and related

events being held by AfriNIC and AfNOG in Nairobi in May. AfNOG and AfriNIC

are jointly organizing 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

<http://www.afnog.org/afnog2006/> and <http://www.afrinic.net/meeting/>.