RA/RV Feeds from RBN

["William B. Norton" <wbn () merit edu>]

Hi all -

Regarding RBN at NANOG 12...I think it is worth pointing out that:

1) RBN offered to fly in for NANOG 12 and provide casting to the NANOG
community for free, given a net connection and mixed audio and video feed,

2) RBN casting didn't work well during Monday because of connectivity
issues, not because of any inherent problems with the technology,

3) no one else had stepped up to the plate to help get the MBone magic set
up (although we did not ask the nanog list, we did make contacts with
volunteers who had done this stuff in the past.)

Personally, I think we owe RBN a thanks and an apology -- they cast
meetings almost every day for a fee, and went to considerable expense to do
this for us, but they didn't get a sufficient chance to demonstrate their
technology and provide the service to the community.

As for providing source code, open architecture stuff... The #1 intent of
casting NANOGs is to provide the content to the broader community.  This is
a different goal than to advocate certain forms of communications
technology.  

Bill
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William B. Norton       <wbn () merit edu>              (734) 764-9430 (New Area Code)