Re: [44net] Running for ARDC director position

My thoughts. ARDC is a non-profit California corporation and it has been financially supported by Brian Kantor with a few contributions from others. It isn't a club. It doesn't have members. It doesn't have stock holders. It is the steward for the 44.x.x.x address space and through volunteers it administers the address space and sets policy for its use. Everyone should make periodic donations for the services it provides, but the noble goal has been to avoid a "pay to play" model. In other words, it provides services and if you find them valuable then you contribute time and/or money. A lot of people contribute time, we need more that contribute money. http://www.ampr.org/donate.html Should the ARDC evolve into a club with members and dues is certainly open for discussion, and if that were to happen, with the agreement of the current management, then a formation committee should be tasked to define governance and a transition plan. This work would involve a series of working sessions and a presentation at a public meeting at a venue like the Digital Communication Conference, where it could be formally voted into existence. I have been around AMPRnet since nearly the beginning and have been an area coordinator for several years in two different geographical areas. I, too, think we should be moving forward with the network and using common technologies and practices of the Internet, such as BGP, anycast, delegated DNS (forward and reverse), etc. to adapt to new a changing applications while preserving our Amateur Radio only charter. I have advocated a model of using BGP and the Internet to sew together regional networks into a complete fabric and that those regional networks could then address "last mile" issues with IPIP or VPN tunnels as appropriate. I'd like to see this formalized and adopted sooner rather than later. As to Bart's "candidacy" for a Director's position. That is premature, based on the current governance and structure of ARDC. Frankly, I think Bart has accomplished a lot in the last couple of years from a technical point of view. I happen to live in the area where HamWan is being developed and the progress seems to be constant. The problem is, Bart, like many driven technology experts, can come off as dismissive and narrow-minded, and that isn't productive. He would better serve in a technical advisory position with others that serve in similar roles. ------------------------------ John D. Hays K7VE PO Box 1223, Edmonds, WA 98020-1223 <http://k7ve.org/blog> <http://twitter.com/#!/john_hays> <http://www.facebook.com/john.d.hays>