AfrISPA - Minutes of Second Founding Meeting

Minutes of the second Founding Meeting of AfrISPA

AfrISPA SECOND MEETING REPORT AT THE SILVER ROOM ON THURSDAY 2ND AUGUST 2001

BY ERIC M. K OSIAKWAN

As agreed upon after the first meeting of the working group to set up an African ISP Association, this meeting was attended by a very large majority of interested concerns for which attendance was taken and William would be updating us with the List and number.

INTRODUCTION

To start with those who were new to the meeting were given the opportunity to introduce themselves and their organisation.

UPDATES FROM WILLIAM

Because of the new entrances to the meeting William Stucke took time to update the gathering on the outcome of the previous meetings which is included in Brian's first report.

JUSTIFICATION FOR AfrISPA

We then went ahead to look at the justification for the formation of AfrISPA as a larger group based on some of the reasons given during the previous meeting and this was linked to the objectives of the group, which were identified as follows

1. to help setup ISPAs in nations where they do not exist

2. impact national and regional governments in areas of policy and regulation

3. To give technology a voice on the continent since that does not exist.

(Sorry William, but can you add the other objectives here, for one reason

or the other I cannot find them in my notes).

Though we agreed on these few initial objectives, it was suggested that Sean should take a broader look at it with that of EUROISPA and then send us something more broad to be discussed on the list.

MEDIA RELEASE

The initially drafted media release by Sean, William and Eric was passed around for comments and suggestions in order to finalize it. Some suggested amendments were agreed upon in terms of the wording and content. Subsequently the release has been sent out and those who have not yet got a copy can request it from me (Eric Osiakwan)

IMMEDIATE ACTION

It was agreed that our immediate action should be to reach out to as many ISPs as possible to establish a continental image and representation, to which Sean of AITEC and Richard as well as Brain of TESPOK opted to make available lists of ISPs in their database for us to reach.

The second most immediate thing, was to help establish national ISPAs where they do not exist to be recapped into the regional body so the regional body (AfrISPA) eventually becomes a representation of national bodies.

We also agreed to have an input into regulation and policy on the continent right from the start and it was suggested that on the list we get a focused group to that effect when the need arises.

It was also agreed that Maxwell and Secumbo from Nigeria, who are both legal people should help draw up a constitution for the group and their suggestions should be sent to the list for general comments.

OTHER MATTERS

Olofoya Sunday suggested the need for corporation between AFRISPA and other African groupings like AfriNIC, AfNOG, AfTLD etc. and it was agreed that though all the groupings serve different purposes it was necessary for us to collaborate. As to the suggestions of if there is a need for all these groupings to have a single meeting together we could not reach consensus on that, this was a suggestion looking at cost and all the other implications to meeting. According to Sean, ATTIC would be interested in hosting the ISPs forum in the subsequent ACTS meetings.

We also identified the formation of ISPAs in Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Mauritania, and Egypt to which we must directly reach out to, in order to be part of AfrISPA.