NANOG67 - Tipping point of community and sponsor bashing?

[owen at delong.com (Owen DeLong)]

So I just watched the video of Dave?s talk.

While my overall impression is that it?s 51 minutes of my life that I?d rather have back and I don?t agree with several of his conclusions, I don?t see anything inherently wrong or hurtful about it. I don?t think it painted anyone in a bad light beyond fair criticism. He was clear about what was his opinion and what wasn?t.

I do think he?s flat out wrong in his belief about marketing budgets of regulated utilities. I know for a fact, that PG&E spends tons of money on marketing. Sure, they aren?t sponsoring coffee bars at NANOG, that?s not their target market. Neither are the IXPs running television ads (at least none that I know of) since that?s not their target market. PG&E does do lots of TV ads, billboards, and other consumer-oriented marketing.

I?m sure if you were to attend electrical industry trade shows, you?d find they have a presence there as well, though I have no idea, it?s not my industry.

I do think we could all benefit from more cost-effective ISPs and I do think that models like MICE, SIX, and SFMIX are better for most of their participants than the ultra-expensive premium exchanges with branch offices in all the major markets.

However, I suspect that in the long run, market demand will actually sort that out.

Owen